It is fair to say that the Scottish Government and local government have jointly recognised that partnership is an area that we, together with the private and third sectors, need to invest in and improve through the expansion. In some parts of the country, there is a long history of arrangements working very well and of constructive relationships, but I accept your point that that is not the experience of providers throughout Scotland.
Throughout the development of the funding follows the child model, the 1,140 hours and the national standard, we have increased the opportunities to engage directly with private and third sector providers. Our policy development and our development of the national standard have been greatly enriched by our having direct conversations and understanding the context and experience within which they operate.
In 2018, the Scottish Government and COSLA jointly established a partnership forum, which was designed to bring together local authority representatives, the Scottish Government, the national membership and representative bodies for private providers and individual providers, so that they could work through some national policy issues practically, understand local issues of interest and find practical ways through them. That forum had met on six occasions and had held a national event prior to lockdown. We held an event in each of the six regional improvement collaborative areas, so that providers from across the country had the opportunity to engage.
We have been seeing improvements in partnership working through that investment. As Paul Johnston said, our funding follows the child policy framework was intended to be provider neutral. That was a result of what we had heard through the blueprint consultation in 2016 about parents’ experiences of accessing flexible ELC and accessing their child’s entitlement in the private sector, if they wished to do so. The policy framework is set up and designed, and we have been working with local government to implement it in a way that gives equity and parity to all types of provider.
Importantly, all providers in all sectors are subject to the same principles and same national standard. An important part of the funding follows the child policy and the national standard is the payment of sustainable rates. Those rates need to be sufficient to allow all providers to pay at least the real living wage—the Scottish living wage—to all their childcare staff.
We have worked with Scotland Excel to produce guidance for authorities on the methodology that they can adopt to develop a sustainable rate. We promote dialogue with and gathering data from individual providers so that, as far as possible, the rate is based on knowledge of cost. The way in which the rate has been arrived at should be transparent, and providers should have an opportunity to participate in that. In recent months—it was predominantly pre-Covid—a number of local authorities or regional improvement collaboration groupings have undertaken independent exercises to work with providers to gather data and set the rates.
In the two years to August 2019, the average funding rates went up by 26 per cent for the 600 hours, and we expect further increases. Through the multiyear funding, we have been seeking to ensure that more of that goes in to recognise the costs of quality provision in the private and third sectors. Alongside the sustainable rates guidance, we have produced contracting guidance through Scotland Excel, which provides local authorities with options that they can choose to adopt. That means that local authorities’ contracting approaches will embody the funding follows the child policy.
The key point about that policy is that we are seeking to place the power in parents’ hands so that they have the choice to access their child’s entitlement in any setting that meets the national standard, that is willing to contract with the authority and that has a place available. That will be quite a big culture shift in some authorities, and it will take time to bed in, but a lot of progress is being made.
I accept Alex Neil’s observation that there is potential for conflict, but the policy framework is intended to ensure that the local authority, in allocating, going through an admissions process and working with parents on places, treats its own nurseries in the same way as it treats private and third sector nurseries.
My COSLA colleagues may wish to comment further on that.