Question reference: S6W-25978
- Date lodged: 6 March 2024
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Current status: Answered by Natalie Don on 20 March 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many two-year-olds received the 1,140 hours of funded childcare in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.
Answer
The early learning and childcare (ELC) census Early learning and childcare statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) is the Scottish Government’s current annual data collection on funded ELC.
The census collects data on the number of registrations for funded ELC by age. It does not collect data on the number of hours each child accesses.
Number of two year old registrations for funded ELC at the time of each census:
2021 | 6,474 |
2022 | 7,042 |
2023 | 6,636 |
Plans are in place to update the ELC census process which will allow us to collect child-level data, including the number of hours used by each child.
The Improvement Service collects data on funded ELC to support local authorities in the delivery of their service. While this is not Scottish Government data, it provides information on the number of hours. The following figures can be found in their Delivery Progress Reports ( ELC Delivery Progress Reports | Improvement Service ) :
Two year old children receiving 1,140 hours:
September 2021 | 4,300 |
September 2022 | 5,156 |
September 2023 | 5,648 |