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We have certainly been working very co-operatively with them. We hope that, now that they have the feedback to their consultation, they will work at pace on the matter.

Thank you convener. Good morning to you and the committee.

This amending order will increase the income thresholds for families with a two-year-old who is eligible for funded early learning and childcare—ELC—because they get a joint working tax credit and child tax credit or a universal credit award.

The relevant order currently specifies that a two-year-old is eligible for funded ELC if: their parent is in receipt of child tax credit and working tax credits, with an annual income that does not exceed £7,500; or their parent is in receipt of universal credit, with a monthly income that does not exceed £625 per month.

The amending order will increase the income threshold to £7,920 per year for households in receipt of both child tax credit and working tax credit. The universal credit income threshold will increase to £660 per month—the equivalent of £7,920 per year.

We are making the change to reflect changes at the United Kingdom level. The UK Government has increased the national living wage from £8.91 per hour to £9.50 per hour. That means that household income would exceed the current thresholds if they remained the same.

The purpose of the order 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 choose not to make changes to the income thresholds, we estimate that around 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 is currently receiving funded ELC will be affected by the changes. Once a child has met the eligibility criteria, they remain eligible despite any subsequent change in circumstances.

As the purpose of the amendment is to maintain eligibility, we do not anticipate a significant increase in the number of two-year-olds who become newly eligible for the provision, and we do not expect a significant impact on local authorities’ ability to fund the provision within the current financial settlement.

There is no evidence that additional funding is required to support implementation of the amendment. However, the impact on uptake will be closely monitored by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities through the appropriate mechanism—the ELC finance working group—and appropriate arrangements will be made if uptake is significantly above the level expected and local authority costs increase as a result.

As I mentioned on my previous visit to the committee to amend the thresholds, we will monitor future increases to the national living wage and we will uprate thresholds when required, to keep pace with changes. COSLA agrees that the approach is necessary to maintain a similar profile of eligible children.

I am happy to respond to any questions that the committee has.

Yes, Mr Rennie. I know that we have looked at the issue before. You have rightly stated that, according to the latest figures, which are for September 2021, the uptake was 13 per cent, but I should point out that we are talking about the total population of two-year-olds. In order to increase the accuracy of the data on the children who are eligible to access the offer to two-year-olds, we have been working closely with UK Government colleagues on improving data sharing and developing a legal data gateway and an agreed data flow between the Department for Work and Pensions, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and local authorities. The UK Government’s consultation on the secondary legislation that will be required to put the gateway and data sharing in place closed last week—on Friday, I believe. We will be looking at the outcome of that consultation with UK Government officials and colleagues and requesting that they work quickly with us to get the data-sharing mechanism in place.

We have been working closely with the UK Government. It is aware of the issues that we have with the data sharing and that we are keen to access that data so that we can promote the ELC offer for two-year-olds to some families who might not be aware that they are eligible.

Yes, and the changes in child tax credit and working tax credit rates.

I am certainly aware of the private, voluntary and independent early years sector’s concerns about staffing and the movement of staff between different settings. The issue has been raised with me and my officials in our meetings with the sector and we are alive to it. We have taken steps to support the sector and I am more than happy to write to the committee to outline those steps in more detail.

That is the barrier with regard to the data sharing. As we wait for that data, we have also been working to ensure that parents and carers are aware of eligibility and, obviously, aware of the advantages of accessing quality ELC for eligible two-year-olds. In that respect, we have been working very closely with our local government colleagues, health colleagues on the health visiting pathway, family nurse practitioners and the third sector to promote the ELC funding offer to eligible two-year-olds.

Absolutely.

The Scottish Government, COSLA and many others have a shared ambition to have trauma-informed and trauma-responsive workforces across the country and to have transition and support planning in place for people with care experience. That is central to our commitment to keep the Promise. As I said in response to Gillian Mackay, as part of our national trauma training programme, we are developing tailored trauma training, which will be rolled out in summer 2023 to members of the workforce who work most closely with care-experienced babies, children and young people, and their families. Focusing on having a trauma-informed workforce across all public services will help to support not only the general population but care-experienced children and young people.

Last week, the committee heard evidence from my colleague Kevin Stewart, who is leading on the national care service. This week, the responses to the call for evidence and the consultation will be published, so I do not want to pre-empt those. Children’s services were included in the consultation, and, from my conversations with stakeholders and others, I am sure that a wide variety of views will have been submitted.

The Government is committed to keeping the Promise, to ensuring that children in Scotland grow up feeling loved, safe and respected, and that the wraparound services that they receive are appropriate to them.

I have no doubt that there will be challenges with the introduction of a national care service. There will be inevitable changes to social work, even if only adult services are covered by the national care service. We are very mindful of that. As with the challenges of addressing child poverty, the commitment to the Promise is a cross-Government commitment. We are mindful of unintended impacts, so we will develop the national care service in a way that does not lead to unintended consequences for other systems and services.