Chamber and committees

The Children and Young People Act 2014 made up to 600 hours of funded early learning and childcare (ELC) per year available for all 3 and 4 year olds and extended funded ELC to around a quarter of 2 year olds; those we believe will benefit most . From August 2020 the Scottish Government will almost double the ELC entitlement to up to 1140 hours per year; a total average estimated saving of £4,500 per child a year.

Our multi-year funding package will see annual revenue investment in early learning and childcare reach around £990 million by 2021-22. Local authorities are already starting to “phase in” the expanded offer. Over 11,000 2 to 5 year olds are already benefitting from more than 600 hours of funded early learning and childcare.

In addition to the funded entitlement to early learning and childcare, the Scottish Government funds specific projects aimed at reducing childcare costs, including the Social Innovation Partnership’s One Parent Families Scotland flexible childcare service in Dundee and TASK’s Family and Childcare service in the Gorbals.

Parents and carers can also access support with childcare costs through the UK welfare system – for example through Universal Credit or Tax-Free Childcare. More information is available on the mygov.scot website (https://www.mygov.scot/childcare-costs-help/other-help-with-childcare-costs/).

Consideration is currently being given to whether there is a need to review the Gender Reassignment Protocol and if so, how to progress this work.

Scottish Government holds no contracts with Allen Construction and has no record of any previous contracts.

Through our range of devolved employability programmes, the Scottish Government is keen to support anyone who wants to work and who is able to work to secure meaningful employment. Those eligible for support can engage with our employability programmes, including Fair Start Scotland, without fear of sanctions or penalty.

Funded early learning and childcare is available to around a quarter of 2 year olds and all 3 and 4 years olds (from the relevant start date). The eligibility criteria for 2 year olds includes having a parent that is in receipt of certain benefits. If a parent’s circumstances change after a child takes up a place, e.g. if they lose access to benefits, the child remains eligible and will not lose their place. Local authorities also have discretion to provide access to funded ELC to children who do not meet the eligibility criteria.

Over 11,000 children are already benefitting from access to more than 600 hours. We estimate that the full ELC entitlement will save families over £4,500 per child per year.

Out of work benefits, such as Universal Credit and Child Tax Credits remain the responsibility of the UK Government. Our 6th Welfare Reform Report on 1 October 2018 showed welfare spending will be reduced in Scotland by £3.7 billion in 2020-21.

The Scottish Government expects to spend £127 million in 2018-19 on welfare mitigation and measures to help protect those on low incomes. This includes £38 million on the Scottish Welfare Fund and £63.1 million on Discretionary Housing Payments.

We are using our new social security powers to directly support family incomes:

• Delivering the Best Start Grant - providing a payment of £600 on the birth of a first child, and introducing a payment of £300 for second and subsequent children. Including additional payments at key transition points; next year we will also starting delivery of the early years payments of two £250 for under 5s
• Putting an extra £442 a year into over 75,000 carer pockets in 2018-19 through the Carer’s Allowance Supplement which will be uprated in line with inflation;
• In 2019 we are increasing eligibility for Funeral Expenses Allowance and are introducing the new Young Carers Grant and Job Grant.

We also provide a wide range of universal provision, including:

• Free university tuition for eligible students;
• Free prescriptions, saving £8.80 per item, and residential care worth £9,048 per year;
• Free NHS funded eye examinations every two years, or annually for some groups;
• Over £30 million to support delivery of the baby box in this Parliamentary term;
• We provide £54 million to local authorities in 2018-19 to deliver free school meals to all pupils in primaries 1 to 3 at all publicly funded schools;
• More than 133,500 P1 to P3 children are benefitting from free school meals; delivering annual savings for families of around £380 per child;

The Scottish Government has been discussing with public sector partners how the process by which new medicines are considered by the Scottish Medicines Consortium and the role of NHS National Services Scotland can develop to achieve better value for money when new medicines are made available on the NHS. Progress since the end of 2018 has however been slower than the Government first intended, as it has been necessary for officials and NHS partners to devote substantial time to the preparation of medicine supply contingency plans for the eventuality of a no deal UK exit from the EU. The Government hopes that it will be possible in the coming months to resume progress on this important recommendation of the Montgomery Review.

Progress however has also been made in the agreement of a new UK Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access Scheme, which commenced in January 2019. The new scheme introduced provisions that allow the UK Health Administrations to share the details of previously confidential pricing arrangements and also imposes new responsibilities on pharmaceutical companies to achieve comparable arrangements that provide an acceptable value proposition in each part of the UK.

We are expanding the statutory entitlement to funded early learning and childcare (ELC) for all 3 and 4 year olds and eligible 2 year olds to 1140 hours a year from August 2020. Our multi-year funding package will see annual revenue investment in early learning and childcare reach around £990 million by 2022-22.

Our Funding Follows the Child approach will help increase choice and flexibility for parents and carers while ensuring children benefit from high quality provision. All ELC settings delivering the funded entitlement will have to meet our new National Standard from August 2020.

Local authorities are developing their plans for the expansion of ELC and phasing in their new offer, informed by consultation with families. This should see a range of delivery models including more local authority settings opening for longer hours, delivery through funded providers in the private and third sector, including childminders, and options that tie into the school day (or traditional morning/afternoon sessions).

This will build on previous investment to increase flexibility. For example, the Care Inspectorate report that flexibility has increased across the sector since 2014, including continued increases in the flexibility in opening times for daycare of children services.

The ELC Joint Delivery Board, co-chaired by the Minister for Children and Young People and the COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People, oversees progress across all aspects of the 1140 hours expansion. The work of the Board is informed by regular submission of data and intelligence from local authorities on progress with delivery in a number of key areas.

The Board published the first Early Learning and Childcare Delivery Progress Report on 19 December 2018, which can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/early-learning-and-childcare-delivery-progress-report/ . The data for the first period (1 May 2018 to 30 September 2018) shows that over 11,000 children are already benefitting from access to more than 600 hours of ELC, including 1,100 eligible two year olds; exceeding local authority projections. Local authorities are broadly meeting forecasts for delivery progress and remain on track to deliver. The next progress report for the period 1 October 2018 to 30 April 2019 is expected to be published in Summer 2019.

The Scottish Government welcomes publication of the First Minister's National Advisory Council on Women and Girl's (NACWG) first end of year report on 25 January 2019. We will give the NACWG's recommendations full and careful consideration before publishing a substantive response in late Spring 2019.