Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is considering the approach to publication of the strategic framework and plan for the early learning and school age childcare profession in light of the new childcare commitments included in the Programme for Government 2023-24 and will provide an update in due course.

We are continuing to work with the Framework Steering Group and other partners to support delivery of the actions developed as part of the original plan. We have, for example, already developed a range of new learning resources, implemented a Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) fee waiver, released new mental health and wellbeing resources for the workforce and will shortly launch a new national portal for professional learning.

We are also continuing to support the profession by providing local authorities with an additional £16 million to deliver the Programme for Government commitment to increase pay to £12 per hour for staff in the Private Voluntary and Independent (PVI) sector who are delivering funded early learning and childcare from April 2024. This demonstrates our commitment to the Fair Work agenda, as we remain the only part of the UK to pay ELC staff in the PVI sector the real Living Wage.

It is not the case that 10% of children are not registered to receive their entitlement to funded early learning and childcare (ELC). The 2023 ELC Census showed an estimated uptake rate of 97% for eligible three and four year olds, and an uptake rate of 52% for eligible 2 year olds. Improvement Service data from September 2023 showed that 98% of children registered for funded ELC were reported to be accessing more than 600 hours, and 90% of registered children were accessing the full 1140 funded hours. This is not the same as 10% of children not being registered for funded ELC.

Families are not required to use the full 1140 entitlement. A 2022 parent survey found that when families were not using their full entitlement, this was often through choice. Typically, they did not need or want the full entitlement, or decided they did not wish to put their child in nursery for so many hours. However, around a fifth of those not using the full entitlement said they could not get the sessions they wanted at their preferred setting. We continue to work with local authorities to ensure that funded ELC hours are flexible and accessible to families.

The Care Inspectorate publishes annual statistics on the number of childminders operating in Scotland. The following table summarises published Care Inspectorate data from the last 10 years. The figure for 2023 is expected to be published in the autumn of 2024.

My officials and I continue to engage with relevant parties to inform decisions on future college governance arrangements in the Lanarkshire and Glasgow regions.

I met last month with the chair of the Lanarkshire Regional College Board.

Next week I am seeking to meet with the Principals and Chairs of the three Glasgow colleges.

I would hope to make an announcement in both cases, shortly .

The Scottish Government recognises the important role Active Play has in providing children with the opportunity to develop physical skills in their early years and to encourage a long-term relationship with physical activity. The Active Play Development Project continues to have a positive impact for children, with the delivery of high quality Active Play experiences and resources across three local authority areas Glasgow, Highland and North Ayrshire.

Enjoyment in Active Play has been one of the biggest drivers for children’s participation, because of this fun and inclusive approach, children are more motivated and confident to be physically active. There are currently 1213 children directly participating in the programme in a range of settings and the reach continues to grow as learning from year one of the project is built upon.

Scottish Government have committed to ensure that sportscotland’s Active Schools programme is free for all children and young people by the end of this Parliament. While there are still a small number of cases where charging remains, it is not currently possible to determine how many children this applies to.

The Active Schools Network consists of over 400 Active Schools managers and coordinators working with schools. This means that every state school in Scotland is supported by an Active Schools coordinator dedicated to developing and supporting the delivery of quality sporting opportunities for children and young people.

Data published by sportscotland in 2023 shows significantly increased participation levels across the past academic year (2022-23), with over 4.6 million visits (a rise of 34% on 2021-22) made to almost 247,000 Active Schools sessions. The number of Active Schools participants (over 269,000 children and young people), deliverers (over 17,900 with 90% of those being volunteers), and school/club links (over 2,500) also increased from the previous academic year as the recovery from the pandemic continued.

The Scottish Government will publish the International Communications Framework before the summer recess.

Following a comprehensive consultation process, the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan will be published by Summer 2024. Following an extensive consultation process on the draft strategy, we are engaging with key stakeholders as we work towards publication.

The Creative Digital Initiative was a £1 million national programme which ran from April 2021 to the end of March 2022 to help the sector develop digital capabilities in response to the limitations imposed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Led by Creative Scotland and involving all the national enterprise and skills agencies as well as the Scottish Government, the programme provided support to small and medium-sized creative and cultural businesses to help them continue to build their digital capacity and provide the tools needed to respond to the limitations they currently face. This included financial support to build digital capacity as well as practical help to increase confidence, provide new creative opportunities and mentor artists and cultural organisations.

As stated in our Culture Strategy Action Plan, enabling the creative workforce to keep pace with continuing digital innovation is a priority. We will consider learning from the Creative Digital Initiative to support the development of a skilled and resilient creative workforce and meet the needs of the future.

There could be a number of contributing factors relating to the differences of recorded Additional Support Needs (ASN) data between ELC and schools.

The 34% of learners who were recorded as requiring additional support in the 2022 pupil census represents a cohort of learners who have spent a longer period of time in primary, secondary and special school settings compared to ELC. The length of time children and young people spend in primary, secondary and special school settings combined with their individual stage of development, strengths, areas of need and circumstances provides increased opportunities to identify, understand and record their needs. It is therefore highly likely that there will be a higher incidence of reporting in school settings compared to ELC settings.

An additional support need can arise for any reason and may not be permanent. There is a wide spectrum of support that may be needed, from support to overcome barriers arising from health or disability, to support for social and emotional reasons. In addition, the factors which give rise to additional support are often interconnected. Children and young people may also have more than one type of additional need that has been identified over a period of time in primary and secondary settings. This means that the total percentage for ASN categories does not equal the sum of individual types of additional support needs.

Identifying additional support needs in young children should be a holistic and collaborative approach that is centred around the child. It usually takes place over a period of time, to take cognisance of the child’s individual stage of development, strengths, areas of need and circumstances. It should involve the gathering of information from varied sources in order to identify their needs and to suggest appropriate interventions, support and planning. This can include consultation which actively involves educators, parents/carers, the child and other agencies. This is often not achievable until primary or secondary school, and is another factor that is reflected in the differences in recorded statistics.