A WORRIED mum claims working parents have been “left in the lurch” due to a lack of out-of-school care provision for their kids.

Bushra Afzal, whose son is due to start lessons at Hillview Primary next month, works full-time as an accountant, which means she needs childcare before and after school, five days a week, including the holidays.

She had hoped to use the Mearns After School Care (MACS) service, which previously accommodated Hillview Primary pupils by transporting them to Cross Arthurlie Primary.

Several months ago, however, MACS decided that, due to low numbers and the economic downturn, it would no longer operate from Cross Arthurlie or offer provision to Hillview pupils.

Mum-of-three Bushra said she has not been able to find alternative care for her son and is worried about a lack of support, particularly when she begins commuting to her office again in the autumn.

She told the Barrhead News: “They’ve quite short-sightedly decided to pull out of Hillview. They say there is not enough uptake but, if the world is opening back up again and everyone is going back to the office, then it doesn’t really make sense that, at the exact same time, they are pulling the plug.

“They have kind of monopolised the area over the years and it’s meant there is no other service – and Hillview serves all of Auchenback, so they have left the whole area without childcare.

“What do parents do? Chuck their jobs, not pay their mortgage?

“I was on a parent page online and there were some comments about this being the forgotten school. I’m not the only parent that has been put in this position.”

MACS has operated out-of-school clubs across East Renfrewshire, as well as one in Scotstoun.

In Barrhead, it previously catered for St Mark’s Primary pupils at the Cross Arthurlie club, as well as running a club at Carlibar Primary for children at that school and St John’s Primary.

Penny Anderson, director of MACS, said it will now only provide one service in the Barrhead area.

This will be at Carlibar Primary, to support pupils there and those who attend St John’s and Cross Arthurlie.

“The economic projections are a third down in all of the projects we have,” she added. “People are working from home or have actually lost jobs.

“With parents being at home, the numbers are no longer viable, unfortunately, to support as many people as we would like.

“Because of the bubbles, we can’t take any more schools and we have to provide a staff member for each bubble, which means sometimes we would be providing one-on-one care to Hillview, so it wouldn’t be economically viable to do that.

“Normally, the staffing ratio is one to eight.”