Chamber and committees

We estimate the eligible population to be around 14,000 children each year, based on population projections published by NRS and the eligibility criteria for the two year old offer. The Scottish Government does not have access to the full UK Government administrative data required to have a definitive figure for the number of eligible two year olds in Scotland.

The Improvement Service report published in July 2019 showed that local authorities are currently forecasting that 8,707 two year olds will access more than 600 hours of funded ELC by April 2021 – representing around 60% of the estimated eligible population. These are forecasts based on the best available information. Uptake of the funded ELC offer for eligible 2 year olds will of course depend on parental choice.

Local authorities are working in a variety of ways to increase awareness and uptake of funded ELC by eligible 2 year olds locally, working through a range of professionals and services who come into contact with potentially eligible families. My answers to S5W-24894 and S5W-24889 describe more of the work underway national and locally to help raise awareness and uptake.

The Scottish Government received the Early Learning and Childcare Expansion Delivery Report from the Improvement Service on 17 June 2019. It was discussed by the Joint Delivery Board on 25 June 2019.

The Early Learning and Childcare Practicum is a 12 month programme supporting 9 multi-agency Local Authority teams to use improvement methodology to increase awareness and uptake of the two-year-old funded offer, and to better understand the current barriers faced by families accessing the offer of funded ELC. The Scottish Government has been working with the Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative to support these 9 teams since September 2018.

The Practicum teams have used improvement methodology to identify practical changes that can help increase awareness and uptake of funded ELC amongst eligible families – for example improving the application process; upskilling staff; changing established practice across and within agencies; and providing additional support to parents/carers.

The Practicum will conclude later this month with a Celebration Event where each of the 9 teams will share their learning with colleagues from across their local authorities and Scottish Government. The Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative Improvement Advisors will then help to share change ideas that have successfully demonstrated improvements with all 32 local authorities, and offer further support to test in local areas and move to scale. We will also share learning from the Practicum at the Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative annual Learning Session in November, and through the dedicated ELC Knowledge Hub space for local authorities.

Trusted professionals play a crucial role in raising awareness and uptake of funded early learning and childcare by eligible two year olds – especially where families are new to early learning and childcare.

We are working with partners with a remit around health, child poverty and parenting to raise awareness of the two year old offer amongst Health Visitors , Social Workers and other professionals who come into contact with families who may be eligible for funded ELC, for example through attending at sector events and highlighting the ELC offer in publications. Early Learning and Childcare is included as a topic that can be discussed at the Child Health Development reviews in the Universal Health Visiting Pathway. We have also created a toolkit of useful materials to help partners share information about ELC in the way that best suits their sector. This includes advice on language; FAQs; and materials for local dissemination.

We are increasing national resources and advice, so that trusted professionals can signpost families to find out more about funded ELC for 2 year olds. Our new ELC hub on Parent Club is designed for parents and carers and those working with them. We also publish and disseminate leaflets through a range of routes to reach families and trusted professionals – for example Book Bug, libraries and ELC settings.

The ELC offer and application process for eligible 2 year olds vary by individual council area, so local authorities’ information and communication about what is available locally for eligible 2 year olds and how to access the offer is very important. The Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative (CYPIC) ELC Practicum is looking at how to improve uptake and awareness in 9 local authority areas, and participants will share their learning with other local authorities later in the year. Local authority colleagues are also using the dedicated ELC Knowledge Hub space to share learning and resources.

The Scottish Government, COSLA, local authorities and sector organisations are working hard to increase awareness and uptake of the funded offer for 2 year olds, so that more children are able to benefit from high quality funded ELC at an earlier age. At a national level we are:

• working with the UK Government and UK Parliament to secure a legal gateway and data sharing agreement so that local authorities in Scotland can access accurate information about their eligible populations. This will help local authorities identify and promote the offer to families who are likely to be eligible;
• improving the information available to parents and carers to help them make informed decisions about ELC, for example through our new ELC Hub on Parent Club and information leaflets in BookBug bags for all 1 year olds;
• looking for opportunities to promote the offer through other services such as the 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; and
• working with the Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative (CYPIC) to support 9 multi-agency Local Authority teams to use improvement methodology to address barriers to uptake of the offer, increase awareness and uptake of the 2 year old offer in their areas, and to share their learning with other local authorities.

The Scottish Government and local government reached a multi-year funding package to enable the near doubling of the statutory entitlement to funded early learning and childcare from 600 to 1140 hours each for all 3 and 4 year olds and eligible 2 year olds from August 2020. Our funding agreement includes the resources sufficient to deliver the welcome commitment from local authorities to nearly doubling the uptake of funded early learning and childcare among eligible 2 year olds in 2021-22.

The recent ELC Delivery Progress Report published by the Improvement Service showed that over 2,000 2 year olds are already accessing more than 600 hours of funded ELC as a result of early phasing. Local authorities are working hard to reach their forecast uptake levels in 2021-22 through raising awareness and uptake locally, supported by the national actions described in my answer to S5W 24894 on 23 September 2019.

Having the same access to UK Government administrative data about potentially eligible households as English local authorities will make a real difference to Scottish local authorities’ ability to promote the 2 year old funded early learning and childcare offer. We continue to work with the UK Government to secure the necessary legal data-sharing gateway, in line with UK Parliament timescales.

It is of course for families to choose whether they wish to take up some or all of their child’s entitlement to funded early learning and childcare – it is an offer rather than a mandatory requirement, and families must be allowed to make the best decision for their child. We are working with our partners to ensure that all families with eligible children are aware of the offer and the benefits of funded ELC, so they can make an informed choice for their family.

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

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-24897 on 23 September 2019. 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 Early Learning and Childcare Expansion Delivery Progress Report published in August 2019, which uses data collected by the Improvement Service from local authorities in June 2019, provides a national level overview of progress in delivering the expansion.

The Scottish Government has no plans to place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre information a breakdown of the figures or narrative provided by individual local authorities.

We know that high quality early learning and childcare can play an important role in reducing the poverty related attainment gap. We have dedicated funding for 435 equity and excellent leads to work in all 32 local authorities with a focus on improving outcomes for children in the most deprived areas of Scotland.

Local authorities have reported that 92% of these posts have now been filled (398.5 full time equivalent posts).

Some posts have taken longer to recruit for than anticipated. This is partly because these roles can be very specialised and many local authorities have included additional criteria to ensure the most suitable, highly qualified candidates are in place to support children experiencing disadvantage.

With 92% of these posts filled, the Scottish Government is continuing to work closely with local authorities to fill the remaining 8% of posts by monitoring progress on a regular basis.