Education (School Lunches) (Scotland) Regulations 2015 [Draft]
Provision of Early Learning and Childcare (Specified Children) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2015 [Draft]
The next item on the agenda is evidence on two pieces of subordinate legislation. I welcome Fiona McLeod, the acting Minister for Children and Young People, and her supporting officials from the Scottish Government. After we have taken evidence on the instruments, we will debate the motions in the name of the minister. Officials will not be permitted to contribute to the formal debate.
I invite the minister to make some opening remarks on both instruments.
I would like to make a brief statement in relation to the two instruments.
I will start with the draft Provision of Early Learning and Childcare (Specified Children) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2015 and put it in the context of the overall policy objectives. The key priorities of the Scottish Government’s early learning and childcare policy are to improve outcomes for all children, especially those who are most vulnerable and disadvantaged, and to support parents—especially those who need routes into sustainable employment and out of poverty in order to support their families—to work, train or study.
Those policy priorities are why the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 increased free early learning and childcare from 475 hours a year to 600 hours per year, put choice and flexibility on a statutory footing for the first time, and extended eligibility to the most vulnerable two-year-olds—those who are, or have been at any point since their second birthday, looked after by a local authority or the subject of a kinship care or guardianship order.
The committee will remember that, in January 2014, the then First Minister announced further expansion of the entitlement to early learning and childcare for two-year-olds to those with a parent in receipt of certain out-of-work benefits—around 15 per cent of Scotland’s two-year-olds—from August 2014 and, from August 2015, to those who come under free school lunch qualifying criteria, which would take us to around 27 per cent of Scotland’s two-year-olds.
The Provision of Early Learning and Childcare (Specified Children) Order 2014 was made under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, and it defined all three and four-year-old children as eligible, as well as the first cohort of two-year-olds with a parent in receipt of certain out-of-work benefits. The draft Provision of Early Learning and Childcare (Specified Children) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2015 will extend eligibility for early learning and childcare to the second cohort of two-year-olds, who come under the qualifying criteria for free school lunches.
The amendment order proposes to amend the original order by adding free school lunch criteria not already covered—where a parent or carer receives: child tax credit, but not working tax credit, with an income up to the threshold for child tax credit, which is currently £16,105; both maximum child tax credit and maximum working tax credit, with an income below a certain threshold, which is currently £6,420; universal credit; or support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. I should also point out that the thresholds for the tax credits can change annually under the Tax Credits Act 2002.
12:30I turn to the draft Education (School Lunch) (Scotland) Regulations 2015. Young children who are eligible for early learning and childcare are also entitled to a free school lunch where they meet the current free school lunch criteria set out in the Education (Scotland) Act 1980. However, one of the implications of extending early learning and childcare to this full cohort of two-year-olds under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 and the two specified children orders is that a small number of those two-year-olds will not meet the free school lunch criteria. That includes those two-year-olds who are, or have been at any time since their second birthday, looked after by a local authority or the subject of a kinship care or guardianship order and those two-year-olds with a parent in receipt of incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance or state pension credit.
The draft regulations will rectify that discrepancy, by adding the criteria that I have just mentioned to the free school lunch entitlement for young children. It will apply to all eligible young children in early learning and childcare to ensure that all two, three and four-year-olds have equal access to a free school lunch.
We have worked closely with all our key stakeholders and delivery partners to discuss the practical implications of the commitments and to support their implementation from August 2015. I seek the committee’s support for both instruments, to enable us to fulfil our commitment to expand early learning and childcare to more two-year-olds and to ensure that those vulnerable and disadvantaged young children have equal access to a free school lunch throughout early learning and childcare.
I welcome both instruments. It is no secret that I hope that this is the latest phase in an effort to extend eligibility beyond the current level of 27 per cent of two-year-olds. However, having pressed the Government to go a stage further, I welcome the confirmation that that is happening in the form of the two statutory instruments.
The need to ensure that those eligible two-year-olds have access to free school meals was the result of an anomaly that was picked up at a local level. I want to put on record the efforts of Councillor Rob Crichton in exposing what seemed to be a needless exclusion of those children who were from more disadvantaged backgrounds but were not necessarily eligible for the free school meals that their peers in the nursery were entitled to.
My only question is: in the discussions that you have had with the delivery partners, which are presumably principally the local authorities, what has been discussed in relation to the resource implications? I know that in the Orkney context the overall numbers do not appear to be huge—that added to the sense of frustration that it was not being done previously—but over the piece the cumulative figure may not be insignificant. It would be helpful to know how the policy is being resourced.
As I have said, we have had extensive consultation and close working with all delivery partners. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has agreed the principle, provided that the costs incurred by local authorities are fully met. The Government has estimated that cost to be around £600,000, and we can meet that in our 2015-16 budget.
I would also like to put on record that I commend the Lib Dems, particularly Willie Rennie, who has been very vocal on the issue. I welcome the two instruments.
I have a question, which I ask in a spirit of supportive good will, because I am very much in favour of the policy. I understand that, in England, the percentage of eligible two-year-olds is about 38 to 40 per cent, although I may be wrong. If possible, can the minister tell us what cohort in England is provided with early learning and childcare that is not covered in Scotland?
I am sorry, but I cannot tell you about the criteria for England. However, I can reassure you that the figures to increase the cohort of two-year-olds from 15 to 27 per cent are based on the budget consequentials from December 2014. We want to do that sustainably; we want to do that by working with our partners.
Last year, our first cohort was those two-year-olds in workless households. Extending the criteria today will allow us to include families on the lowest incomes. As I say, the increase is based on figures from the 2014 Barnett consequentials. The increase is being done slowly to ensure that, at each point, we are able to fulfil our commitment.
I welcome that.
I have a couple of questions, minister. What is the plan to communicate to parents the eligibility changes on the instruments? How will parents get to know about the changes?
Our work on that, which we started last year, has been fairly successful. We are working with the Department for Work and Pensions so that, when it identifies parents who meet the criteria, it lets them know that they are eligible. We are also working with health visitors, because they visit the households of all the two-year-olds in question.
Over the summer, as we did last year, we will have a large marketing campaign, which includes providing information on the radio and in leaflets, in order to get the message out.
I have one other question, which is specific to the school lunches instrument. Paragraph 4 of the policy notes says:
“The extended entitlement will apply to all pre-school children, where they are in a local authority ELC setting with a session spanning the middle of the day.”
What does
“a session spanning the middle of the day”
mean? What is that defined as?
The term “middle of the day” is in the original legislation. That might be 11 until 1, but—
I am slightly curious about the matter.
I will check what the specific hours are for you, convener, but I think that it means over lunch time.
So if someone had a session just in the morning or in the afternoon, they would not be eligible.
They are eligible if they are in their early learning setting over the lunch-time period. I am told that the school lunch means anything provided in the middle of the day that the education authority considers is appropriate. That is about what the meal is, so I will have to get back to you with the specifics. However, it is fairly clear that “middle of the day” refers to a child being in the early learning setting over lunch time.
It seems obvious that those who are there across the lunch-time period would get the lunch. I am just wondering whether children who are there up to the lunch-time period would get lunch. Could you double-check that?
I will go away and work out what “middle of the day” means.
I think that Liam McArthur would like to comment.
I am glad that you have raised that point, convener. The issue has been raised with me in the context of two-year-olds in a nursery setting over the course of the morning and up to the lunch time who are then flung out the door—
No one said to me that they are “flung out the door”.
—just as their peer group is settling down to a lunch. If provision over the lunch period is simply seen as an extension of delivery through the late morning, that will be very welcome. However, if it simply means those who bridge the lunch hour in the learning setting, that will be unfortunate.
I will get back to the committee with the specifics. We and local authorities are working hard on the flexibility of the sessions on offer. That issue will obviously be factored in.
Thank you very much.
As there are no other questions, we will move on to item 4. I invite the minister to move motions S4M-13291 and S4M-13292.
Motions moved,
That the Education and Culture Committee recommends that the Education (School Lunches) (Scotland) Regulations 2015 [draft] be approved.
That the Education and Culture Committee recommends that the Provision of Early Learning and Childcare (Specified Children) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2015 [draft] be approved.—[Fiona McLeod.]
Motions agreed to.
With that, I close the meeting.
Meeting closed at 12:40.