Chamber and committees

We are currently working closely with delivery partners to take forward a programme of actions to recruit and train the additional high quality and diverse workforce required to deliver the expansion in funded early learning and childcare (ELC) entitlement to 1140 hours by 2020.

To support the first phase of the workforce expansion in 2017-18 we provided local authorities with £21 million additional revenue funding; boosted ELC related capacity in colleges and universities; and increased the number of ELC Modern Apprenticeship by 10%.

We will build on this in 2018-19 with an additional £52 million for local authorities for workforce expansion; providing over 1,700 additional HNC and over 400 additional graduate places; and a further 10% increase in ELC Modern Apprenticeships.

In order to raise awareness of career and training opportunities, we launched the first phase of our national recruitment marketing campaign, aimed at school leavers, in October 2017.

Phase two of the campaign, which will focus on an audience of career-changers and parental returners, is under development and will launch in the coming months.

Fair pay is also at the heart of our plans and we will provide additional funding to enable payment of the Living Wage to all childcare staff delivering the funded entitlement by 2020.

As I set out in my answer S5W-14904 on 9 March 2018 local authorities already have a duty to ensure that the funded early learning and childcare entitlement is available to all eligible children in their area.

As part of our very ambitious pledge to almost double funded early learning and childcare entitlement to 1,140 hours by 2020 we will introduce new a Funding Follows the Child approach. This will ensure parents have a greater choice of providers from which they can access their entitlement, while ensuring that high quality provision is safeguarded.

The Funding Follows the Child approach will be underpinned by a National Standard, which will include a strong focus on high quality, that all providers wishing to deliver the funded entitlement will have to meet from 2020.

We are working closely with COSLA, local authorities, and other delivery partners on the development and implementation of this new approach, and will set out more information by the end of March.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

We are committed to fully funding the expansion of early learning and childcare to 1140 hours by 2020. We are continuing to work with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), and local authorities, and we are confident that we will agree a multi-year funding package by the end of April. We are already providing substantial investment to support the expansion of the early years workforce including providing local authorities with an additional £21 million in revenue in 2017-18, and a further £52 million in 2018-19 to support the ELC workforce expansion.

435 additional graduates will be required to deliver our commitment to have an additional graduate in nurseries located in Scotland’s most deprived areas by August 2018.

The teacher workforce planning exercise for 2019-20 will commence in Autumn 2018 with the aim of the Scottish Funding Council agreeing student intake targets with universities by the end of February 2019.

Relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) education is an important part of Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland and statutory guidance to support this was published in 2014. RSHP education should present facts in an objective, balanced and sensitive manner within a framework of sound values and an awareness of the law on sexual behaviour. Curriculum for Excellence sets out the experiences and outcomes all children should achieve in RSHP. Schools are empowered to decide which approaches to use to teach RSHP and which external partnerships to build to support the need s of the young people in their care.

Education Scotland have also commenced a review of Personal and Social Education (PSE) delivery in schools. PSE is a taught subject which covers aspects of planning for choices and changes, substance misuse, relationships, sexual health and parenthood, in addition to aspects of physical activity, sport and health. Further information on the Review and what it will explore and evaluate can be found at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/HLivi/PSEreview .

Teenage pregnancy statistics are produced annually by ISD and can be found at: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Sexual-Health/Publications/2017-07-04/2017-07-04-TeenPreg-Report.pdf

The Scottish Government’s ‘Pregnancy and Parenthood in Young People Strategy’ was published in 2016. It sets out the actions needed to reduce the risk of pregnancy in young people and provide extra support for young parents. The strategy can be viewed at the link below : http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/03/5858

The SFRS Chief Officer, Alasdair Hay and Board Chair, Dr Kirsty Darwent wrote to Scottish Fire and Rescue Service staff on 30 January with pay proposals for a transformed role for fire-fighters in Scotland. The proposal extended to all uniformed staff up to and including Area Manager level and on a pro-rata basis to Retained Duty Service personnel. This letter made clear that the 20% increase in pay rates was a proposal at this stage and any agreement would only be reached through established collective bargaining arrangements with unions and staff representatives.

The Scottish Government's position on the five recommendations of ‘A Manifesto for Music Education in Scotland’ is as follows.

Recommendation 1. To become registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland all teachers must achieve the Standard for Full Registration (SFR). The SFR includes benchmark statements on the professional actions that are expected of a registered teacher and one of these is to have detailed knowledge and understanding of the theory and practical skills required in curricular areas, including music, referring to local and national guidance as required.

Recommendation 2. The Senior Education Officer for expressive arts and the HMI specialist at Education Scotland have an overview of music education in Scotland, providing leadership on national standards in music education and supporting practitioners on these. Most Local Authorities have a lead Music Officer who is in charge of arranging Music focussed CPD within their authority. As they continue to develop, the new Regional Improvement Collaboratives will provide a space for local authorities, Education Scotland, practitioners and others to come together to share learning and, through collaboration, enhance the support they provide.

Recommendation 3. The Commission on Widening Access (CoWA) considered the barriers faced by those from socioeconomically deprived backgrounds and those with care experience and made 34 recommendations. Recommendation 33 states that the Commissioner for Fair Access should:

• consider what further work is required to support equal access for other groups of learners and within specific degree subjects and
• consider what further work is required to support equal outcomes for study for those from disadvantaged backgrounds or with a care experience.

To take this work forward the Commissioner has already indicated that during 2018 he will be looking at students with a disability and access to post graduate education. We will highlight the issues raised to the Commissioner for consideration in respect of his future work plan.

Recommendation 4. The Scottish Government and Education Scotland support the work of the Music Education Partnership Group (MEPG). MEPG is a broadly representative group of both national and local music education partners and includes the influential and proactive practitioner network, the Scottish Association of Music Education (SAME), as well as the Heads of Instrumental Teaching in Scotland (HITS). MEPG has commissioned a national research project to determine the current state of play in relation to music education in Scotland which will be published in early 2019.

Recommendation 5. The Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Principles and Practice paper for the expressive arts describes the vital role and power of the arts, including music, in enabling children and young people in Scotland to enhance their creative talent and develop their artistic skills. CfE provides children and young people with opportunities to be creative and imaginative, to experience inspiration and enjoyment and to develop skills in each of these subjects. Participation within the CfE framework enables children and young people to experience and enjoy the energy and excitement of performing and presenting for different audiences and of being part of an audience for others. The CfE Experiences and Outcomes and Benchmarks provide teachers with a clear pathway to nurture and develop children’s and young people’s interests and skills, with no ceiling on their learning and achievement.

The Scottish Government is committed to strengthening engagement with key stakeholders, including COSLA, the Royal Conservatoire, and other members of the Music Education Partnership Group. We will review existing evidence and consider what further research is required to ensure together we positively shape the future direction of the music education sector for the benefit of children and young people.

Our new Funding Follows the Child approach, due for introduction in August 2020, will further prioritise and safeguard high quality provision across all sectors. This model will be underpinned by a national standard that all early learning and childcare providers will be required to meet in order to deliver the funded entitlement. At the heart of the standard will be a set of quality criteria. This should ensure that children have access to a guaranteed level of quality regardless of where they access their entitlement. Details of the proposed national standard will be published by the end of March.

Our commitment to provide sufficient funding to enable providers across all sectors to pay childcare staff delivering the funded entitlement at least the Living Wage will help to deliver sustainable funding for all providers.

Our Quality Action Plan (available at http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/10/9506 ) makes it clear that the single most important driver of the quality of a child’s early learning and childcare experience is a high quality workforce. It is particularly encouraging then that, although the Growing Up in Scotland report highlights differences in quality in private settings, it also notes that the proportion of children who attended a provider with a high staffing quality grade increased across all provider types between the two birth cohorts being followed in the study.

We want to see quality enhanced further still and the actions set out in our Quality Action Plan demonstrate our strong commitment to investing in the professional development of the early learning and childcare workforce. Among the 15 actions in that plan are commitments to: prepare a national induction resource for all staff who are new to delivering early learning and childcare; create and deliver an online national programme of continuous professional learning for the sector; and refresh national practice guidance. The plan was developed in close consultation with a Quality Reference Group made up of key stakeholders who best understand what drives high quality provision.