Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has not provided financial support to British Airways or KLM for their services from Inverness. Any agreements between Inverness Airport and its customers are a commercial matter for Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL).

The Scottish Government is committed to developing links with its close neighbours in the high north and identifying opportunities for collaboration, growth and policy exchange.

An Arctic Policy Steering Group comprising experts and interested parties has now been established. As Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs, I chaired meetings of the group on 3 October and 14 November 2018 and no date has yet been set for publication.

Orkney Islands Council and Shetland Islands Council are represented at the Steering Group and in addition I have met and discussed our work with Councillor James Stockan, Leader of Orkney Island Council.

Other steering group members include representatives from St Andrews University Arctic Centre, the European Policy and Research Centre, Scottish Association of Marine Science and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-19863 on 26 November 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

As referred to in the answer to question S5W-19861 on 6 November 2018 there has been welcome progress in the numbers of childminders approved to deliver, and who are actually delivering, the funded entitlement.

The Scottish Government’s parental survey, Exploring parents' views and use of Early Learning and Childcare in Scotland , published in August 2018 indicates that there is considerable demand from parents to increase their use of childminders as we move towards the introduction of the expanded early learning and childcare entitlement in 2020.

Our new ‘provider neutral’ Funding Follows the Child approach, which will be introduced in 2020 alongside the expanded entitlement, will empower parents to choose from a range of high quality ELC providers, including childminders.

It will be underpinned by a National Standard that all providers delivering the funded entitlement, including childminders, will have to meet.

This approach will provide increased opportunities for childminders to deliver the funded entitlement.

This is reflected in local authority expansion plans for delivering the funded entitlement, which are based on childminders contribution to delivering the funded hours continuing to increase as we move towards 2020.

We will support families and give them the guidance that they need to make this an informed decision. This includes making parents more aware of the options available to them when accessing the funded entitlement – including the potential to use their funded hours with a childminder.

To support this we have committed to holding a childminding summit with the SCMA and local authorities in early 2019, to identify actions to ensure parents understand the potential benefits of accessing all or part of their child’s ELC entitlement from a childminding service.

As set out in the Programme for Government we will ensure providers, including childminders, are supported through the transition to expanded entitlement. We are speaking to funded providers to inform the development of this delivery support package for the transition to 2020, which will be set out before Christmas.

We have also worked with COSLA to establish the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) Partnership Forum whose membership comprises both providers and local authority representatives. The Forum includes representation from childminders and the Scottish Childminding Association. The Forum will promote meaningful partnership working across the ELC sector; provide a forum for the sharing of best practice; and identify and propose solutions to specific issues raised by providers and/or authorities.

The Forum met for the first time on 23 October and it will meet again on 12 December.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Childminders have an important role to play in delivering funded early learning and childcare, particularly for our younger children, and we are working with the Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA) and local authorities to increase the role of childminders in delivering children’s entitlement.

It is encouraging that the latest SCMA survey, published in September, indicated an increase in the role that childminders are playing in delivering the funded entitlement with:

• The number of childminders approved to deliver funded ELC to eligible 2 year olds has increased from 453 in July 2017 to 639 in July 2018.
• The number of childminders approved to deliver funded ELC to 3 and 4 year olds has increased from 49 in July 2017 to 119 in July 2018.
• The number of childminders delivering funded ELC to eligible 2 year olds has increased from 114 in July 2017 to 144 in July 2018.
• The number of childminders delivering funded ELC to children aged 3 and 4 years old has increased from 5 in July 2017 to 57 in July 2018.

The SCMA annual survey also indicates that 26 out of 32 local authorities now have childminders approved to deliver the funded entitlement. One of those authorities who were yet to approve childminders at the time of the survey, Falkirk, is now working closely with SCMA and have invited childminders to apply for partnership.

The introduction of our new Funding Follows the Child approach in 2020, which is ‘provider neutral’, will empower parents to choose from a range of high quality ELC providers, including childminders.

This approach will provide increased opportunities for childminders to deliver the funded entitlement. We have committed to holding a childminding summit with the SCMA and local authorities in early 2019, to identify actions to ensure parents understand the potential benefits of accessing all or part of their child’s ELC entitlement from a childminding service.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-19861 on 26 November 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

The Scottish Government has no plans for additional discharge facilities at ports. Ports are already obliged to provide waste disposal facilities for ships calling at the port and it will be for them to consider whether any additional facilities are needed based on likely traffic using the port.

This is a matter for Highlands and Islands Airports Limited. The information requested is not held centrally.

The relevant provisions of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 pertaining to such assessments, once in force, would not oblige the Scottish Government to prepare an islands communities impact assessment for the Bill. We have nevertheless committed to undertaking an island communities impact assessment for the Bill in due course and as a matter of good practice. Through our extensive and ongoing engagement with stakeholders in island communities, this process has already begun. The intention is to confirm more detailed timings in respect of this assessment once the Parliamentary timetable for the coming year is known.

As I stated in my response to the member’s previous question on this issue, work is underway on this and other important elements of the Islands Act. As the member will know, Parliament provided statutory timescales for two important elements of the Islands Act: Development of the national islands plan; and the establishment of a scheme to consider new power requests, which need to be our priority. However, as I discussed with the Island authorities at the Islands Steering Group, when we met on 4 October, it is our intention to work with them to develop the mechanism and guidance for the Island Communities Impact Assessments (which are defined by section 8 of the Act) as soon as is possible with the intention of bringing them into use in 2019.