Chamber and committees

As Serco NorthLink Ferries is a commercial ferry operator, specific information in relation to actual revenue received and anticipated forecasts are commercially sensitive.

The Scottish Government invested capital budget in financial years 2017-18 and 2018-19 to secure the three passenger/vehicle and two freight vessels that serve the Northern Isles routes. This investment not only delivered recurring resource savings for the Scottish Government but also importantly ensured that all five vessels were owned by Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) and available for long-term deployment on these routes to support the island communities. The recurring savings flowing from this investment are in the region of £5.5 million in 2019-20. This saving has been factored into 2019-20 budgets contributing towards maintaining a range of transport related policies including reduced fares to and from Aberdeen and Lerwick and to and from Kirkwall and Lerwick, the continuation of the Air Discount Scheme rate at 50 per cent and contributing to meeting wider cost pressures including those associated with inter-island ferry services and Concessionary Travel.

Serco NorthLink Ferries is a commercial ferry operator. As such, any information in relation to the amount of lane meterage gained since the termination of the Streamline shipping service is commercially sensitive.

Serco NorthLink Ferries do however publish annual carrying figures, including commercial vehicle lane meterage, available at the following link.

https://www.northlinkferries.co.uk/information/publications/statistics/

The Scottish Government is working together with local authorities and wider stakeholders to ensure that early learning and childcare (ELC) is promoted in a range of ways. This includes:

• The development of an ELC hub on www.parentclub.scot/elc as a trusted place for information on ELC.
• The use of social media to reach parents and carers as well as those working with them.
• The development of leaflets and posters about the ELC expansion, being disseminated via ELC settings; libraries and stakeholders.
• The inclusion of an ELC leaflet in the Scottish Book Trusts toddler Bookbug bag, which is distributed to all 1 year olds in Scotland.

We also know that trusted professionals are key to reaching families who are less likely to take up their ELC place, so we are working with partners to ensure that professionals such as Health Visitors, Housing Officers and Family Nurses are aware of the ELC offer and the changes that are taking place with the expansion to 1140 hours. This includes the development of a ‘toolkit’ for partners to use to ensure consistent messaging.

Other planned work for 2019-20 includes:

• The distribution of a multi-language leaflet that will contain a high level outline of the ELC offer in 6 languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Urdu, Gaelic, Polish, and Arabic and signpost parents to where they can get further info on ELC.
• The development of a marketing campaign which is likely to include channels such as radio, outdoor advertising, digital and social media, along with targeted activity with a range of stakeholder and partners relevant to the target audience. The main focus of this campaign will be timed to coincide with the local authority application window.

We are also working internally across Government to make best use of new systems and capabilities, such as Best Start Grant, to identify opportunities for shared communications where we can deliver key messages about ELC and particularly the 2 year old entitlement.

My statement of 1 May 2018 confirmed that the Scottish Government and local government had reached a landmark multi-year funding package to enable the near doubling of the statutory entitlement to funded ELC from 600 to 1140 hours each for all 3 and 4 year olds and eligible 2 year olds from August 2020. Supported by that agreement, an enormous amount of work is underway in local authorities across Scotland to phase in the new offer ahead of full implementation from August 2020.

Our funding agreement with local government, whilst runs until 2021-22, includes resources sufficient to deliver a near doubling of the uptake of funded ELC among eligible 2 year olds. We and local government are working in partnership with the ELC sector and through other services to raise awareness of the offer for 2 year olds. In addition to increasing the information available nationally, including through a new ELC Hub on Parent Club, we are working with partners to ensure that trusted professionals, such as Health Visitors, Housing Officers and Family Nurses, are aware of the ELC offer for 2 year olds and able to signpost eligible families to more information about what is available locally.

We are also working with the UK Government to secure a legal data-sharing gateway to enable Scottish local authorities to receive information from the Department for Work and Pensions about potentially eligible families. The UK Department for Education has attributed a significant increase in uptake of their 2 year old offer to a similar data-sharing gateway already in place for English local authorities.

Investment in Early Learning and Childcare Nurseries, the increase in Health Visitor numbers and the implementation of the Universal Health Visiting Pathway are among the steps the Scottish Government is taking to ensure children and families get access to the right support in their earliest years. The Universal Pathway, published in October 2015, recognises that poverty is one of the biggest risk factors linked to poorer health and development outcomes. It includes three Child Health Reviews which assess children’s growth and development. These contacts provide an opportunity for health visitors, children and their parents to build a strong relationship, in which health visitors can appropriately support all families, including acting as a gateway to other services.

Additionally from August 2020, we are near doubling the statutory entitlement to funded early learning and childcare from 600 hours to 1140 hours each for all 3 and 4 year olds and around a quarter of 2 year olds. Evidence shows that high quality ELC has a positive impact on children’s outcomes. Our offer of funded ELC for 2 year olds is targeted towards those children who are most likely to benefit from early access to high quality funded ELC. Our commitment to funding 435 Equity and Excellence leads in ELC settings serving Scotland’s most disadvantaged communities means that many of the eligible two year olds are also benefitting from access to an extra graduate-level practitioner who can further support their development.

The broad range of action we are taking to tackle child poverty is set out within our first annual progress report due under the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act – published on 26 June 2019. This sets out the clear steps we have taken towards genuine reductions in child poverty levels, including plans for the new Scottish Child Payment.

The Scottish Government welcomes the focus on 2 year olds from Save the Children and their briefing "Thriving at two and beyond" which rightly draws out the key themes of our own ongoing work with local authorities and stakeholders to increase uptake, awareness and quality of the 2 year old funded early learning and childcare (ELC) offer.

We are working with the Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative to support 9 multi-agency Local Authority teams to increase awareness and uptake of the 2 year old offer in their areas. We are also working with the UK Government and UK Parliament to secure a legal gateway and data sharing agreement so that Local Authorities in Scotland can also access accurate information about eligible populations.

We are improving the information available to parents and carers to help them make informed decisions about ELC, in particular through our new ELC Hub on Parent Club. We are continually looking for opportunities to promote the offer through other services such as Health Visiting Pathway and Financial Health Check, as well as making best use of new systems and capabilities, such as Best Start Grant, to join up our messaging about the services available to support families.

Quality is at the heart of our ELC offer. From August 2020, all ELC providers will have to meet our National Standard, to ensure that all children benefit from a high quality funded ELC experience. We are also refreshing the national practice guidance 'Building the Ambition' and increasing access to graduate-level practitioners in our most disadvantage communities through our funding for 435 Equality and Excellence leads.

The Scottish Government is increasing the funded early learning and childcare entitlement and is introducing Funding Follows the Child to increase flexibility and choice for families.

From August 2020, parents and carers- including those of eligible 2 year olds – will be able to choose to use their child’s entitlement at any ELC provider that meets the National Standard, has a place available and is willing to enter into a contract with the local authority.

The options offered to parents will depend on local availability but local authorities are working with a range of providers across the private, third and public sectors, including childminders, to increase choice. Local authorities are required to consult every two years on the delivery of funded early learning and childcare in their area. This consultation should include models, flexibility and systems of choice so that parents can inform options on offer within the local authority area.

It is important that parents and carers have access to the information they need to make informed choices about early learning and childcare for their child. Our Parent Club website ( www.parentclub.scot/elc ) includes advice and guidance to help parents make an informed choice when considering what ELC is best for them and their family. We are increasing the amount of information available on the Parent Club website and local authorities are working to raise awareness locally as we prepare for August 2020.

Local authorities reported in March 2019 (the latest official data collection) that they have recruited 84% (366) of the 435 equity and excellence leads posts (previously known as the additional graduates). However, we are aware that since this time the majority of authorities with vacancies have now recruited their remaining posts and are currently undertaking pre-employment checks. The next data collection is planned for July 2019, which will provide us with a more robust recruitment update.

Scottish Government have been taking a range of actions to support local authorities with recruitment. This year we have hosted a summit to share learning amongst local authorities. To raise awareness of this new role we have produced a marketing video and written case study, which has been distributed to all local authorities and universities.

We will continue to work closely with those small number of authorities who face challenges in recruiting posts and regularly monitor their progress.

The Scottish Government collects data on the number of two year olds registered for funded early learning and childcare (ELC) through the annual ELC census and publishes this each December. These statistics have been designated as National Statistics by the UK Statistics Authority, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The most recent publication is available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-schools-scotland-9-2018/ .

We recognise that the current ELC census is not sufficient to provide the information necessary to support this growing sector and so we are carrying out a development project to improve the ELC census and move to an individual level child census, which should produce initial results in 2021. This will allow us to overcome some of the recognised issues with the current census such as the double counting of children who are registered at more than one ELC setting.

We are working with HMRC and DWP to improve our estimation of the eligible two year old population based on the eligibility criteria and in light of changes to the qualifying benefits parents receive. The legal data-sharing gateway that we are pursuing with the UK Government will further improve the data available.

In addition, as part of the ELC expansion programme, the Improvement Service is collecting data from local authorities on our behalf. The next ELC delivery progress update will be published this summer and will provide information on the number of eligible two year olds receiving more than 600 hours of funded ELC.