Parents warned childcare cash can no longer be spent on tuition

A rule change could cost hundreds of Scots children extra tuition designed to help improve their schoolwork.

Explore Learning runs five centres offering tutoring to children but have been told parents will no longer be able to use childcare vouchers or benefits to pay for sessions.

The Care Inspectorate wants the centres de-registered as care is “not their primary function”.

The company, founded in 2001, runs 143 centres in England – where Ofsted recognise them and vouchers can be used to pay for membership.

Chief executive Bill Mills said about 200 families at centres at Murrayfield in Edinburgh and Darnley in Glasgow would be most affected.

He added the Care Inspectorate stance was preventing more centres being opened in Scotland.

Membership costs from £109 per month for two maths and English sessions per week.

He said: “Parents have been able to use childcare vouchers towards the cost of Explore Learning.

“Families entitled to working tax credit, or universal credit, are also able to claim a benefit called the Childcare Element in relation to Explore Learning as we have qualified because of Care Inspectorate registration.

“This will no longer qualify and our concern is that, at Murrayfield and Darnley in particular, there is a proportion of families on lower incomes who depend on this to be able to afford the extra tuition.

“We are registered as a childcare provider on the Ofsted Voluntary Childcare Register and this means many families are able to receive financial support with costs.

“It seems unfair to me that Scottish families cannot avail themselves of a benefit which is available to families south of the border.”

He said the Care Inspectorate, then the Care Commission, visited in 2005 after Explore’s first Scottish centre opened and agreed it was appropriate to register.

The company registered centres in Blackhall and Murrayfield in Edinburgh and Darnley in Glasgow.

In 2012, when they opened a centre in East Kilbride, the Care Inspectorate said they would no longer register them as they believed care was “not the primary function”.

Mr Mills said the Care Inspectorate were “persistent” and eventually issued de-registration notices for Blackhall, Murrayfield and Darnley.

Explore Learning’s five Scottish centres, each have more than 250 members.

The company says tuition is “mapped to the school curriculum”.

Mills said: “If we had not hit this problem when we opened in East Kilbride we would have opened more centres in Scotland.

“I believe care is fundamental and if you are not providing care you should not operate.

“The legislation says care ‘may be delivered to any extent in the form of education’.

“But it adds there is no requirement to register unless the primary purpose is care, and that is what this hinges on.”

A Care Inspectorate spokesman said: “Our view is that the organisation is providing maths and English tutoring lessons for children. However, tutoring is not the provision of a care service.”