Question reference: S5W-23485
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 28 May 2019
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Current status: Answered by Maree Todd on 11 June 2019
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how the cost of the day-to-day running of childcare services for private, voluntary and independent sector providers in Aberdeenshire will compare with that for North Lanarkshire by August 2020, and how any variance will impact on future provision.
Answer
From August 2020 all providers in the private and third sector, including childminders, who are delivering the funded early learning and childcare entitlement will receive a sustainable funding rate that reflects the cost of delivery. The funding to enable providers to receive a sustainable rate for delivering the funded entitlement was included as part of the multi-year funding agreement between the Scottish Government and COSLA to fully fund the expansion to 1140 hours. Local authority settlements were informed by detailed local financial planning.
The costs of delivering early learning and childcare will vary across the country, and will reflect local circumstances. In order to ensure that these local circumstances are captured it is for individual local authorities to set hourly rates for providers operating in their areas. Guidance was published on 29 April 2019 to support local authorities to set sustainable rates for providers from August 2020 and is available from: https://www.gov.scot/publications/funding-follows-child-national-standard-early-learning-childcare-providers-guidance-setting-sustainable-rates-august-2020/ .