Friday October 31st 2025
Scottish Borders Council headquarters
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Paul Kelly
Mothballing nursery schools will become a ‘last resort’ under a revised policy endorsed by Scottish Borders Council this week.
SBC has agreed a new policy on supporting the sustainability of Early Learning and Childcare provision across the region.
The move comes after the local authority reversed a decision to mothball Channelkirk, Cockburnspath, Ednam, Walkerburn and Yetholm nurseries amid a public outcry.
A special meeting in June approved a new plan that allowed them to stay open for the 2025/26 academic year.
The new revised policy follows a robust process of work undertaken by a working group of elected members, council officers and parents.
Under the changes, engagement will begin with a school at risk when the enrolment number reaches ten children or fewer.
The policy sets out the wide range of steps which will be taken to build sustainability before a last resort of mothballing any early learning facility is even considered and details the range of options which will be considered to support the sustainability of small nurseries with low numbers of children.
It outlines the actions which will now be undertaken to provide every child with their entitlement to 1140 hours of Early Learning and Childcare.
A significant change to the process following enrolment, which was welcomed by council members, is the implementation of early engagement with schools, parents/carers, and communities where the number of children enrolled is low.
This will allow a proactive approach to ensuring that the provision can be sustained in partnership with the community who have a strong understanding of local needs.
Councillor Julie Pirone, SBC’s executive member for Education, Youth Development and Lifelong Learning, said: “I believe we have listened to parents and communities in reshaping our policy, focusing on the sustainability of our early years settings.
“We have done as much as we possibly can to try and increase sustainability of our small nurseries so that a nursery provision can stay in place as well as looking at the educational experience.
“We are the only council in Scotland to grasp and deal with this issue, and while I accept that it doesn’t completely take away mothballing of small settings, it does clearly sound a warning bell to give any affected community a starting point to work with us.
“It also directs our expert officers to look at innovative ways to sustain small settings, and that is something I am proud to support.”
Councillor Robin Tatler stated: “My main concerns when this happened back in the spring was that there was a lack of awareness about this issue early enough and there was a lack of opportunity for parents and the community to be engaged in the process and a lack of recognition of the exceptional circumstances which exist in certain settings when coming to decisions.
“I believe all of those concerns have now been addressed by this new policy.”
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