Hansard

Thank you, Presiding Officer.

I hope that we will not find too much difference among the parties in this debate; that is reflected in the amendment lodged by the Scottish National party. I would have liked to accept the amendment—I would have done so for the second part—but the part that refers to securing long-term funding does not recognise the considerable work that has been done to put in the extra resources and secure them for the long term. I will, therefore, have to ask members to reject it.

As a minister at the Scottish Office, I was pleased to be able to introduce—for the first time ever in this country—a national child care strategy. I am also pleased that the partnership Government has been able to take that forward. I can report today on considerable progress and on our ambitious plans for the future. Our overall aim and vision is affordable, accessible, high-quality child care for those who wish it.

Child care is about giving children a good start in life—helping them to develop in a safe and caring environment. It is also about family life and the pressures on family life in today's somewhat complex and difficult world. It is about helping families who are at risk of social exclusion and young parents who feel isolated. Finally, it is about helping parents—where they wish to do so—back to work.

When we talk about child care, we talk about issues that are very close to—and indeed part of— the fabric of our whole society. That is why we take the child care strategy seriously. If we provide the right services for children and parents, we stand to make considerable gains: in health and educational attainment; in young people's attachment to their communities and their sense of social responsibility; and in their adult contribution to the economy.

For example, there is considerable evidence that good experiences in child care and pre-school education at an early age are associated with lower rates of criminality in later life. The gains are very large—if we get it right.

Our child care strategy is committed to supporting children's all-round development from age 0 to age 14. It is about helping parents to balance family and work—by providing them with that child care—and ensuring a range of services for children and their families, especially those who need extra support. It is also about breaking the cycle of social exclusion that blights so many of our children's young lives, and working in partnership with other sectors to deliver our goals.

There are no quick fixes and no simple solutions. As many of us know, family life is not simple; parents have different—and many— needs. The more support that children and families need, the more complex the links between the services. We therefore need to have co-ordinated services to meet those needs. We also need better links between health services and care for very young children; between pre-school education and child care; and between school and after-school care. On top of that, we need to provide the right planning and funding framework to encourage joined-up thinking and joined-up service delivery.

All that, of course, takes money and we are more than providing that. We have put in place considerable extra resources. I was surprised to read Nicola Sturgeon in The Herald this morning— perhaps she did not say this, but it is in the paper. On funding, she said that the Government has

"a long way to go"

and that we are "complacent" and at a "standstill". She also said that

"the funding allocation for providing places for all three and four-year-olds was on a three-year basis".

It is on a three-year grant basis, but it will be added to the grant-aided expenditure after that, if it is permanent. She mentioned the new opportunities fund, which—as she appreciates—is only for start-up. Sustainability lies within the rest of the money that is provided.

Let me tell everyone the extent of the funding that we are now providing. The comprehensive spending review allocated an additional £49 million of Scottish Executive funds to driving forward the strategy over the period 1999-2002. A further £42 million has been allocated for families with very young children—the 0 to three-year-olds. We call that initiative sure start Scotland.

A further £25 million of lottery resources will also be distributed over the next three years by the new opportunities fund. That represents 11.5 per cent of the total that is ring-fenced for Scotland, with distribution being based on levels of deprivation rather than simply on population density.

Let us not forget the important resources that are made available for child care from the new child care tax credit within the working families tax credit. Precise figures for that will depend on take

up, but we estimate that, every single year, it will provide an additional £20 million. That is an important step in our strategy.

Our financial package, combining Executive money, new opportunities funding and the working families tax credit, shows how the Scottish Executive is working productively with UK Government departments to align resources for child care in Scotland.

Under our programme for 0 to three-year-olds— sure start Scotland—our vision is that all children should have the best start in life. At the moment, the early life experiences of many children place them at an immediate disadvantage and can make it difficult for some three and four-year-olds to benefit from nursery experience. Even by that time, it can be too late. That is why we have implemented a programme specifically for our 0 to three-year-olds.

Sure start Scotland will improve support for families with very young children, by providing integrated facilities to which everyone can have easy access. Child care is just one element of that support. Not only do we want to provide stimulating play opportunities for children, but we want parents to be able to share in those play and developmental opportunities and to develop their own skills and confidence.

As I visit the projects that will benefit from sure start Scotland, a message that I hear clearly from mums and dads is that they also want to develop their skills and talents; that is an important function that child care facilities can provide. Parents and children should be able to get good medical advice and assistance on such issues as diet and child development. All the professionals in the system should be linked to that provision.

Sure start Scotland aims to target resources at the more disadvantaged communities, and to provide services that parents consider to be of help. It is an important part of our social inclusion strategy and the Scottish Executive has therefore allocated an additional £14 million to that budget for next year. That represents an increase of more than 50 per cent for that programme.

I turn to the rest of our child care strategy, for which we were able to make £5.75 million available this year. Next year, we will be able to increase our allocation to local authorities to £13.75 million—an increase of almost 140 per cent. That does not look very much like a standstill to me.

In building the funding package for child care, we recognise that different areas face different challenges and have differing costs. We have therefore skewed the distribution. For the first time, we have adjusted our funding formula for pre-school education and child care to weight it in favour of rural areas. We are also providing a rural development fund that will be run by Children in Scotland to spread good practice in the delivery of child care throughout rural areas. We intend to commission further research on that. Additional grants will also be made available to help Gaelic- medium playgroups reach the standard at which they can access mainstream education funding.

Most important of all, we will skew our funding towards disadvantaged areas, because we realise that those areas have an acute need for services and problems with project viability. I have therefore given the greatest weighting in our child care funding to deprivation.

Figures for each local authority area are now available at the back of the chamber, but I will give some examples. Under the child care strategy, funding for Glasgow will increase from just under £1 million to just under £3 million, Edinburgh from under £500,000 to £1 million, Highland from just over £200,000 to just over £600,000 and Scottish Borders from just over £100,000 to nearly £270,000. That represents a significant increase in child care funding and puts in place a sustainable, long-term package that can be delivered year after year.

Child care is not something that central Government can deliver. Yes, we can give a broad strategic steer, but provision needs to respond to local needs and local circumstances. That is why we asked local authorities to convene local child care partnerships, which have representation from private and voluntary sector providers of child care, employers, local enterprise companies, further education colleges, the health service and parents. In every local authority area, a child care partnership is now up and running. They have taken account of views that have been gathered through audits of supply and demand for child care and mean that the funds we put in place are properly targeted at local needs.

The child care plans that have been drawn up by the partnerships cover both child care and education, to ensure that we forge the right links. In future, we will want to consider whether we can integrate planning for children's services even further; we also intend to review the planning structures.

The partnerships examine and integrate services, so I was again interested by Nicola Sturgeon's statement in The Herald this morning. The article said that Nicola

"will call for piloting for children's centres across the country to provide pre-school nursery and out-of-school care under one roof".

In fact, 93 such centres are already in place across Scotland—I do not know how much more piloting we need.

We are trying to adopt a partnership approach to our responsibilities. We need to practise what we preach at the centre if those outside are also to work in partnership. I therefore announce today that we will merge the Scottish Childcare Board and the early years education forum, which, at present, give us separate advice on child care and pre-school education. We will therefore have an integrated source of advice on both subjects to ensure that we make the correct links between them. The new committee will be chaired by a minister, as befits the service's importance.

Our most important partnership is with parents. We need to help parents to help themselves and their children. For them, information services on child care are crucial. Parents need to know what types of child care are available, what they cost, where there are vacancies, how they are regulated and a host of other issues. That is why, as part of our investment in child care, we have put significant investment into information systems. We have invested heavily in order to give local authorities the computer hardware and software that they need in order to set up effective child care information services. Every local authority in the country, therefore, is well on the way to having a comprehensive local child care information service.

Those local services will link into a national information line and website, which will be ready by December and launched formally in January. They will give not only information on local provision, but more general advice on the different kinds of care parents might consider, from childminders to nurseries to after-school clubs. One telephone number and one website will give access to material and basic information, both nationally and locally. That is one of the most far- reaching of all the measures taken under the child care strategy. Better information will help parents make better choices for their children and is likely to increase parental interest in quality, an important part of which relates to regulatory standards, staff training and qualifications.

I issued a consultation paper on the regulation of day care and pre-school education earlier this year. We have had many helpful responses and I thank everyone who responded. The issues are complex and I intend to come back to the Parliament with our conclusions.

We have already made it clear that we intend that the new Scottish commission for the regulation of care should assume responsibility for regulating child care. However, quality goes further than systems—important as they are. What matters for children is the knowledge and skills of the individuals who look after them. That is partly about ensuring that those who are involved in child care have the right temperament and aptitude for the profession. Training and qualifications are also vital. That is an area where we still have a lot to do.

My first priority is to clarify the qualification structure. I will be launching an information booklet on that at the turn of the year. The booklet will be aimed at prospective students, adult returners, those already embarked on a child care career and employers. We will follow that with an action plan, setting out a suite of projects to improve access and career progression.

As a first step towards improving career progression, the National Training Organisation for Early Years, working with the Scottish Qualifications Authority, is developing a new Scottish vocational qualification level 4 award in early education and child care. The creation of that advanced qualification will help to show that child care is a profession in which entrants can progress over time to positions of higher status and responsibility.

I hope that I have given the Parliament a sense of what is being done to implement our child care strategy. Much has already been achieved and I pay tribute to the hard work and creative thinking of many local authorities and their partners. However, I stress that this will be a long haul and it will take time to achieve our full vision. It will need partnership and co-operation between all those with an interest in child care.

I had certain expectations when I started down this road, two and a half years ago, but we have made progress beyond those expectations. We can now deliver affordable and accessible high- quality child care for many children. That is good for our children and, as a result, is good for Scotland. I commend the motion to the Parliament.

I move,

That the Parliament supports the Scottish Executive's commitment to its Childcare Strategy for Scotland and welcomes the substantially increased allocation of funding to local authorities in 2000-01 to develop the Childcare Strategy in their areas.