Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government uses a range of approaches to assess the needs of non-working parents.

We develop our own evidence in this area. A key example is an evidence paper which was produced to inform the 2012 Women's Employment Summit. The paper focuses on women's labour market experience but covers issues which are of importance to non-working parents generally. The paper provides a comprehensive overview of the evidence on key issues related to women's employment and highlights that accessible, affordable and flexible childcare is fundamental to participation in work and training. The paper is available at:

http://www.employabilityinscotland.com/media/294295/8_-__women_s_employment_summit_evidence_paper.pdf

Evidence is also drawn from Scottish Government survey data. For example, in the Sweep 1 Growing Up In Scotland survey over half of unemployed respondents indicated they would prefer to work or study if they could afford good quality, reliable and convenient childcare.

In addition, the Scottish Government makes use of analysis of the Annual Population Survey and Labour Force Survey, published by the Office for National Statistics, when considering issues related to employability.

There are a number of ways in which the Bill is expected to benefit women. Amongst other things, the Bill will require public bodies to consider how their procurement activity can improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of the authority’s area. It will require bodies to consider including community benefit clauses in all new major public sector contracts. These enable public bodies to maximise social benefits from public spending and are increasingly used in public contracts to advance equality of opportunity and deliver thousands of targeted training and recruitment opportunities. The Scottish Government has commissioned further research into community benefit clauses with a particular focus on using them to promote equality.

The Bill will allow ministers to issue statutory guidance on workforce related matters, such as a company’s approach to recruitment and terms of engagement, including flexible working which should be considered when assessing the suitability of a company to bid for public contracts. The guidance will require purchasers to consider, where relevant to performance of the contract, whether matters such as inappropriate use of zero hours contracts or levels of remuneration may affect the bidder’s ability to provide the required quality of service.

The Scottish Government is committed to fully funding local authorities to deliver high quality childcare provision, drawing on a range of high quality service models including public provision, child minders, innovative third sector organisations and social enterprises.

In September 2013, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth announced in the Draft Budget £190 million of investment over the next two years to implement the commitments set out in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill.

On 7 January 2014, the First Minister announced an additional investment of £59 million over 2014-15 and 2015-16 to extend provision of childcare to 15% of two year olds in 2014-15 and then to 27% of two year olds in 2015-16.

In addition, on 8 January 2014 the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth announced £3.5 million of additional support which will be provided in 2014-15 to meet extra demand for childcare places. This funding will be invested in training and development.

As a Non-Departmental Public Body, ministers and government officials meet regularly with representatives of the Scottish Social Services Council to discuss their statutory functions and delivery of ministerial objectives.

Governments of an independent Scotland will be able to use a full range of powers to deliver policies that help people into work and protect the vulnerable.

On independence, the entitlements to benefits, credits, vouchers and reliefs that apply in the UK will continue to apply in Scotland, with such benefits continuing to be paid in exactly the same way as they are now. However, future Scottish governments can choose to do things differently from the rest of the UK. For example, this government will stop the damaging changes to our welfare system being introduced by Westminster, including scrapping the “bedroom tax” and halting the roll out of universal credit.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) publish bi-annual statistics on provisional awards for child tax credit, available at link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/child-and-working-tax-credits-statistics-provisional-awards-geographical-analyses-december-2013.

HMRC also publish information relating to the value of childcare vouchers through Employer Supported Childcare in the Tax Ready Reckoner and Tax Relief supplementary document:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/expenditures/table1-5.pdf.

The Annual Population Survey provides the preferred measure for detailed labour market information for subsets of the population in Scotland. The latest data covers the period from October 2012 to September 2013.

Female economic inactivity rate by qualification

Source: Annual Population Survey, October 2012 to September 2013, Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. Rates based on female population aged 16-64

2. Rates are calculated on unrounded figures

3. Rates for all excludes those who didn’t know or didn’t answer

At 69.5%, the level of female employment is at its highest rate since the Labour Force Survey series began in 1992. (source, Labour Force Survey, ONS, Sept-Nov 2013). However, the Scottish Government recognises that women continue to face many different barriers accessing, retaining and progressing in employment.

Attendees at the Women’s Employment Summit in September 2012 identified a number of key challenges, including childcare; support for women setting up their own enterprise; flexible working; the particular challenges of rural living; and occupational segregation.

Since the event, action has been taken across these areas, and is monitored through the Advisory Group on Women and Work Chaired by Angela Constance

Actions include:

Child care: We are increasing the level of funded early learning and childcare from 475 hours to 600 hours per year, for three and four year olds, and the most vulnerable two year olds, and from 2014. We will extend our childcare offer of 600 hours per year to two year olds in workless households from 2014, and to two year olds who would be eligible for free school meals from 2015.Enterprise: following a series of seminars chaired by Professor Sara Carter of Strathclyde University and Jackie Brierton of Women in Enterprise Scotland, a draft framework for action by Scottish Government and partners has been produced and will be published in Spring this year.

Careerwise: A £250,000 fund which will see the Scottish Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology to work collaboratively with employers, schools, colleges, universities and Skills Development Scotland to encourage and support young women into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths learning and jobs.

Training:We are keen to test the impact of an offer of childcare support on uptake of training by women, particularly in non-traditional sectors. Through the Energy Skills Challenge Fund which offers ‘transition training’ to up-skill those with relevant transferable skills and experience, 2 of the 9 providers this year are specifically targeting women for their courses. These are:

Fife College who have commenced training and are contracted to deliver 168 places. Fife College are specifically marketing and targeting women.

Opito, who are contracted to deliver 331 places, which will include 50 places specifically being offered to women though a four day awareness course on the realities of the oil and gas industry and details of the training available through the challenge fund. The course and training is due to run in March 2014.

Both providers will pilot offering childcare expenses as an incentive to increase the number of women taking up this provision it is important women can access training offer of childcare;

Research: Understanding the evidence we have around women’s employment was a key issue identified at the summit. Professor Patricia Findlay of Strathclyde University has chaired a small group which produced and published on the Scottish employability website:-www.employabilityinscotland.com.

An updated Women’s Employment Summit Evidence Paper, a database of sources for women’s labour market information, alongside a guide to data sources and a thematic guide to data sources, short summary review of evidence papers and a list of women’s employment support networks and resources

In ‘Scotland’s Future’ we set out further actions we will take if elected in an independent Scotland which would offer more support to women and families accessing the labour market. This includes the introduction of a universal childcare system, a fair pay commission, action to increase the number of women on public and corporate boards and promotion of a living wage.

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) provides information about the levels, distribution and make-up of earnings and hours worked for employees in all industries and occupations. The information requested is available from the ‘Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2013 Provisional Results’ Office for National Statistics’ publication:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/ashe/annual-survey-of-hours-and-earnings/2013-provisional-results/index.html

Estimates of median gross weekly earnings by gender, part-time status and region are available in the zip file ‘ASHE 2013 (provisional) Table 25-Region by Public and Private Sector’ at the following page:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-328216

Within this set of tables, Table 25.1a gives data on Weekly pay-Gross (£). For female part-time employee jobs: United Kingdom, 2013.