Meeting of the Parliament 04 December 2019
I welcome the progress report on the fairer Scotland action plan and I am happy to be speaking today, having spoken in the plan’s introductory debate back in October 2016. In that debate, I said that there is “no magic bullet” for achieving an instant reduction in poverty, and that remains true. It is important that we look at the overall picture, and that all the portfolios in Government work together as a whole.
The fairer Scotland action plan was built on that approach, with its five key aims covering a variety of policy areas. Number 3 of those five aims was about early years, education and health, and I will focus my contribution on the pledges that the action plan made around early years.
All of us in the chamber agree on the impact that education can have on a child’s life. It provides a clear route for each child to reach their full potential. Many view education as the most important factor in tackling poverty—and I can see why. Pledge 29 of the fairer Scotland action plan was to increase the number of hours of funded childcare entitlement from 600 to 1,140 by 2020. That pledge covered all three and four-year-olds as well as the two-year-olds who are in the greatest need. I know that all parties fully support that commitment, and we all hope that it succeeds. However, it is worth discussing the more concerning developments around that pledge, particularly with regard to how they affect children who need the most help in achieving the best start to their lives.
A problem that has surfaced across the whole country is the number of eligible two-year-olds who actually take up the provision. The Scottish Government set a target to double uptake for two-year-olds, and although I acknowledge that progress has been made on that front, it is nonetheless estimated that 40 per cent of eligible two-year-olds will not be using their entitlement by April 2021. As studies have shown, the option of childcare at that early stage has a greater effect on children from the most deprived backgrounds, so we should strive to increase that uptake further.
Getting the right start in life is invaluable. It helps you throughout your life and it forms the basis for success, and we want to give every child the chance to succeed. Although I acknowledge the potential of the Scottish child payment to help achieve that, it must—as I outlined earlier—be combined with consistency across Government portfolios.
It is important to highlight another issue with the childcare pledge. In 2016, the fairer Scotland action plan made reference to the creation of new jobs as a result of the pledge. Over the years, we have heard several estimates of the number of extra staff that are required to fulfil the pledge, and the most recent revision has reduced the figure to around 8,500 new staff. One reason why the figure has been revised down is that local authorities are recruiting staff who are already in the industry and who currently work for private, voluntary and independent sector nurseries. A recent survey by the National Day Nurseries Association confirmed that those staff are transferring to work in public sector nurseries and stated that nine in 10 PVI sector providers have lost staff in the past year.
Council nurseries are able to offer higher-salary packages for the same roles, due to a difference in the funding rates that are allocated to the PVI and public sectors. I have spoken before about the inequality in treatment, but today’s debate is not about that. It is about achieving a fairer Scotland. That staff drain is already affecting the sector, and I believe that it will have an impact on pursuit of the goal of a fairer Scotland.
It is always worth remembering that the need for childcare does not just start when a child turns two or three. Nurseries in the PVI sector offer an unparalleled flexible service for parents who wish to use childcare outside of typical work or school hours, or who have children under the age of two.
As I noted in the introductory debate on the action plan, paid work is a crucial step on the road to leaving poverty behind, which is a defining goal of the action plan. Young parents in particular face increased financial pressures, which can create barriers to moving out of poverty. Many mothers of young children want to continue their studies or enter work, but many of those jobs operate outside the usual 9-to-5 day.
The flexibility offered by the PVI sector enables those parents to enter employment sooner and more confidently than if they used council settings. However, there is a problem. The roll-out of the 1,140 hours has focused so heavily on building and expanding council nurseries that it has led to the drain in staff from the PVI sector. With the loss of trained and experienced staff, service quality at PVI sector nurseries is at risk and many will struggle to keep their services open. That has been witnessed in the nurseries that have closed or been sold in the past year.
In trying to make a fairer Scotland, an unintended consequence of the early years pledge has been the loss of vital services for those most in need. The action plan’s definition of a fairer Scotland mentions
“genuine equality of opportunity, stronger life chances and support for all those who need it”.