Seòmar agus comataidhean

I think we all want to be more ambitious, to go further and faster and to improve things, but we have to do that at a pace that stakeholders are comfortable with. We should not just put plans in place for the sake of putting plans in place; we need to have the evidence and the research behind that as we trial things and see what works. That is what the ARC pilots are doing: they are giving us the evidence.

I have some statistics in front of me, which show improvement for attainment and initial leaver destinations for the transitions of secondary school and special school leavers. I am happy to provide the committee with those statistics as one piece of data that we can point to where we can see improvement.

The additional support for learning work and the Morgan review are part of a plethora of work that we are doing to improve transitions. As Christina McKelvie suggested, some of that work is coming to its conclusion—some of the pilots are approaching their conclusion—and we will be able to point to the results of that work and identify the difference that it makes. We will be able to say why we want to expand a piece of work, or we may conclude that something does not work, so it is not a system that we want to continue working through.

I absolutely recognise that that is an area that Mr Rennie and I have had correspondence on for some time. I am delighted that we got the data-sharing arrangements in place. I think that the legislation went through the UK Parliament in October. We are working with local authorities and COSLA to help them to make maximum use of that data, and we hope that they will be able to access it by the end of this financial year.

I am happy to talk Mr Rennie through the process of how that will work, if that would be helpful to him. In relation to the two-year-olds, local authorities will get access to a limited amount of Department for Work and Pensions data three times a year. Local authorities will only be able to access the amount of data that they need to identify those families who would be eligible, which will give them the opportunity to write to those families to make them aware of that offer. They will only be allowed to use that information for the specific purpose of targeting those groups. We will continue to publicise the offer through the Parent Club and other Scottish Government channels.

I will be happy to come back to the committee on that next year. We anticipate that there will be an increase, and there is funding in next year’s financial settlement to fund those eligible two-year-olds. The rate has gone up again. It has gone up to 14 per cent, but I appreciate that there may well be more children out there whose parents are not aware of the offer. I am sure that I will come back to the committee on that issue.

I do not recognise what the convener said about top-slicing.

We are engaging with the SSSC on the possibility of having the scoping and mapping exercise. I am more than happy to write to the committee with updates on that.

I am not familiar with those figures, but, if the convener wants to send me the source of the information, I will be happy to look at it.

When looking at the funding that is provided by the Scottish Government to local authorities, it would be simplistic to say that there is £100 available and there are 100 children so that means that £100 should be divided by 100 and each child should get £1. I know that that is a very simplistic example. From their budget, local authorities have to fund not only the ELC for PVI providers but additional costs. They have things such as property costs, including the repair and maintenance of buildings and settings, and their own employee costs—

Local authorities are local authorities—if I can put it that way—but PVIs are businesses, so they have other sources of income.

Local authorities have additional costs such as other staff—operational staff, heads of centre and staff who do not count towards childcare ratios, including additional support for learning staff—support services such as information technology, finance and procurement; and the cost of meals for children who access both council nurseries and PVI providers. The latter cost is paid to PVI providers over and above their sustainable rates.

In the current settlement for next year, there is money for the deferrals policy change, which I am sure the committee is aware of, and for the equity and excellence leads. Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide 1,140 hours; they can be providers of last resort in areas where it is not financially sustainable for private services to provide childcare, and they have a duty for emergency responses, which they have carried out for those coming from Ukraine.

It is therefore not as straightforward as saying that providing 30 per cent of childcare equals passing on 30 per cent of the budget.

We have worked very closely with COSLA and local authorities through our financial working group to ensure that there is a fair and sustainable settlement for all our ELC providers.

If I remember correctly, you raised that issue in the chamber, convener. The issue was also raised during the debate about funded ELC. This is where the funding follows the child model is absolutely key.

I will ask Eleanor Passmore to speak about the work that we have done. If there are particular areas in which there is an issue, I would certainly like those to be highlighted to me so that we can try to facilitate working across boundaries.

The draft budget makes provision for £50 million to be invested in the whole family wellbeing fund. That will continue the vital preventative work that is required to keep children at home when that is the safest place for them to be.

In addition, we will invest almost £30 million in other activity that is related to the Promise, which includes funds to support The Promise Scotland, invest in the Promise partnership fund and take forward a variety of other actions that we committed to in the implementation plan “Keeping the promise to our children, young people and families”, which was launched last March. That includes funds that are required to bring into force the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill, which was introduced in December 2022. I believe that this committee will look at that bill, so I am sure that we will have further discussions on that and how it will fulfil the Promise.

The sustainable rates that local authorities pay take into account investment in staff, investment in training and paying the real living wage. We have influenced pay in the PVI sector—that has been evidenced in the pay rates that staff in that sector have received since funded ELC has expanded. We are carrying out another financial sustainability check, and I believe that the survey went out last week. We will be in a position to report on that in the spring, when we will have a much more up-to-date picture of where private, voluntary and independent providers are.

Mr Rennie talked about flexibility. I draw his attention to the parent survey that was published just last month—I appreciate that that was a busy month for all of us. In the survey, 88 per cent of parents of three to five-year-olds and 92 per cent of parents of eligible two-year-olds reported that they were satisfied with the flexibility that was offered to use their funded hours to meet their family’s needs. That is evidence that families feel that they are getting the flexibility that they need. Overall, 97 per cent of parents said that they were satisfied with the quality of provision. That is a great tribute to the services that ELC providers offer to our children and families.

Does Eleanor Passmore want to add anything on the pay differential and the work that we are doing with the PVI sector to help it to retain staff?

As a Government, we provide the funding to ensure that we can provide 1,140 hours of ELC to all eligible children, which is what we do. A huge amount of money is provided to local authorities to sustain and fulfil their statutory obligations to provide the 1,140 hours of ELC. As I mentioned in an earlier answer about the parent survey, parents are satisfied with that.

In the past year, there has been an increase in the number of three to five-year-olds who are accessing early learning and childcare. It is now up to 99 per cent, which is almost universal coverage.

Our responsibility as a Government is to ensure that we fund those 1,140 hours of provision and that we allow local authorities to have the funding to pay sustainable rates to the PVI sector.