The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee will conclude its work in March 2026 ahead of the next Scottish Parliament election. While it will continue to meet, the Committee has agreed it will not consider petitions submitted after 10 October. This is to ensure all petitions currently in the system can be considered before the next Scottish Parliament election. It is also unlikely that the Committee would be able to schedule and meaningfully progress petitions submitted after 10 October before the election. Contact the Committee team at petitions.committee@parliament.scot for more information about the petitions process.
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Closed petition PE2111: Fund early learning and childcare from 9 months
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to provide families with financial support for early learning and childcare when their children reach 9 months old.
Background information
Maternity pay ends after 9 months, which is when many women return to work. Many families need to pay for early learning/childcare for over 2 years and this is simply not an option for many others.
This cost often leaves many women having to give up work, and that leads to many families struggling to survive with mounting debt, stress and crossing over the poverty line.
We are asking the Scottish Government to implement funding for working families when their children reach 9 months of age, enabling more people to get back into work and have a better quality of life.
The SNP website has an extremely vague description of their plans for extending funding, but there are no dates or details on what their plans are.
In England, funding has become available for working families with children aged from 9 months old. We are asking them to take swift, decisive action and to implement the same policy.
This petition was considered by the Scottish Parliament
9,321 signatures