About the Inquiry
Background
The Committee has held a number of informal and formal sessions on early years, in the main focusing on the work towards the expansion of early years provision to provide 1140 hours of funded childcare by 2020.
A link to the work the Committee undertook on early years provision in 2016 and 2017 is here.
Evidence
2020
9 December 2020
The Committee heard evidence from the Minister for Children and Young People on funded childcare.
You can view the video of the meeting here.
The Minister for Children and Young People wrote to the Committee ahead of the meeting on 9 December 2020 to give an update on various early years and childcare issues. You can read the letter below
Before this meeting, the Committee held an informal focus group with childcare providers. The clerks have prepared a brief overview note of these discussions, which helped to inform the meeting with the Minister.
The Convener wrote to the Minister for Children and Young People following u the evidence session. You can read the from the Convener and the response from Scottish Government below
The Committee received a letter from the Public Audit and Post Legislative Scrutiny Committee, regarding Audit Scotland report on Early Learning and Childcare. The letter and a link to the report is noted below.
Evidence
The Committee received the following submissions in respect of the funded childcare session.
2018
21 March 2018
The Committee heard from the Minister for Early Years and Childcare and from the Auditor General for Scotland in respect of early learning and childcare.
The Auditor General wrote to the Convener with additional information regarding a breakdown of staffing and local authority projections in respect of the expansion of funded childcare.
The Committee wrote to the Minister for Early Years and Childcare with additional questions following the meeting on the 21 March 2018.
29 October 2018
Rutherglen fact finding visit.
The Committee visited Rutherglen on 29 October to focus on funded childcare. This included a visit to a nursery involved in the 1140 hours pilot scheme.
A background paper was produced for the visit.
The notes from the focus group notes from the Rutheglen visit are below.
A summary of Committee’s evidence from the Auditor General and the Minister for Children and Young People from earlier this year is noted below.
Correspondence
2019
The Convener wrote to the Minister for Children and Young People for information regarding the rates for partner providers in the expanded Early Learning and Childcare funded hours.
The Minister for Children and Young People wrote to the Convener enclosing a progress report on the Early Learning and Childcare Expansion.
2018
The Minister for Childcare and Early Years wrote to the Convener regarding the service model consultation.
The Minister for Childcare and Early Years wrote to the Convener with an update on the blueprint for the expansion of Early Years and Childcare.
The Minister for Childcare and Early Years wrote to the Convener regarding the publication of the evaluation of the Early Learning and Childcare expansion delivery trials. A link to the published evaluation is here.
The Convener wrote to the Minister for Children and Young People enclosing the focus group notes from Rutherglen on the funded childcare expansion.
The Minister for Children and Young People wrote to Convener to respond to the letter of the 16 November 2018 and to enclose further information from the Care Inspectorate.
The Minister for Children and Young People wrote to Convener regarding the publication of the 'Funding follows the Child Approach and the National Standard for all early learning and childcare providers.