Chamber and committees

Each local authority has developed an expansion plan which sets out how they intend to deliver the funded entitlement to 1140 hours in their communities by August 2020 in a way which best reflects local needs, which will include a phasing plan which supports full roll out from August 2020.

Local authorities have flexibility to determine the most appropriate way to phase entitlement in their local area as they build capacity. The expansion planning guidance issued to local authorities in March 2017 requires local authorities to evidence consideration of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation in their phasing plans to ensure that the families and communities who stand to benefit most from the expansion benefit first.

Where funded providers in the private and third sectors, including independent schools, provide early learning and childcare to these communities, the Scottish Government expects that local authorities will involve these providers in early phasing of the entitlement and authorities are already doing so. It is for local authorities to determine when and how to phase out entitlement beyond this, but we would expect providers of all types to be involved in phasing plans.

From August 2020, all parents will be able to choose to access their child’s entitlement from any setting in any sector which meets the National Standard, has a place available and is willing to enter a contract with their local authority.

The Funding Follows the Child approach enables parents and carers to make informed choices about where they want their child to access their funded entitlement to early learning and childcare. It is underpinned by a ‘provider neutral’ approach which allows parents and carers to access their child’s entitlement from any provider – regardless of whether they are in the public, private or third sectors, including childminders – if the setting meets the National Standard, has a place available and is willing to enter into a contract with the local authority.

The Scottish Government is undertaking a series of engagement events to support local authorities and providers, including childminders, through the transition to Funding Follows the Child. In addition, we will hold a childminding summit in March 2019 to promote greater positive partnership working between local authorities and childminders and showcase existing good practice across Scotland.

The National Standard and details of the Funding Follows the Child approach have been agreed by Scottish Ministers and COSLA Leaders and so will be implemented in full by every local authority in Scotland.

The Early Learning and Childcare Joint Delivery Board, which is co-chaired by the Minister for Children and Young People and the COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People, is responsible for overseeing delivery of the expansion including implementation of Funding Follows the Child.

Data relating to 2018 is not currently available.

There was a 4% reduction (243 services) in the number of childminders registered with the Care Inspectorate between end of 2016 and end of 2017, as reported in Early Learning and Childcare Statistics 2017 which is available at http://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/publications-statistics/19-public/statistics .

Only 2.5% of the reduction in childminding services between 2016 and 2017 was due to the drop in the number of inactive childminders, which equates to a drop of 6 inactive childminders.

The Scottish Government has no plans to ask authorities to provide details of the revenue cost per child per hour for local authority run early learning and childcare services.

Scottish Ministers provided details of individual authority funding allocations in the answer to S5W-16649 on 31 May 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 .

Scottish Ministers and COSLA Leaders have agreed that the revenue funding package to support delivery of the expansion of early learning and childcare will be subject to an annual review to provide assurance to both parties that the funding package reflects the costs of delivery and actual uptake.

The Scottish Government commissioned a financial review of the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) sector in 2016. This provided a detailed breakdown of the costs of delivering ELC in local authority, private partner and voluntary settings across Scotland.

The report included information on the unit cost per hour of delivering ELC in local authority settings, broken down into five categories of revenue expenditure.

The report was published on the Scottish Government website and can be accessed at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/financial-review-early-learning-childcare-scotland-current-landscape/

All settings wishing to become a funded provider in Scotland will be assessed against the same National Standard criteria. Local authorities cannot add to or amend these criteria.

We are creating the mechanisms for sharing good practice partnership working between local authorities and providers.

The ELC Partnership Forum established in October 2018 will drive action and promote more meaningful partnership working across the ELC sector. The Forum, which has already met twice and will hold its third meeting in February 2019, brings together providers and local authorities to share best practice along with exploring new ideas and perspectives. The group will also play a key role in identifying and proposing solutions to specific issues raised by providers and/or local authorities. We plan to use this forum in a meaningful, strategic and constructive way to support implementation of this approach.

We have also committed to holding a Partnership Summit in early summer to bring together providers and local authorities to showcase good practice partnership working.

We are also increasing our use of the ELC Knowledge Hub, a web-based sharing portal (where all papers and minutes from the Partnership Forum are publicly available), and drawing on good practice from authorities where partnership working is stronger. We are working with COSLA and delivery partners to build on this to promote good practice in partnership working, including the development of case studies.

The Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) census includes information on children under 3 who are registered for funded provision. The data from the 2018 census reported 539 registrations for children aged under 2, and 5,701 registrations for 2 year olds (which accounts for around 10% of all 2 year olds living in Scotland). These figures exclude children registered with childminders for their funded entitlement.

The ELC Data Transformation Project will improve the robustness of the census data in a number of different ways, including providing an individual child level collection to overcome some of the limitations of the current census data. Further information on the ELC Data Transformation Project is available on the Scottish Government website at: https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Children/ELCData/ELCDTP .

Families will be able to access high quality funded ELC with the provider of their choice if that provider meets the criteria set out in the National Standard, wishes to deliver the funded entitlement, has a space available, and is willing to enter into a contract with the local authority.

The new ‘provider neutral’ Funding Follows the Child approach places power in parents’ and carers’ hands and allows them to access their child’s entitlement at any setting, regardless of whether they are in the public, private or third sector, including childminders.

As set out in our Delivery Support Plan for Providers, published on 19 December, we are encouraging local authorities to provide immediate support to funded providers by utilising the final £6 million revenue to be allocated in 2018-19 to support funded providers.

We wrote to local authorities on 2 November 2018 to highlight that authorities may wish to use this funding to provide training or business support, or to offer grants to providers and that they should consider consulting with providers on the use of the funding.

As set out in the letter we will request an update from local authorities at the end of the 2018-19 financial year on the actions that they have taken to support providers, including information on the hourly rates being offered.