Hansard

I would like to begin with a quotation from the late Professor Ailsa McKay. Professor McKay was much respected and admired across the chamber for her hard work and dedication to improving outcomes for women and disadvantaged groups in Scotland. Writing in the Sunday Herald in December 2013 about her ambitions for the childcare plans that are outlined in the white paper, Professor McKay said:

“The highest rates of employment of mothers are in Scandinavia, where public investment in childcare is high. If Scotland could replicate this, tens of thousands of more women would be in work in Scotland. A higher female employment rate increases economic growth and productivity and has a positive impact on fertility, making it more likely that population growth will be above replacement rate … additional investment in childcare provision would more than pay for itself in the medium term.”

Labour talks about the importance of ensuring that childcare remains

“at the top of the political agenda, regardless of the ... result”

of September’s referendum. That was a point that was made by Professor Mackay and I agree with the sentiment, although I must say that I am disappointed—but not surprised—that the Labour Party has chosen to attack the Scottish Government’s childcare plans. If Labour really believed in a transformational change in childcare, it would be right behind the Scottish Government’s ambitious proposals.

Of course, Labour has form on this kind of behaviour. A few months back, we witnessed Labour MSPs teaming up with the Tories to vote against the Scottish Government’s proposals for free school meals and improved childcare provision. It appeared then that that was just another example of the Labour Party choosing to oppose for opposition’s sake—particularly as the Scottish Government’s plans had been welcomed by a wide range of children’s charities and child poverty campaigners. Labour’s actions at the time were rightly condemned in the press and in communities across Scotland, so I had hoped that lessons had been learned about the danger of attacking everything that is proposed by the SNP just for the sake of political point scoring. However, sadly, I was wrong.

In the childcare debate in January, I highlighted the work that has been carried out by Professor Edward Melhuish of the University of London. Professor Melhuish’s research has demonstrated the long-term benefits of effective childcare, particularly for children from deprived backgrounds. Those findings were reinforced by a recent research paper that was published by the Scottish Government, entitled “Childcare and Children’s Intellectual Outcomes”, which concluded that high-quality nursery education not only enhances development in children in their early years, but aids attainment in children at all ages. The paper highlights evidence that pre-school education enhances all-round development in children and is particularly beneficial to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, in helping to improve cognitive development, sociability and concentration. Those benefits continue into primary and secondary school, with research demonstrating that pupils aged 15 who attended pre-school education tend to outperform those who did not.

Although there are for parents and children significant social benefits from improved childcare, there is also a strong economic case for investment in early years education. In written evidence that has been submitted to Parliament, Professor McKay and her colleagues at the women in Scotland’s economy research centre at Glasgow Caledonian University highlighted research that shows how important investment in childcare is to stimulating economic growth.

Growth in the construction industry is often held up as a barometer of how well the economy is doing. The research centre at GCU suggests that, in economic terms, the development of a high-quality childcare sector is just as important as development of the construction sector, in that one creates physical capital and the other creates human capital.

It is argued that a lack of access to adequate affordable childcare is damaging to the economy and to society as a whole, because that lack acts as a barrier to participation in the labour market by parents—in particular, by mothers. Enabling more women to contribute to the economy through better provision of affordable childcare can help to lift families out of poverty and tackle inequality in earnings. That is an ambition that I hope all members share.

The social and economic benefits of improved early years provision are not in doubt; the question is how we can ensure that children and families here gain access to opportunities that are similar to those that are enjoyed by our Scandinavian neighbours. Childcare costs in Scotland and the rest of the UK are among the highest in Europe. We spend an average of 26.5 per cent of parental income on childcare, compared to the OECD average of almost 12 per cent. A recent report by the Family and Childcare Trust suggests that families are paying more than £7,500 per year in childcare costs for two children, which amounts to more than the average cost of a mortgage.

Under devolution, Scotland has made some progress in improving access to affordable childcare, and I welcome that. Since the SNP came to power, we have increased free nursery provision by 20 per cent. The improvements in flexible early learning and childcare that have been delivered through the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 will benefit more than 120,000 children in Scotland and help to save families about £700 per year. That will be welcomed by hard-pressed families throughout Scotland, although the reality is that only with the powers and resources of independence can we bring about the transformational change that is needed to provide the best possible start in life for children in Scotland.

Labour MSPs assert that that can be done now under the limited powers of devolution. If that is the case, why were those ambitious plans not advanced when the Labour Party was in power in the previous two Administrations, and why cannot it tell us now how it would pay for them under the devolution settlement?

Professor Sir Donald MacKay, who is a leading economist and a former chair of Scottish Enterprise, hit the nail on the head when he said that

“No financially responsible Scottish Government would dare to implement the childcare proposals under the fixed block grant funding of devolution, unless they were prepared to take an axe to existing programmes”.

I look forward to hearing from the Labour Party what public services it plans to cut in order to finance more childcare now, under the current limited devolution settlement.

I have already outlined the benefits to the economy that increased access to childcare provides. The Scottish Government has been clear in its commitment to improving access to affordable high-quality early learning and childcare. The Minister for Children and Young People has spoken of her ambition to make Scotland the best place in the world in which to grow up. With the opportunities of independence, we can do just that. Our families, children and communities deserve nothing less.