Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37806 on 4 June 2025.

The Care Inspectorate report data publicly on their Data Store which may be able to assist with this question or alternatively the Care Inspectorate could be approached directly for a response.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37806 on 4 June 2025.

The Care Inspectorate report data publicly on their Data Store which may be able to assist with this question or alternatively the Care Inspectorate could be approached directly for a response.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37806 on 4 June 2025.

The Care Inspectorate report data publicly on their Data Store which may be able to assist with this question or alternatively the Care Inspectorate could be approached directly for a response.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government.

The Care Inspectorate report data publicly on their Data Store which may be able to assist with this question or alternatively the Care Inspectorate could be approached directly for a response.

Access to NHS treatment is based on clinical need, however we recognise that service children should not be disadvantaged when accessing the NHS as a result of their parent’s service in the Armed Forces.

We regularly communicate the Covenant legal duty and paying ‘due regard’ to all NHS Boards via the NHS Armed Forces and Veterans Champions, who are responsible for ensuring its implementation.

Additionally, the General Practice Armed Forces and Veterans Recognition Scheme aims to raise awareness of the health challenges that veterans and Armed Forces families face as a result of military service.

I regularly meet with youth organisations such as Youth Scotland, YouthLink Scotland and Scottish Youth Parliament.

The First Minister of Scotland and other Scottish Minister’s also regularly meet with youth organisations. This includes a summit on 12 June attended by the First Minister of Scotland that brought together experts and grassroots youth organisations to discuss how to tackle youth violence.

Information on Ministerial engagements is published on the Scottish Government website and can be found at: www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/. The engagements are published three months in arrears.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many providers have withdrawn from offering funded early learning and childcare (ELC), or their reasons for doing so.

Information on the number of private, and third sector childcare services delivering funded ELC in each local authority in September each year is captured through the ELC census. This information is published as part of the Summary Statistics for Schools and is available in Table 1 of the Additional early learning and childcare statistics spreadsheet. It is important to note that there may currently be additional services delivering funded ELC that were not doing so at the time of the Census. Table 1 also includes information on the share of ELC registrations that were in private and third sector services (Partnership Centres) in each year.

Table: Number of Partnership Centres (private and third sector services) providing funded ELC

The information requested is not held centrally. The Scottish Government does not collect or hold data about the condition of early learning and childcare (ELC) settings. Owners and managers are responsible for building management and for ensuring the safety of their premises. Statutory requirements for the fitness of premises to be used for the provision of ELC are set out in Section 10 of The Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (Requirements for Care Services) Regulations 2011.

Many parts of the childcare sector operate under a mixed economy model where they receive income from different sources, including directly from their local authority to support the delivery of funded early learning and childcare (ELC). For example, the 2023 Financial Sustainability Health Check reported that public funding accounted for, on average, around 46% of overall income for private childcare services who delivered funded ELC.

The payment of sustainable rates to providers delivering funded ELC is vital to the financial sustainability of these providers.

This is why the Scottish Government and COSLA undertook a joint Sustainable Rates Review in 2023. Through evidence from providers and local authorities, it identified a risk that some providers were not being as effectively supported as others by rates at the time of the review.

To address this, work is underway to improve the data available to inform funded ELC rates-setting by local authorities. The Scottish Government has contracted the Diffley Partnership to undertake a new funded ELC cost survey. The findings will inform future sustainable rates-setting and the Scottish Government and COSLA’s future financial planning.

While work is underway to improve rates-setting processes, the childcare sector in Scotland has been impacted significantly by the UK Government’s unilateral changes to employer National Insurance Contributions. We estimate that these changes will add £5 million per year to funded providers’ costs for the delivery of funded ELC (with higher additional costs expected for the whole of the childcare sector).

The Scottish Government called on the Chancellor to fund these costs in full, including the costs for commissioned services such as ELC, but she has failed to do so. The additional funding of £339 million being provided by the UK Government falls far short of the estimated additional costs and means that public services in Scotland still face a £400 million shortfall.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-38244 on 17 June 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/questions-and-answers.