Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognises that high quality, accessible and affordable early learning and childcare is vital in rural areas to support children’s outcomes and to enable parents or carers to train, work or study. A full response to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee report, Remote and Rural Healthcare Inquiry, was sent on 18 November. The Scottish Government, in collaboration with the Centre for Workforce Supply and the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care will develop a sustained model of direct support that will provide rural and island employers with the help they need to improve recruitment success.

We recognise the provision of childcare is a key factor to support more people in rural and island communities to enter and sustain training, employment and starting a business. The Scottish Government continues to fully fund local authorities to deliver 1140 hours of Early Learning and Childcare to eligible children across Scotland, backed by almost £1 billion funding each year. In addition, at a national level, several work programmes are underway to support childcare access in rural and island communities. This includes –

• Funding a new national childminder recruitment and retention programme.
• Making grants available to local authorities via the Addressing Depopulation Action Plan Fund, two of which will contain a focus on addressing childcare issues in areas affected by acute population decline.
• Providing local authorities with an additional £16m in 2024-25 to support payment of the real Living Wage to staff delivering funded ELC in the private and third sectors.
• Investing £16 million over the next two years into our early adopter communities (EACs), including those in rural and island locations. We are extending the number of communities involved in this work in existing EACs in Dundee, Clackmannanshire Glasgow and Inverclyde – as well as further expanding into Fife and the Shetland Isles. This will allow us to test and understand particular challenges and opportunities in rural and island areas.

The Scottish Government are currently funding a dedicated resource in NHS Education for Scotland to scope the current skills landscape and identify where earn as you learn programmes could be expanded and where further development work is required with aim of widening the pathways into health and care careers.

The Scottish Government are currently funding a dedicated resource in NHS Education for Scotland to scope the current skills landscape and identify where earn as you learn programmes could be expanded and where further development work is required with aim of widening the pathways into health and care careers, including in rural and island areas.

We already work collaboratively with professional bodies and higher education institutions (HEI) on the delivery of education programs that can meet the needs of the NHS workforce. Work is underway through the AHP Education and Workforce Policy Review to support the development of alternative delivery models of education such as part time and distance learning.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information, however the data can be found by contacting the Care Inspectorate directly or searching the Care Inspectorate datastore.

Scottish Government is committed to supporting and growing our childminding sector, which is why we launched the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future in June 2024, in partnership with the Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA). The programme is supporting the recruitment of new professional childminders across Scotland, offering a package of funded support and training in addition to a £750 start-up grant, providing everything needed to establish a new childminding business from home.

The programme also includes a range of pilot measures to address the retention of the childminding workforce, delivering more practical support to ensure our existing professionals are supported with their workloads and professional development.

The recruitment support is available across 19 local authorities during 2024-25, and 12 local authorities are participating in the retention pilots. SCMA are currently in discussions with local authorities regarding participation for year 2 (2025-26), and we welcome their commitment to supporting the childminding workforce.

Information on the proportion of eligible children accessing funded ELC, both nationally and by local authority, is published each year in the ELC census. This includes uptake rates for all 3-4 year olds, and deferred registrations. The census does not record the proportion of their 1140 hours entitlement that each child is utilising.

The most recent publication includes the most recent uptake data by local authority area within Figure 26 at the following page:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-for-schools-in-scotland-2023/pages/early-learning-and-childcare-elc/

A breakdown for previous years can be accessed within the appropriate years publication, which are listed at: https://www.gov.scot/collections/early-learning-and-childcare-statistics/#earlylearningandchildcarecensus.

The Improvement Service also provide information on the number of eligible children accessing their full 1140 entitlement nationally. The most recent service delivery report is available at:

https://www.improvementservice.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/52618/ELC-Delivery-Progress-Report-Apr-24.pdf

The requested information on what percentage of frontline healthcare staff currently employed by NHS (a) Highland, (b) Western Isles, (c) Orkney, (d) Shetland and (e) Grampian are due to retire in the next (i) year and (ii) five years is not centrally held.

The information requested is not held centrally and is a matter for the Health Boards referred to in the question.

NHS Near Me continues to be an option for online appointments, where appropriate, for those who wish to and can interact in this way. The service does not require large broadband speeds to work effectively, however patients have the option to test their broadband speed or access a digital hub near their home. Further information can be found at: https://www.nearme.scot/

The Scottish Government fully expects NHS Boards to meet agreed broadband and infrastructure requirements set out in infrastructure standards. To support NHS Boards and the public, The Scottish Government has invested around £1 billion on digital programmes – including Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB).

The Scottish Government is aware of the unique needs of our rural and islands communities, and that these needs vary significantly from place to place. We recognise that there is no “one size fits all” approach which will work for every community, and that harnessing the local knowledge of staff working within these areas can play an important role in improving healthcare outcomes.

That is why the work of the NHS Scotland remote, rural and islands task and finish group that we have convened is being led by representatives from across our rural and island Health Boards.

The group is working to develop a framework for sustainable delivery of healthcare services in rural and island communities. We aim to develop a model with services provided as local as possible and specialised as necessary in order to ensure equity of outcomes. The leadership, collaboration and innovation that our rural and island Board representatives are bringing to this group will ensure this work meets the needs of the communities they serve.

In 2024-25 the Scottish Government has invested £113.5 Million in digital health and care technologies.