Chamber and committees

Obviously, the Government has some really ambitious targets in relation to expanding our childcare provision. The PVI sector will be critical to that. We will not be able to do it with local authorities alone. We also need to be mindful of the role of childminders in that respect.

We published a financial sustainability check in the summer, and we have committed in the programme for government to giving the funding to enable workers who are delivering ELC in the private and third sectors to be paid at least £12 an hour from April next year. We are also committed to a pilot to look at how we can grow the childminding workforce in rural and urban communities by a further 1,000.

More broadly, Mr Rennie speaks to a number of challenges in relation to ELC. I will bring in Eleanor Passmore on how we have been moving that agenda forward. It will take substantial additional investment from the Government and, as I mentioned, it will require the PVI sector to be a huge part of that, recognising that local authorities will not be able to do it on their own.

There are a number of things to unpack in that question. I think that the Verity house agreement sets out a new way of working between local authorities and the Scottish Government, and there are many positives that we can take from that. I would say that it is an iterative process. At the current time, we are working through what an accountability framework will look like in terms of measuring progress. One of the points that I made in response to the convener’s question about attendance was on local variation, and I am keen that we look at local variation in relation to attainment, for example. We should look at local accountability and how that can be better advocated for, given that, as the cabinet secretary, I do not run our schools at a local authority level—that is the responsibility of councils.

Scottish attainment challenge funding is very much targeted funding, as is other funding within the portfolio, and that has to remain the case. That will continue through the course of discussions around the framework.

In terms of ring fencing more broadly, I accept that local authorities have certain statutory duties that they need to fulfil, but how they do that and their overall level of resource is, in the main, the responsibility of local authorities, and I do not think that the Verity house agreement will interrupt that—in fact, if anything, it will seek to empower councils further. It is, though, also important to say that only 7 per cent of funding provided in 2023-24 is actually formally ring fenced in relation to education, and that represents a relatively small percentage of councils’ overall spend on education. That is why I think that the Verity house agreement is important in resetting the relationship between Government and local authorities but also with regard to recognising local accountability within that process.

We will need to look at how we support that strategic change going forward.

The system will be very much separate from SEEMiS, which can be quite clunky.

Absolutely, and that is part of the on-going discussions that we are having with COSLA about the iterative process that I mentioned in response to Ross Greer. Currently, the funding is ring fenced, so we are engaging with COSLA on that.

On wraparound childcare services, we have the four pilots in Glasgow, Dundee, Clackmannanshire and Inverclyde. It is also important to say that we are investing additional funding, including a £2 million fund in partnership with the Scottish Football Association, to deliver funded after-school and holiday clubs for children and their families. That is being targeted toward our six priority family types—the committee will be aware of Shirley-Anne Somerville’s work in social justice. It is important that we have a cross-portfolio approach to recognise responsibilities in education, because that can help us to reach our targets on child poverty in other parts of Government.

I heard the concern that Mr Rennie expressed, and I will take that concern—and my own—to our engagement with COSLA in relation to the Verity house agreement process and how we can ensure that we meet the targets that the First Minister has set.

I will probably bring in Elizabeth. In my experience, it depends on the individual child, their context and their circumstances, so having a blanket national approach to attendance can be challenging. We need to recognise—I took notes as Elizabeth was speaking—that the data that I am presented with each fortnight shows variation at the local authority level. We need to be mindful that there is not one static national picture. In certain local authorities and in certain groups of children, attendance will be higher than it is elsewhere. Poverty has an impact on attendance. Therefore, I do not think that we could narrowly say, “Let’s just focus on attendance.” We need a renewed focus on attendance, though, because there are cohorts of young people who are not engaging with the education system in the way that they should be.

That is an important point, and I very much recognise the challenge and the opportunity that the flexible workforce development fund has provided. We reduced the allocation in 2022-23 and no final decision has been made on the fund. We are working to confirm the final position shortly, and I will be happy to provide the committee with an update. Obviously, that is part of budgetary negotiations, which have, as I have said on a number of occasions today, been very challenging. There is significant pressure, not just in education and schools but right across Scottish Government and our agency budget.

However, I appreciate the convener’s point about the uncertainty that that has caused for colleges and employers. We are working really hard with our partners to confirm the position as quickly as possible. I apologise that I cannot be more direct with you today, because those discussions are on-going as part of the budgetary negotiations.

I will be happy to provide that.

Precisely.

The role of Government in the college sector is entirely different from its role in the school sector. I do not accept Mr Rennie’s comparison between the two. We do not get involved in operational decisions that are for our colleges to make, because they are independent.

I hear what Mr Rennie has outlined and intimated, and I agree that challenges undoubtedly exist, but to compare the colleges situation with the one that we recently faced in our schools is not fair.