Meeting of the Parliament 05 September 2024
Mr Balfour raises an extremely valid point, and I recognise the challenge in this instance. He will also recognise the real challenges that the Scottish Government faces at the current time, which are largely driven by decisions taken elsewhere that have driven inflation to such levels that we have had to, for example, settle record levels of local government pay deals. I think that that was the right thing to do, but it means that there is less finance for other projects, such as the one that Mr Balfour mentions. I also recognise the importance of that fund in my constituency and in other places in Scotland. As with all the funding that we are considering in the Government, if additional funding becomes available, we will prioritise it to support the families who are most in need.
I want to talk about some of the support and investment that we are already providing in Scotland—investment that does not necessarily exist in other parts of the United Kingdom at the current time. For example, we have established an emergency fund to support councils in removing the impact of school meal debt on families and, building on our existing partnerships in Glasgow, Clackmannanshire and Dundee, we are investing in five more place-based partnerships. We are also investing in local projects to tackle child poverty through a second round of our child poverty practice accelerator fund.
We know that breaking the cycle of poverty means supporting the next generation to thrive and helping parents to get on in fair work. Of course, Scotland is the only part of the UK to already offer 1,140 hours of early learning and childcare to all three and four-year-olds and to eligible two-year-olds, regardless of their parents’ working status. That provision of extra ELC is helping to save families, on average, £5,500 per child per year, which is what they would have to pay if they paid for that care themselves.