Chamber and committees

Theresponsibility for planning and delivering pre-school education lies with localauthorities. Authorities need to take population projections into account toensure that there is enough pre-school education provision available in theright areas. Over time this may involve opening new provision and closing othercentres in line with patterns of demand.

The Scottish governmenthas no plans to undertake an investigation into the reasons for the closure ofindividual pre-school education settings.

Statistics onlocal authority spend are not collected on a per child basis. The pre-primaryeducation expenditure figures for 2005-06 (the latest year for which figuresare available) are provided in the following table. Pre-primary educationexpenditure includes expenditure on nursery schools, other under 5s expenditurenot located in primary schools or special schools, childcare services andregistration services.

Pre-primary EducationExpenditure 2005-06 (£000)

Local Authority Area	Gross	Net
Scotland	284,484	267,174
Aberdeen City	8,689	8,608
Aberdeenshire	9,661	9,623
Angus	4,706	4,602
Argyll and Bute	5,252	4,854
Clackmannanshire	3,563	2,900
Dumfries and Galloway	7,592	7,389
Dundee City	8,077	7,384
East Ayrshire	8,824	7,905
East Dunbartonshire	4,776	4,251
East Lothian	5,053	4,472
East Renfrewshire	6,346	5,693
Edinburgh, City of	20,793	19,179
Eilean Siar	1,587	1,474
Falkirk	8,405	7,269
Fife	16,265	15,777
Glasgow City	45,061	43,826
Highland	11,478	9,766
Inverclyde	5,224	5,004
Midlothian	4,855	4,547
Moray	4,035	3,899
North Ayrshire	6,951	6,750
North Lanarkshire	18,916	18,023
Orkney Islands	801	801
Perth and Kinross	5,380	5,155
Renfrewshire	12,625	12,054
Scottish Borders	4,767	4,519
Shetland Islands	1,365	1,329
South Ayrshire	5,403	5,157
South Lanarkshire	13,391	12,191
Stirling	5,934	5,472
West Dunbartonshire	8,255	7,630
West Lothian	10,454	9,671

Source:LFR 1 (Education) returns.

Note:Gross expenditure is the total expenditure. Net expenditure is the grossexpenditure minus any income, for example from grants, fees or charges.

I have asked Angiolina Foster Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

Local authoritiesthat have submitted Standard Delivery Plans (SDPs), setting out how they will achievethe Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS), plan to invest approximately £1.94billion by 2015. This figure is in 2004-05 prices and is based on individual localauthorities’ interpretations of the Standard and assessment of investment needs.

The breakdown of plannedSHQS investment by local authority is as follows:

Local Authority	Total Expenditure to Meet SHQS (£000)
Aberdeen City Council	210,752
Aberdeenshire Council	115,084
Angus Council	10,405
Clackmannanshire Council	15,307
Dundee City Council	133,760
East Ayrshire Council	91,759
East Dunbartonshire Council	38,019
East Lothian Council	131,485
East Renfrewshire Council	40,191
Falkirk Council	124,796
Fife Council	200,420
Midlothian Council	34,534
Moray Council	7,382
North Ayrshire Council	147,474
North Lanarkshire Council	237,317
Orkney Islands Council	5,066
Perth and Kinross Council	53,729
Shetland Islands Council	6,777
South Ayrshire Council	65,712
South Lanarkshire Council	213,000
West Lothian Council	55,350
Total Expenditure	1,941,328

 

Local authoritiesthat have transferred their stock to housing associations (Glasgow, Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders, Eilean Siar and Argyll and Bute),or that are in the process of doing so (Inverclyde) are not required to submit anSDP. Stirling, Renfrewshire, Highland, Edinburgh and West Dunbartonshire Councilsare currently developing their SDPs which will include details of their plannedSHQS related investment.

We are currently consideringhow best to increase public awareness of the national Child Protection Line andwill be discussing proposals with the national working group for this project andwith Child Protection Committees.

The operation of theChild Protection Line is under review and development through a national workinggroup, whose membership includes representatives from Child Protection Committees(including police and social workers) and out-of-hours and phone-based child protectionservice providers. See www.scotland.gov.uk/childprotectionfor further information.

We plan to commissiona rigorous independent evaluation of the service after it has been operational for18 months, in August 2008.

The Independent Reviewof Scrutiny, led by Professor Lorne Crerar, is examining how regulation, audit,inspection and complaints are functioning in Scotland’s public services. The review is developing recommendations for a bettersystem of scrutiny which should reduce the burden of regulation on third sectorbodies which deliver such services.

We support the principlesof the Scottish Compact, which was explicit that Government should apply best practicein funding and in the administration of grants. We support the practice ofthree-year funding for the voluntary sector across the public sector and encouragethe use of longer term funding agreements, where possible, to provide a stable andefficient operating environment for the sector.

Within that context,we are considering what more can be done to enable local authorities and voluntaryorganisations to develop contracts which ensure effective delivery of services whilenot jeopardising the sustainability of the service provider.

We recognise the importantcontribution that third sector bodies can make in delivering public services. Inmany areas they are already substantial suppliers of service. Overall, it is clearthey have capacity to do more and we are considering work to improve commissioningby local authorities and public bodies which should enable third sector bodies toplay their full part.

Voluntary sector employersare independent of government. Staff terms and conditions are a matter for staffand the employer, within the boundaries of employment law.

Voluntary sector organisationsare independent of government.