Chamber and committees

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.

Based on the latest published data, Local Authorities forecast that 26% of funded ELC places will be provided in private sector, third sector or childminding settings in April 2021, with the remaining 74% provided in local authority settings. This will mean an increase in the share of private, third and childminding sector providers’ income accounted for by funded hours, in part due to previously paid-for hours becoming funded with the increase in the statutory entitlement, and in part due to children newly accessing funded hours at the setting.

There is no requirement that providers in the private, third and childminding sectors change their overall size of service as a result of the ELC expansion – it is up to providers to work with their local authority to agree whether and to what extent they wish to offer funded hours, in order to meet local parental demand. We are aware that some local authorities are supporting providers who do wish to increase their funded provision, including through access to grant funding. In July this year we published a summary of the different types of support available to providers in each local authority: https://www.parliament.scot/S5_Education/Inquiries/In_Attachment_ELC_rates.pdf .

Local authorities are investing in expanded services. The latest published data shows that local authorities are currently planning to deliver 900 infrastructure projects to support the ELC expansion, including refurbishment, extension and new build projects. As of September 2019, 214 projects were complete; 120 in construction; and a further 566 in development.

Consultation on the development of Island Community Impact Assessments (ICIAs) provisions within the Act has now been completed. Policy development is underway and a timeline for the commencement of section 14 is being finalised.

In the meantime, although there is no duty to do an impact assessment, all Ministerial colleagues have been advised of the provisions of the Islands Act, with the recent Fuel Poverty (Targets Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Bill being a good example of how Ministers are trying to reflect the need to island proof legislation, in advance of the development of the ICIA tool being finalised.

We have also been advising our agencies and partners, where possible to operate in the spirit of the Act, and to consider island issues in their work bearing in mind that the Act would allow for an impact assessment, to potentially be applied retrospectively, where appropriate.