Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-21012

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what indications it has had from local authorities that the rate of revenue funding for the expansion of funded childcare that they will allocate to private and third sector providers will increase.

The landmark multi-year funding agreement reached by the Scottish Government and COSLA in April 2018 to fully fund the expansion of early learning childcare entitlement to 1140 hours includes funding for the payment of sustainable rates to funded providers from 2020.

All local authority expansion plans reflect significantly increased hourly funding rates for funded early learning and childcare providers by 2020.

Question reference: S5W-20996

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the uptake of 3- to 5-year-olds in funded childcare provision from 1 May to 30 September 2018 being 342 more than forecast, the data in the recent progress report on the expansion of funded childcare including early learning and childcare services from all settings, and the original data forecast including children in high deprivation circumstances, what its position is on whether the expansion has disproportionately focused on the public sector to a higher level than was planned.

Local authorities have flexibility to determine the most appropriate way to phase entitlement in their local area as they build capacity. In considering phasing, authorities should evidence consideration of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation to ensure that the families and communities who stand to benefit most from the expansion benefit first.

Early learning and childcare services in more deprived areas of Scotland are more likely to be provided by local authorities than by private providers. However, where funded providers in the private and third sectors provide early learning and childcare to these communities, the Scottish Government expects local authorities to involve them in early phasing of the entitlement.

Question reference: S5W-20991

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of comments in the recent progress report on the expansion of funded childcare, whether it will provide details of where challenges have been found in “recruiting to some role types”, and what these role types are.

The Early Learning and Childcare Expansion Delivery Progress Report published in December 2018 shows that local authorities remain on track to deliver the capacity required to implement the expansion from August 2020.

Local authorities which encountered recruitment challenges in the period covering 1 May - 30 September 2018 reported some challenges in recruiting to practitioner roles and senior practitioner / head of centre roles. In some areas the timing of the recruitment process and the reporting period means positions expected to be filled soon, have not been reported as filled for this period. The movement of staff to promoted positions and a focus on upskilling current staff has meant less of an impact on overall numbers in the reporting period. We also know local authorities are considering the potential impact that movement of staff from private and third sector settings could have and are seeking to fill posts from internal staff pools working in areas out with Early Learning and Childcare. This shows a holistic approach is being taken but has also resulted in some positions taking longer to fill.

As noted in the published report, for some authorities the number of staff forecast to be recruited has not been required in the period.

Question reference: S5W-20992

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the lower-than-forecasted levels of newly-recruited FTE early learning and childcare staff between 1 May and 30 September 2018 it estimates can be explained by optimism bias.

The Early Learning and Childcare Expansion Delivery Progress Report published in December shows that local authorities remain on track to deliver the capacity required to implement the expansion from August 2020.

The report set out progress against targets which local authorities had estimated would be met at this point in delivery of the expansion. Some local authorities have advised that their assumptions regarding factors such as duration of time required to complete recruitment to some roles may have been subject to optimism bias.

We continue to work closely with local authorities as part of ongoing Programme assurance to ensure that they remain on track to deliver the expansion, overseen by the Joint Delivery Board co-chaired by myself and the COSLA spokesperson for Children and Young People.

Question reference: S5W-20866

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 29 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5O-02782 by Jeane Freeman on 17 January 2019 (Official Report, c. 4), whether it will set out the timetable for the action that it is taking in response to NHS Forth Valley being escalated to stage 3 on the NHS board performance escalation framework; how this work will be monitored, and by what date it expects it to be completed.

We are formally supporting NHS Forth Valley to return the board to a sustainable position of performance against the four-hour target. In order to do this we have appointed an interim site Director to work with the local team for a period of three months up to the end of March 2019. Additionally, the external support team started work with the local team on 14 January, also for a period of three months up to the end of March.

Officials regularly monitor progress and agree priority actions through local governance meetings. An Oversight Group has also been established, which will be chaired by Scottish Government, to review on progress against objectives and against the ladder of escalation. It is anticipated that this intervention will be completed by early Spring 2019 but will be reviewed frequently against progress being made.

Question reference: S5W-20995

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the appropriateness of giving local authorities the freedom to define FTE according to their own classification, as outlined in the recent progress report on the expansion of funded childcare, and what impact inconsistent data collection methods have on the quality of conclusions drawn from the collation of such data.

There is variation in how local authorities define full-time equivalent (FTE) members of staff, as staff are subject to different terms and conditions across local authority areas. For example, the standard contractual hours worked in a week can differ across local authorities. Requiring local authorities to adhere to a standard definition of FTE would therefore not provide a meaningful measure of progress with delivery of the expansion. The approach taken in the Early Learning and Childcare Expansion Delivery Progress Report ensures that data provided by local authorities provides an accurate and consistent progress update against local recruitment needs and this is not negatively impacted by different definitions of FTE across local authorities.

Question reference: S5W-20993

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason data collection in its recent progress report on the expansion of funded childcare was not undertaken in a standard way across all local authorities; what efforts were made to provide guidance to local authorities on its preferred data collection methods, and whether this variation in data collection methods will be addressed in future progress reports.

The Early Learning and Childcare Expansion Delivery Progress Report is based on data returns prepared by local authorities and submitted to the Improvement Service.

As noted in the Progress Report, each local authority was provided with a standard template for submission of progress data, accompanied by a detailed guidance document containing instructions for completing the template and detailed definitions for each indicator. Short descriptions for each indicator are summarised in the Progress Report.

Question reference: S5W-20994

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the appropriateness of collecting data on early learning and childcare services that are providing over 600 hours as the primary method of measuring the progress of the expansion of funded entitlement to 1,140 hours, and whether it has considered breaking this data down further into tiers to gain a more accurate understanding of the current level of provision.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on services providing over 600 hours of Early Learning and Childcare. The data provided by local authorities and presented in the Early Learning and Childcare Expansion Delivery Progress Report relates to the number of children receiving more than 600 hours of funded Early Learning and Childcare across all provider types. This ensures that we are measuring all children receiving an increase in funded hours.

Question reference: S5W-20997

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the average staff to child ratio is in early learning and childcare services in (a) local authority, (b) private and third sector and (c) all settings, also broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S5O-02821

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the minister for parliamentary business will provide an update regarding the lodging of the legislative consent motion for the Healthcare (International Arrangements) Bill.