Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you, Lee. I want to turn to Priyanaz Chatterji, as she is in a more female environment with her team mates.

I declare that I am a mental health nurse and am currently registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

My questions continue with the theme of barriers, because the sexual harassment experienced by some female athletes in elite sport was identified as a barrier to participation in some of the evidence that the committee has received. I note that, in the elite British sportswomen’s survey that Emma Harper quoted earlier, 64.6 per cent of elite female athletes reported experiencing sexism in their sport, but 75 per cent of them did not report it. I am keen to learn about the current measures and support for reporting harassment in your sports and how adequate those are in protecting women and girls.

It does not encourage anyone to report something if they feel that they will be scapegoated or—

As a quick supplementary question to the witnesses who are in the room, do you recognise what has just been said in your sports? Do you think that the processes that are in place are robust enough for women and girls who are moving towards becoming elite athletes or are currently participating as elite athletes?

No.

The data sharing arrangements are not yet in place, so they have not had an impact that would show a change. We still expect those arrangements to be in place for the end of this financial year and we are on track for that. We have been progressing work on the data sharing arrangements with the DWP, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, and local authorities. As soon as we have all those data sharing agreements in place, the information will then be able to be shared with local authorities, so that they can access it and write to the parents of eligible children. With COSLA and local authorities, we will look at how that uptake goes. On current figures, we anticipate that around 25 per cent of children in Scotland will be eligible. We have to remember that England and Wales already have those data sharing arrangements, but Scotland does not.

We will monitor that, and I am sure that the committee will be interested in the figures. I can commit to writing to the committee to let you know when the data sharing arrangements are in place and how many families we anticipate are eligible. However, we need to remember that families have choice and that not every parent of an eligible child will decide that they want to access that provision.

Yes.

I will pass over to Kirstie McKerron, the lawyer, who I hope can answer that.

Thank you, convener, and good morning to the committee. The amending order will increase from 1 April the income thresholds for families with a two-year-old who is eligible for funded early learning and childcare because a parent receives a joint working tax credit and child tax credit or a universal credit award.

The Provision of Early Learning and Childcare (Specified Children) (Scotland) Order 2014 specifies that a two-year-old is eligible for funded ELC if their parent is in receipt of child tax credit and working tax credit with an annual income that does not exceed £7,920 or if their parent is in receipt of universal credit with a monthly income that does not exceed £660 per month. The amending order increases from 1 April the income threshold to £8,717 per year for households that are in receipt of child tax credit and working tax credit, and the universal credit income threshold will increase to £726 per month, which is the equivalent of £8,717 per year.

We are making this change to reflect changes at a United Kingdom level. From April, the UK Government will increase the national living wage from £9.50 to £10.42 per hour, so household income would exceed the current thresholds if they remained the same. The order’s purpose is to protect eligibility for two-year-olds whom we would expect to be eligible for funded ELC as a result of their parents or carers being in receipt of the affected qualifying benefits. If we chose to make no changes to the income thresholds, we estimate that about 1,000 eligible two-year-olds would no longer be eligible, despite there being no significant difference in their families’ household circumstances.

It is important to be clear that no two-year-old who currently receives funded ELC will be affected by the changes. Once a child has met the eligibility criteria, they will remain eligible, despite any subsequent change in circumstances.

As the amendment’s purpose is to maintain eligibility, we do not expect a significant increase in the number of two-year-olds who become newly eligible for provision. We do not expect a significant impact on local authorities’ ability to fund such provision within the current financial settlement. As such, there is no evidence that additional funding will be required to support implementation of the amendment.

The impact on uptake will be closely monitored by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities through the appropriate mechanism, which is the ELC finance working group. Appropriate arrangements will be made if uptake is significantly above the expected level and if local authorities’ costs increase as a result.

As I said on my previous visits to the committee to discuss amending the thresholds, we will continue to monitor future increases to the national living wage, and we will uprate thresholds when that is required to keep pace with changes. COSLA agrees with that approach and agrees that it is necessary in order to maintain a similar profile of eligible children.

I am happy to respond to any specific questions from the committee.