Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognises that childcare costs can be a challenge for many parents and carers, particularly those experiencing poverty. Data from the nationally-representative Scottish Household Survey in 2022 showed that of households with at least one child aged 0-11 years 14% found it difficult or very difficult to afford childcare, although 53% of households found it very easy or easy. Across the full year, almost three quarters of households (73%) had no childcare costs, with around a fifth (19%) spending less than 10% of their average monthly income. A further 5% spent between 10 and 20% of their income on childcare.

The Scottish Government is continuing to invest nearly £1 billion a year in high-quality, funded early learning and childcare. Scotland is the only part of the UK to offer 1,140 hours a year of funded ELC to all three and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds. This offer has been in place since 2021 and, if families paid for this themselves, it would cost them around £5,800 per eligible child per year. We also remain committed to designing and building a system of School Age Childcare that supports parents, particularly on low incomes, to have secure and stable employment. This is why, over the next year, we will work with Local Government and other partners to develop the infrastructure and services needed to provide childcare in specific communities in six local authority areas: Shetland, Fife, Clackmannanshire, Inverclyde, Glasgow and Dundee. This work will enable us to begin to create and test, for the first time, what an all-age childcare system will look like for Scotland. We are taking a person-centred and place-based approach to designing this system – that means involving children, parents and providers in co-designing services to meet their needs.