Wednesday February 4th 2026
East Lothian Council headquarters
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
A consultation has been launched to find out families’ current and future needs for early learning and childcare in East Lothian.
The online survey has been developed for parents and carers of children aged from birth to five years old as part of the council’s legal duty to seek public views.
Statutory consultations must be carried out by the council at least once every two years to ‘ensure services continue to reflect the needs of families and local communities’.
The developed questionnaire asks for parents’ understanding of their entitlement, their current use of childcare and potential future plans, alongside their experiences accessing council provisions and their priorities when choosing early learning and childcare.
Parents are also being asked whether they would wish to pay for additional hours, such as before or after standard drop-off and pick-up times, at council or private provider level.
Cabinet member for Education and Children’s and Family Services Councillor Fiona Dugdale said:
“The consultation will give our teams an overview of current understanding and uptake of early years entitlement, as well as valuable information to help us plan future provision across all funded provider options.
“We are working to increase capacity and choice for parents by expanding our own settings and bringing on board private providers who meet the high-quality standards that parents rightly expect for their children and which are a condition of offering funded entitlement.
“I encourage all families with children aged from birth to five to complete this survey so we have an accurate picture of early years demand across East Lothian.”
The survey is available online a www.eastlothianconsultations.co.uk until 9 March 2026.
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