Hansard

I am pleased to have the opportunity to bring the motion to the chamber. Early learning and childcare is one of the most important areas for any Government, because it not only shapes the lives of whole generations but creates the foundation for Scotland’s future.

High-quality early learning can play a key role in reducing the attainment gap by giving all Scotland’s children a level playing field on which to build their learning. There is compelling evidence to show that early access to high-quality early learning and childcare can significantly reduce the impact of socioeconomic disadvantage before starting school.

High-quality early learning provides nurturing, stimulating experiences that help children to grow and develop. It can also support parents, particularly mothers, to access education, training and work, as well as provide support to vulnerable families.

The provision of early learning and childcare is, quite simply, a policy that no one would want to oppose. It is an investment in the very fabric of our society, which is why I have brought this debate to the chamber today.

The Scottish Government has, in its words, set out

“the most ambitious plans to extend childcare and early learning that the Parliament has ever seen.”—[Official Report, 22 February 2018; c 15.]

However, it did so without undertaking the level of planning and consultation that might reasonably have been expected, thereby creating significant challenges to its flagship policy.

Today is an opportunity to explore those challenges in what I hope will be a constructive and thoughtful manner. Today is about ensuring that the issues raised in the joint report issued by the Accounts Commission and the Auditor General are scrutinised and that we, in this chamber, and perhaps more important, those in local authorities and nurseries, as well as the childminders and the parents who are trying to navigate their way through what is being offered, ensure that the end result is something to be celebrated.

I will cover a number of the issues raised in the report and in my visits to local authority and private nurseries and my many conversations with early years practitioners and childminders.

On Thursday last week, the First Minister told the Parliament that

“we delivered”

the commitment

“on 600 hours when many people across the chamber were sceptical that we would do so.”

She also said:

“We delivered it; we have shown a track record in delivering expanded childcare, and we are on track to deliver the next expansion.”—[Official Report, 22 February 2018; c 21, 15.]

However, the report by the Accounts Commission and the Auditor General states:

“The Scottish Government failed to set out clearly the improved outcomes for children and parents that the expansion to 600 hours was designed to achieve”.

Furthermore,

“There is a lack of evidence that increasing funded hours in the way that the Scottish Government has done will deliver improved outcomes”.

I therefore ask the minister to say, when she comes to speak, how she is measuring the success of the 600 hours roll-out. How do we know that it is being delivered and has been a success?

It is clear to me that the Scottish Government failed to set out clearly the improved outcomes for children and parents that the expansion was meant to achieve and how it would assess the impact of that additional investment. There were no measures to indicate success, nor was the baseline data available. Those basic steps should have been addressed in 2014, if not earlier. It appears that those issues have carried over to the 1,140 hours expansion, with a recent freedom of information request from Reform Scotland revealing that

“the Scottish Government has confirmed that it does not know how many children are currently eligible and entitled to pre-school provision but are unable to access it or are on a waiting list.”

In addition, research by the Scottish Government, the National Day Nurseries Association and fair funding for our kids has found that one in five children is missing out on their current funded hours, yet the Scottish Government claims that there is 97 per cent registration for funded childcare. Are we talking about registration or childcare that is being accessed and delivered? When planning an expansion on this scale, should not the Scottish Government start by getting those essential facts right? I say that not because we want to pull them up on it or because we want to make an issue of it, but because, if we do not get the expansion right, we are going to get it wrong for our children—a generation of children who will not get a second opportunity.

The Scottish Government needs to be clear about the priority for this policy. Is it for children, is it for parents or is it for both? In its current state, it largely fails to achieve the outcomes for both. In January, the Scottish Government published an initial evaluation of the expansion of early learning, in which it stated:

“The expansion from 475 to 600 hours in 2014”

is

“not expected to lead to a measurable change in children’s outcomes.”

We have seen that mirrored in parents’ responses to the expansion, particularly around flexibility, accessibility and payment. Research by fair funding for our kids has found that, after the implementation of the expansion to 600 hours, nine out of 10 parents who want to change their working situation said that their main barrier is lack of appropriate childcare.

The Scottish Government estimates that the cost of delivering the 1,140 hours of early learning and childcare will be about £840 million a year. Councils, on the other hand, have placed their initial estimate for the expansion at about £1 billion a year. That is far higher than the Scottish Government’s estimate. It raises serious questions about the feasibility of the policy and risks councils being left to deal with a £160 million black hole.

To add to the confusion on funding, there is a big difference between what the Scottish Government and local authorities are saying is needed for essential changes to childcare infrastructure. Local authorities have said that they need to set aside £690 million of capital funding between 2019 and 2020, but the Scottish Government has allocated only £400 million for that purpose. At a time when councils across the country are feeling pressure on their budgets, they will struggle to make up the shortfall.