Current status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 22 January 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what conclusions it has drawn from recent evaluations of the expansion to 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare, particularly in relation to accessibility, flexibility of provision and outcomes for children and families.
As a result of the priority that the Scottish Government has placed on investing in funded ELC, families across Scotland have benefitted from the provision of 1140 hours of high quality funded ELC since 2021.
Our interim evaluation published in 2024 showed that uptake of the expanded hours is high, and there are promising signs that the expansion is delivering improvements in flexibility, accessibility and affordability of provision.
We expect to publish our overall evaluation on the outcomes of the expansion to 1140 hours for children, parents and families over the 2018 to 2025 period in February.