Fife Council: Rise in parents taking up primary one deferral option in pilot

Fife Council joined a Scottish Government pilot scheme extending the automatic right receive an additional year of funded ELC to all children eligible to defer entry into primary one from August last year. Prior to that date, parents and carers of children who would not turn five until after they had started school with their birthdays being between August and December were not automatically entitled to receive an extra year funded at nursery, although those whose birthdays were in January or February were.

Councillors at Tuesday’s Education Scrutiny Committee heard that the number of children, whose birthdays fell in the last six months of the year, who were deferred had risen by 194 in the pilot year.

In a report to the committee, Shelagh McLean, Fife Council’s head of education, said: “The number of January and February deferrals over the past three years has been consistent. The number of August – December deferrals has shown a significant increase in the past year, with the numbers of children rising in line with when they have their fifth birthday.”

A total of 244 children with birthdays between August and December were deferred for the academic year starting in August 2022, compared to just 50 in the previous year.

The number of youngsters with January and February birthdays who were deferred has remained fairly constant with 290 deferred for the 2022/23 session compared to 298 for 2021/22.

The total deferrals for the latest academic year from August to February was 534. The previous year there were 348.

The review of the impact of the pilot scheme comes ahead of August 2023 when it becomes a legal right for all children eligible to defer entry to primary one to benefit from an additional year of funded ELC.

The committee heard that lessons had been learned through feedback received from parents and carers.

Councillors suggested that although information was available on the council’s website perhaps more could be done in terms of communication to ensure parents and carers were aware that they had a choice of deferring their child.

Ms McLean said: “We’ve done quite a bit of work around the communication and signposting for this particular year and we’ll continue to learn from the feedback and try and improve those signposting mechanisms. All the information around enrolments for primary one and deferral is on the council website but we do recognise that that’s not always something everyone recognises is available to them. We’ll have another look at that based on feedback we’ve received making sure we’re absolutely clear and providing information to parents and carers at the right points.”