Chamber and committees

Local authorities have a duty to provide early learning and childcare to all eligible children within their area.

As I set out in my answer to S5W-14743 on 6 March 2018, our National Statistics, produced by professionally independent statistical staff, indicate that take up of the entitlement to funded early learning and childcare for 3 and 4 year olds is almost universal ( http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/12/3099 ).

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 .

At the time of the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) census week in September 2017, 1069 local authority ELC centres had one or more General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) registered teachers on their staff. A further 450 centres, that did not have a GTCS registered teacher on their staff, had either a regular or ad-hoc arrangement for access to a centrally employed GTCS registered teacher in place at census week. Note that the figures include all types of local authority centres that provide funded ELC (including playgroups, family learning centres, early years centres), and not just nurseries, as nurseries cannot be separately identified in the data.

The Scottish Government has drawn upon independent advice (published here: http://www.healthscotland.scot/publications/evaluability-assessment-of-the-expansion-of-early-learning-and-childcare ) to develop our long term monitoring and evaluation strategy in collaboration with key stakeholders.

We set out a number of baseline indicators which will allow us to monitor the extent to which the expansion to 1140 hours is delivering its aims of providing high quality, flexible, accessible and affordable ELC in the first in a series of evaluation reports, published in December 2017. We will continue to use and refine these indicators as the expansion programme progresses.

As part of the evaluation of the expansion post 2020, we will develop with our partners, additional measures of the longer term impact on both child and parent outcomes. Further updates on our evaluation strategy will be published during
‎ 2018-19.

Funding provided to local authorities to support the expansion in funded early learning and childcare entitlement to 1140 hours by 2020 is allocated as a specific grant to ensure that it is protected for investment in early learning and childcare. Local authorities are required to report to Scottish Government on how this funding has been applied. Proportionate reporting and monitoring arrangements will be agreed with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).

Our efforts on smoking rates have been bold, and remarkable progress has been made to date. Following a number of successful actions, including banning tobacco advertising, price increases and raising the age of purchasing cigarettes to 18, the proportion of young people in Scotland who smoke has fallen to the lowest level since surveys began. In fact smoking rates among 

‎ 13 and 15 years old are at an all-time low (2% and 7%). We were also amongst the first in the world to set a tobacco-free target by 2034. Our aim is to create a generation of young people who do not want to smoke. We will publish a range of measures to reduce smoking in our forthcoming refresh of the Scottish tobacco control strategy.

In addition the “Not a favour ” campaign was launched recently making it clear that helping anyone under-age to get hold of cigarettes is helping them into addiction, ill health and financial problems. The campaign was developed by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Scotland, with Scottish Government funding and strong support from Trading Standards groups. A new campaign website – www.notafavour.scot hosts a range of free campaign materials for use locally by trading standards, retailers, health and community groups and others.

Our published data and research indicates that take up of the entitlement to funded early learning and childcare for 3 and 4 year olds is almost universal. Although uptake figures for 2 year olds have risen slightly over the last 2 years, it is still lower than we would like it to be. ( http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/12/3099 ).

Research we commissioned last year (and conducted independently) found that 0.4% of eligible parents surveyed cited not being aware of the entitlement as a reason for not taking up their child’s current. This is based on a sample size of over 10,000 respondents ( http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/12/5250 ).

We are working in a number of areas to improve take up, particularly of the 2 year old entitlement. This includes: working with UK Government to allow data sharing to directly target potentially eligible families with information on the entitlement; working with organisations and services to encourage the dissemination of information directly to eligible parents; trialling work with local authorities through the Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative to support local authorities in improving processes to increase uptake.

Over the next year, we will also be focussing increasing attention on parental engagement, to ensure parents are aware of the entitlement and feel able to make an informed decision on how they can use that entitlement according to their circumstances. We have committed (in the Quality Action Plan, published October 2017: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/10/9506 ) to ‘develop an online resource for parents to empower them to make choices about the right ELC setting or combination of settings for their child.’

As part of the expansion to 600 hours from 2014 we provided local authorities with additional funding to support an increase in flexibility. As a result we have seen flexibility increase with more providers offering choice of provision, increased opening hours, and more settings open all year round.

However we know that some places offered to parents are not where and when they need them. This is why we are committed to further improving flexibility as part of the expansion in the funded early learning and childcare entitlement to 1140 hours by 2020. However, this must be done in a way which ensures very high quality provision because, although the benefits to parents are important, the expansion is fundamentally about improving the early years’ experience of our youngest children.

To safeguard high quality settings whilst ensuring parents have a greater choice of providers from which they can access their funded entitlement we will introduce a new Funding Follows the Child approach from 2020. We will also shortly launch a consultation to ensure that existing provisions on flexibility, including the requirements for local authorities to consult with parents at least every 2 years, are appropriate for the introduction of the expanded entitlement.

Figures from the NSPCC suggest a 15% increase in child sex offences across the whole of the UK, and that 1 in 10 offences had an online element.

NSPCC themselves acknowledge that reasons for this increase may include a rise in reporting of historic cases, improvements in police recording and children and young people feeling empowered to disclose abuse.

Protecting children and young people from all forms of abuse is a priority for the Scottish Government, as set out in current national policy and legislation. We are committed to working with partners nationally, locally and with support services, including the NSPCC.

In April 2017, we published a National Action Plan on Internet Safety for Children and Young People. This includes actions to help children and young people develop the necessary skills to stay safe while using the internet, and to support parents and carers to be more aware of the potential risks. It also sets out our commitment to continue to work with digital and social media providers to ensure children are not exposed to harm.

We are also taking action to tackle child sexual exploitation and child trafficking. In addition have established an expert group for preventing sexual offending involving children and young people, including online crime.

The Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 modernised Scots law on sexual offences, replacing a complex patchwork of statutory and common law offences with a clear legislative framework which police and prosecutors can use to take action against those who sexually abuse children.

We recognise how important it is that children and young people are given the opportunity to positively engage with health and wellbeing issues at school. Being trained in first aid can help young people develop the skills they may need in an emergency situation.

Under Curriculum for Excellence, schools already have the flexibility to provide first aid training. It is up to individual schools and local authorities to decide if they wish to deliver this, and how best to do so.

Education Scotland has produced a learning resource in conjunction with Save a Life for Scotland, aimed at primary and secondary practitioners looking to deliver first aid as part of the curriculum. This resource is available on their website through the following link: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/Save%20a%20life