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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5F-02341

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 14 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 May 2018

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S5W-15874

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of its paper, Expansion of Early Learning and Childcare Evaluation Report 2017, what progress it expects to achieve in increasing the number of settings that offer funded places (a) outwith school hours and (b) during the school holidays in each of the next three years.

Under our new Funding Follows the Child approach, which will be introduced in 2020 as part of the national roll-out of the expanded early learning and childcare (ELC) entitlement to 1140 hours, local authorities will retain statutory responsibility for ensuring that the funded ELC entitlement is available to all eligible children in their area. As part of this local authorities are required to consult with representative groups of parents and carers in their local area to seek their views on how they should make ELC available.

All local authorities have developed expansion plans, which set out how they propose to deliver the expansion to 1140 hours by 2020. These expansion plans include details of how they intend to increase flexibility, including increased operating hours and year round provision, whilst ensuring the provision remains of a high quality. As these plans are implemented we expect to see further increases in the number of ELC settings operating outwith school hours, and year round.

Some families have already benefitted from participation in Scottish Government expansion trials, which have included a focus on innovative and flexible models of delivery, as well as from the early phasing of the expanded entitlement in some authorities. This includes access to more flexible provision outwith school hours and in school holidays. We expect this trend to continue to increase over the next 3 years as authorities prepare for 2020.

Question reference: S5W-15872

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the average length of time is to build a nursery.

Question reference: S5W-15873

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many nursery schools in each local authority area are being constructed, also broken down by the stage of construction each is at, and how many additional nurseries will be (a) completed and (b) operational by May 2021.

We do not hold all the information requested centrally. Current local authority estimates are that 138 new builds will be needed. As set out in the answer to question S5W-16245 on 27 April 2018, the Scottish Government and COSLA Leaders reached agreement on a multi-year revenue and capital funding package for the expansion of early learning and childcare on 27 April. This agreement represents a shared understanding of the costs required to deliver the expansion – including all required additional capacity - in entitlement to funded early learning and childcare to 1140 hours from August 2020.

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 .

Question reference: S5W-15848

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its announcement on 25 February 2016 that at least 46 nurseries have been built or expanded by local authorities to help accommodate additional early learning and additional childcare hours, flexibility and children, how many nurseries in each local authority area have been (a) built, (b) expanded and (c) closed in each year since 2014-15.

Question reference: S5W-15856

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-15083 by Maree Todd on 20 March 2018, how many of the (a) 126 additional teacher training places and (b) 270 additional BA Childhood Practice places to expand the early learning and childcare workforce were filled in August 2017.

a) HESA data relating to additional teacher training for 2017-18 is not held centrally, and will not be available until after the end of the academic year.

b) All of the additional 270 BA places were filled in August 2017. As noted in my answers to S5W-15849, S5W-15850 and S5W-15851 on 8 May 2018, 2017-18 data is in-year data and full and complete data will not be available until after the end of the academic year.

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 .

Question reference: S5W-15855

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-15083 by Maree Todd on 20 March 2018, what progress it has made in each local authority area with recruiting the additional 435 teachers and graduates for nurseries in deprived areas, and whether each of the nurseries will have an additional graduate in place by 31 December 2018.

The Scottish Government is currently working with local authorities to deliver our commitment to provide an additional graduate in nurseries in Scotland’s most deprived areas by August 2018. Up to £18 million has been allocated in 2018-19 to cover the additional staffing costs associated with delivering this commitment. £12 million of this has been initially allocated across local authorities based on their share of the 435 graduate posts, as set out in the Revenue Funding Allocations letter issued to local authorities on 22 February 2018.

Following confirmation of funding allocations in February 2018, local authorities are working towards the recruitment of the additional graduates in line with their Additional Graduate Action Plans to ensure that the additional staff are in place by August 2018. We recently wrote to local authorities to agree their proposals, as set out in their Action Plans, that a small number of the additional posts could be allocated across more than one setting.

Question reference: S5W-15851

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) practitioner- and (b) managerial-level training courses in early learning and childcare have been (a) unfilled and (b) uncompleted in each year since 2013-14, and how this compares with the targets that it set.

(a) National enrolment targets for ELC courses were set from 2017-18 only. Information on unfilled places is therefore not available before 2017-18. As noted in my answers to S5W-15849 and S5W-15850 on 8 May 2018, final audited data for 2017-18 will be available after the end of the academic year.

(b) Comparable data prior to 2014-15 is not available. Information on the number of people who did not complete their HNC for the relevant years is shown in the following table. This data includes all withdrawals, but does not account for partial completion i.e. those who re-apply and complete in subsequent years. There were no managerial level course places uncompleted for the periods requested.

Uncompleted

2014-15

2015-16

2016-17

Enrolments

uncompleted

Enrolments

uncompleted

Enrolments

uncompleted

HNC

1789

570

1717

495

1828

621

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 .

Question reference: S5W-15849

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its announcement of 9 April 2018 regarding childcare expansion plans, what baseline it used to set the target of (a) 1,813 additional new starts for HNC college and university courses to train at practitioner level and (b) 490 places at managerial level in early learning and childcare, and whether this figure includes the additional courses previously announced for 2017-18.

The additional further and higher education places for 2018-19 are informed by the following 2014-15 baseline data, set by the Scottish Funding Council:

a) 1,789 (HNC level)

b) 492 (managerial level)

The additional course places for 2018-19 do not include those additional places previously announced in 2017-18.*

* 2017-18 data is in-year data and final audited data will not be available until after the end of the academic year.

Question reference: S5W-15853

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the childcare profession recruitment campaign, Shape their worlds. Shape your career, including how many people it has helped to recruit.

The first phase of our national recruitment campaign, “Shape their worlds. Shape your career”, focussed on school leavers and predominantly encouraged applications to training opportunities.

The national recruitment campaign is one of many initiatives underway to assist the recruitment of additional workforce. A monitoring and evaluation framework for the early learning and childcare workforce expansion will be in place this summer.