Private nurseries in West Dunbartonshire are in crisis following a plan to double free childcare hours, according to operators.

Bosses fear a lack of council support will result in staff shortages and could ultimately force the closure of local independent nurseries.

They are calling on the local authority to introduce a number of measures to protect their businesses – including increasing their hourly rates – which are among the lowest in the country.

Early learning centres across the area are set for a huge shake-up under ambitious plans that will see toddlers receive almost double the amount of learning time they get just now.

The current minimum of 600 hours of free early learning and childcare per year will jump to 1140 hours across all council run facilities and private partnership nurseries to meet new Scottish Government targets.

The initiative will be introduced by August 2020 for all three to five-year-olds and vulnerable two-year-olds.

The council is having to increase its workforce, implement a management restructure and expand its early learning facilities in preparation.

Eleven nurseries across the area were represented by West Dunbartonshire Independent Nurseries at an education committee meeting last week.

Kevin Johnson told councillors how they are fully supportive of the new scheme but have concerns.

He said: “We represent nurseries which present 30 percent of early years places in West Dunbartonshire.

“We probably deliver our early years care at a third of the cost that you deliver but to the same high standards.

“We share the same ambitions as the council but there are a number of primary concerns and the first is the low hourly rates we have been offered so far.

“The council’s rates are among the lowest in Scotland which causes us real challenges.

“Rates will be increased in April from £3.57 per hour to £4 ahead of the phased implementation but there is currently no plan to increase this rate in August 2019 to support partners and prepare for 2020.”

Mr Johnson argued that nurseries need at least £5 an hour to meet the real living wage.

He continued: “Without increased rates our providers will be unable to increase staff wages, working towards the real living wage target, retain employees, continue to provide high quality childcare and risk the collapse of local businesses.”

He added that there were fears that the council would poach staff with generous pay rates to build their capacity.

Each of the 11 independent nurseries will offer 10 places to trial the 1140 hours from April.

However, the group say many council nurseries will offer the expanded hours from August, which they say will “create a postcode lottery and displacement effect”.

They say the available funding should be spread evenly across the council and independent providers.

Privately-run nurseries are also worried about the impact the living wage could have and say a combination of the increase and a pension shake-up will see their staffing bills rise by almost 20 percent.

Mr Johnson pleaded to councillors at last week’s education committee meeting: “We would like to ask members to consider a fairer share of the money available so there’s an even playing field.

“We want to deliver the shared vision on a shared basis. We are meeting with the education department regularly who are attempting to address our challenges and concerns. However they need the support of elected members to ensure that the issues are understood and necessary changes can be made to ensure the sustainability of private nurseries and our employees’ jobs.”

Councillor Martin Rooney said: “We clearly have a lot of shared obectives and priorities which focus on children receiving the best start in life. There’s a potential to have a working group set up.

“Whether it’s appropriate to increase the hourly rate or not, we need to make sure there’s a level playing field. We need to be mindful of the fact that we have a budget as well but we should do what we can to support the organisations.”