Chamber and committees

My officials are continuing to review the current Home Education guidance. Officials met and corresponded with local authorities and representatives of home education organisations during 2019. Their views are currently being considered and an updated version of the guidance will be prepared for consultation in 2020.

I wrote to Johann Lamont MSP, Convener of the Public Petitions Committee on 19 October 2019 and confirmed that my officials will inform the Committee when a revised version of the Home Education Guidance is published for consultation.

The purpose of the tender is to attract the Most Economically Advantageous Tender, based on an evaluation criteria of 65% price and 35% quality. This was explained in the Invitation to Tender, issued to bidders on 17 January 2019. The instructions to participants, also issued to bidders on 17 January 2019, made clear how tenders would be evaluated.

As the procurement procedure remains ongoing until the contract is formally awarded, there is a limit on what we can say due to the commercially sensitive nature of the competition.

We will publish the contract on Transport Scotland's website following the completion of the procurement process, redacted as appropriate to protect matters of commercial confidentiality.

Shetland Islands Council (SIC) is wholly responsible for the inter-island ferry services which it provides. Consequently, SIC currently remains wholly responsible for its vessels and infrastructure, and for planning for their replacement.

However, the Scottish Government understands that significant financial challenges can fall on individual local authorities such as Shetland and, in these exceptional circumstances, we have provided additional one-year funding to SIC of £5.0m in 2018-19 and £5.2m in 2019-20, or a total of £10.2m in the last two financial years, to support the operation of SIC’s internal ferry services, in addition to grant-in-aid funding through the annual financial settlement for local government.

Transport Scotland, on the behalf of the Scottish Ministers, continues to discuss long term solutions with both SIC and Orkney Islands Council (OIC). We are now considering, the final report from the officials working group which we established to examine these issues. This report included SIC’s preferred option and estimated capital costs for investment in ensuring the sustainability of the Fair Isle service. SIC expects to finalise, and submit, its more detailed Outline Business Case for the replacement of their Fair Isle vessel in the coming weeks and we will continue to engage with SIC on the financial sustainability of Shetland’s internal ferry services.

The Scottish 4G Infill (S4GI) Programme is working to deliver three sites in the Shetland Isles: Reawick, Foula and Bruray. A fundamental requirement for progressing any S4GI site to build is gaining commitment from at least one mobile network operator to use the mast. In addition, we also require agreements with landowners as well as securing planning permission.

At Raewick, agreement with a mobile network operator has been reached and we anticipate site build to commence in early 2020. However at this stage no firm timescale for the availability of 4G services can be provided.

Whilst the site at Foula yielded some initial interest from a mobile network operator, no definite commitment can be confirmed at this time. At present, no mobile network operator has shown interest in using the Bruray site.

Progress updates to the programme will be published on the Scottish Government’s website.

Since February 2018, the Scottish Government has been in frequent dialogue with stakeholders about the import provisions of the US Marine Mammal Protection Act, in order to ensure that Scotland can continue to export quality Scottish seafood to the US.

Details of specific meetings include:

• March 2018 – SFIA: Seafood Regulation Expert Group.
• July 2018 – Scottish Government internal conference call.
• May 2018 – Meeting with Scottish Government and Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation.
• October 2018 - Meeting with Officials from Canada, Chile, Norway and Scotland under the auspices of the International Memorandum of Understanding on aquaculture.
• May 2019 – Meeting with Scottish Government and Faroese Government.
• July 2019 – Conference with Scottish Government and the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs.
• August 2019 - Conference call with Scottish Government and the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Marine Management Organisation, Seafish and Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
• August 2019 – Meeting with Officials from Canada, Chile, Norway and Scotland under the auspices of the International Memorandum of Understanding on aquaculture.
• September 2019 – Meeting with Scottish Government and Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation.
• October 2019 – Meeting with Scottish Government and Genuswave.
• November 2019 – Conference call with Scottish Government and the British Trout Association.

Local authorities’ latest forecasts, as set out in the September ELC Expansion Delivery Progress Report, show that at a national level there has been a reduction in the overall forecast additional staffing requirement of around 9 percent.

Local authorities’ original forecasts were prepared in March 2018 as part of their initial ELC expansion plans. Since then, local authorities have revised their expansion plans, learning from early experience of introducing additional funded hours across local communities.

In particular, local authorities have focused on developing their staffing models to increase overall efficiency while delivering high quality early learning and childcare. In addition they have also amended plans to make greater use of ELC provision in the private, third and childminding sectors.

At a year to go, almost half of the additional local authority workforce had already been recruited, reflecting a significant amount of work across Scotland to prepare for the introduction of 1140 hours from August 2020.

We know that high quality early learning and childcare can play an important role in reducing the poverty related attainment gap. We have dedicated funding for 435 equity and excellent leads to work in all 32 local authorities with a focus on improving outcomes for children in the most deprived areas of Scotland.

Local authorities have reported that 94% of the Equity and Excellence lead posts have now been filled (410 full time equivalent posts). The Scottish Government is continuing to work closely with local authorities with outstanding posts to fill. Progress is monitored on a regular basis. Local Authorities are aiming to fill these posts as swiftly as possible.

Some posts have taken longer to recruit for than anticipated. This is partly because these roles can be very specialised and many local authorities have included additional criteria to ensure the most suitable, highly qualified candidates are in place to support children experiencing disadvantage.

The Scottish Government has regular and extensive dialogues with DWP on data sharing for a range of purposes, one of which is to establish the eligible 2-year-old population at Scotland level. Regular updates are requested inside our ongoing working relationship. DWP are not currently able to provide an expected date for sharing this data. In the meantime, we are working with estimates of the eligible population derived from available sources.

The Scottish Government’s Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment considered the impacts of the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) expansion on private and third sector providers. In the current market, the majority of private and third sector providers’ income (around 77%) comes from fees charged to parents and carers for non-funded hours (i.e. additional childcare on top of the funded entitlement; or childcare for children not yet eligible for funded ELC).

Local authorities’ original expansion plans forecast that the share of providers’ income accounted for by funded hours would increase with the roll-out of 1140 hours, as settings allocate more capacity towards delivering funded hours. This is reflected in the latest delivery data. The increase will be, in part, due to previously paid-for (wraparound) hours now being funded, and in part due to children newly accessing funded hours at the setting.

Local authorities and private and third sector ELC providers are working in partnership to develop a local offer of funded ELC that responds to parental demand and may include different patterns of provision based on different business models. There is no requirement on private and third sector ELC providers to change their overall capacity and therefore staffing models as a result of the ELC expansion, although we recognise that providers may of course choose to do so.

We recognise also that private and third sector providers are being affected by large scale local authority ELC recruitment. We are working with sector representative bodies to support providers with recruitment, including through our campaign website: www.childcarecarecareersscotland.scot which hosts job adverts from across all ELC sectors.