Current status: Answered by Natalie Don on 10 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on the development of the strategic framework for Scotland’s childcare profession, which was committed to in the document, Best Start: Strategic early learning and school age childcare plan for Scotland 2022-26.
Following the announcement of major new childcare commitments in the 2023-24 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government is re-considering the approach to publication of the strategic framework for the early learning and school age childcare profession. In the mean time we are continuing to work with the Framework Steering Group and other partners to support delivery of the actions developed as part of the original plan.
We have already provided local authorities with an additional £16 million in 24-25 to increase pay for staff in the private and voluntary (PVI) sector who are delivering funded early learning and childcare (ELC) to at least £12 per hour from April 2024. This demonstrates our commitment to the Fair Work agenda, as we remain the only part of the UK to pay ELC staff in the PVI sector the real Living Wage.
In addition, we are progressing our commitment to growing the childminding profession by 1,000 and have funded the Scottish Childminding Association to develop a new national three-year programme of childminder recruitment and retention. We have also implemented a Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) fee waiver scheme for everyone joining the sector in fiscal year 2023-24 and launched a new national portal for continuous professional learning, which includes mental health and wellbeing resources.
We will continue to work with representatives from across the sector to understand key priorities for the ELC profession and how we can best support retention and recruitment.