'They have failed our children': Parents slam West Lothian Council's decision to close nurseries

The closures, which were announced last week, will affect eight nurseries in West Lothian. The local authority claim that around a third of nursery places are unused and that the closures will see savings of around £1.3 million. West Lothian Council added that they would still have more than enough capacity.

However, parents we spoke to who are affected by the decision to close the nurseries say they feel their children have been let down.

Jade McDowell, whose three-year-old daughter Bree attends nursery at St Anthony’s Primary School in Armadale, said she found out about the closures through social media.

“I was made aware of the nursery closures via West Lothian Council’s Facebook page. There was no email sent to parents affected by any of this,” Jade said. “I was simply tagged on the post by a friend which was very poor from the start.”

Jade’s older daughter is currently a primary school pupil at St Anthony’s and Jade said the nursery closure will both pose a logistical challenge for parents and create emotional distress for affected children.

West Lothian Council has decided to close nurseries in the county. | Google Maps

“We will have to drop off and pick up our kids at different places which makes life so much harder while trying to work,” she said. “Both of my kids won’t be in the same school building which brings my youngest a lot of comfort as she is regularly taken into the school to see her sister when she is unsettled.”

Jade added that her youngest child will not be able to experience the same transition from nursery to school, which previously included frequent visits to the school from nursery.

“My daughter will now have to attend a new nursery where she won’t know anyone and will be returning to St Anthony’s Primary School on her first day of Primary 1, potentially not knowing a soul. All of this will massively affect my daughter,” she said.

Jade also slammed West Lothian Council’s rationale for the closures and said she does not believe the local authority have ‘the children’s best interest at heart here’.

“It is purely a budget decision. One that could have been avoided if they had planned better years ago. The current ‘funding follows the child’ model is completely flawed therefore this was always going to be the case financially for the council,” she said. “They should have made plans to stop this happening years ago. They have absolutely failed our children.

“The two local councillors for Armadale, Andrew McGuire and Susan Manion, voted to close and did not represent us whatsoever therefore it was over before the discussions even began.”

Gemma Hardie says her two sons will be split up due to the changes | Gemma Hardie

Another parent facing uncertainty is Lesley Simpson. Her two-year-old daughter Ava was expected to start at St Joseph’s Nursery in Whitburn at the start of the next academic year and now Lesley is concerned that she will struggle to find 38-week provision for her child.

“The only close by 38-week provisions are in Armadale or Longridge. That's quite a distance for a three-year-old to travel. I'm also assuming due to the demand of 38 week settings we may not even get in,”said Lesley, who serves on the St Joseph’s School and Nursery Parent Council.

She believes the closures are “completely unjustified” and says the closures hold no educational value to the children and will cause undue stress.

“We all agree funding ‘follows the child is not working’, fine then let’s work together directly with families to see how it should work,” she said. “The nursery's capacity is 30 children at any time not 60, we are a 38 week nursery and do not have an am and pm or two day 50 week session. This nursery is full every year.”

She added that the parent council has been notified that some children may not attend nursery at all next year, with concerns around how parents will be able to balance work and childcare commitments.

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Gemma Hardie, who has one child at St Anthony’s, said the changes mean that she may have to give up work to ensure that there is care in place for her three-year-old son Lewis.

“For myself and my husband's working pattern, it would be highly likely for me not to return to work a normal shift pattern due to there now being three different drop offs,” she said.

She had sought to move Lewis and his older sibling to the same nursery and school. However when this proved unfeasible, it meant that she had to look to reduce her working hours.

“So that meant having to have a conversation with my husband and employer that I would not be able to afford to return to work paying for additional childcare provisions due to childminders only collecting from one location,” she said. “This would mean my children would be split from each other. So I have come to the conclusion that I wouldn’t be able to work during the week.”

One parent who wished to remain anonymous said that her son, who attends Ladywell Nursery School, is currently being tested for autism and believes the change will lead to setbacks with his care.

“He feels safe with the teachers at the nursery and honestly they are so lovely and I can't thank them enough for guiding us in the right direction,” she said. “The council hasn't listened to parents once about our concerns. As long as this isn't affecting them then they don't see the issue.”

For their part, West Lothian Council say that the implementation of Funding Follows The Child in 2019 has reduced demand for local authority provision. A West Lothian Council statement highlighted that since the policy was introduced, private provision has risen from seven providers to 32 in 2025.

Greg Welsh, the council’s Head of Education (Primary and Early Years), said: “These are difficult decisions that have to be considered and we do not take a change like this lightly. We know that some parents will be disappointed with our decision.

“In this case, the data shows us that we have more physical capacity than we need – nearly 30 per cent more. That is significant and we know that demand will continue to fall in the years ahead.”

Mr Welsh called the steps “a practical step” to addressing the oversupply of spaces.

Mr Welsh added: “However, we all know that councils the length and breadth of the country are under significant pressure to balance their budgets, such is the growth in demand for services set against the funding available to us. This is a practical step to address the oversupply of council run nursery and early learning facilities in West Lothian, whilst ensuring that there is more than enough choice for parents in the communities affected.”

Executive councillor for Education Andrew McGuire stated that the local authority has demonstrated its commitment to education in West Lothian - highlighting significant improvements in educational attainment.

He said: “We all want what is best for our young people, and we all appreciate that this is a difficult decision. We cannot ignore the oversupply of nursery places across some areas, nor can we ignore the need to protect Education as best we can, and ensure that our nurseries and schools will continue to deliver high standards. A few years ago, West Lothian was 17th out of 32 councils for educational attainment in Scotland. We are now 3rd out of 32 councils and this demonstrates our commitment to Education in West Lothian."

He added: “As far back as 2016, council officers have advised the Scottish Government on more than one occasion that a model founded on unfettered choice, would be likely to prove unsustainable, and to the detriment of all eligible children and their parents/carers.”

However, Cllr McGuire says that Scottish Ministers have not acted on this - with funds now diverting to the private sector. This, West Lothian Council say, has led to an “unsustainable” and “inconsistent” service.

He said: “Unfortunately, Scottish Ministers have chosen not to act on these representations, with the consequence that there has been a major diversion of funds to the private sector with the result that it is not possible to maintain the services offering maximum continuity and ease of transition into primary schools.”

Cllr McGuire said that the reality is that there is far more flexibility than in previous years - however West Lothian Council say they understand that parents might wish for their children to attend nurseries that feed into schools.

“We recognise that many of the parents who have contacted us would have liked their children to attend the nurseries that, locally, feed into the schools their children would later attend.

“Although nurseries are not bound by catchment, West Lothian Council understands that desire from parents, and officers have made this point consistently to the Scottish Government, and included it in our response to their consultation as far back as 2016.”