Question reference: S5W-36130
- Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Date lodged: 11 March 2021
-
Current status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 March 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-24895 by Maree Todd on 23 September 2019, how many of the eligible population it estimates to be two-years-old; whether it will provide an update on the take-up among this cohort; how this compares to the targets set in August 2020, and how it is being measured.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not have access to the full UK Government administrative data required to provide a definitive figure for the number of eligible two year olds in Scotland.
Using October 2016 data from HMRC, it was estimated that there were around 14,500 eligible 2 year olds in Scotland.
Take up of the offer is reported in 2 main sources. Both of these are snapshots of data taken at a point in time:
Schools in Scotland, Summary Statistics reports on number of registrations for funded ELC (regardless of number of hours) during ‘census week’.
The latest publication, from December 2020 ( Schools in Scotland - summary statistics: 2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) , showed there were 4,863 registrations for 2 year olds during the week 14-18 September 2020.
Delivery Progress Reports published by the Improvement Service, provide information on the numbers of children accessing more than 600 hours of funded ELC a year at the time of reporting. The last Delivery Progress Report was published in September 2020 ( Early Learning and Childcare Expansion Delivery Progress Report, Sept 2020 (improvementservice.org.uk) . It showed:
- The number of 2-year-olds reported to be receiving funded ELC in August 2020 was 4,866 children.
- 4,172 of these children (86%) were reported to be accessing more than the statutory 600 funded hours, and 2,865 children (59%) were reported to be accessing 1140 funded hours.
Previous reports have considered uptake against local authority forecasts for the relevant period. However, due to the impact of the pandemic these forecasts are no longer relevant, and refreshed forecasts are being developed. These will reflect the change to local delivery circumstance due to the pandemic, and the reintroduction of the statutory duty to secure 1140 hours of ELC for eligible children in August 2021.
Refreshed forecasts, and progress against these, will be published as part of regular reporting on delivery by the Improvement Service.