Letter from the Minister for Children and Young People
When I last attended the Committee to discuss the provision of funded early learning and childcare to two-year-olds on 08 September, we discussed the anticipated public consultation by UK Government on draft Regulations that would allow for Scottish local authorities to receive data on eligible families in their area, from DWP and HMRC.
I am writing to make you aware that the consultation has been published today:
www.gov.uk/government/consultations/digital-economy-act-2017-scottish-early-learning-and-childcare
I encourage you to consider, share and respond to this consultation, which will ensure that those children who stand to benefit the most are made aware of the funded provision through direct contact from their local authority.
The consultation will be open for 8 weeks and will close on 7 March 2022.
We know that eligible 2-year-olds are among those that will benefit most from earlier access to high quality funded ELC. We also know that high quality ELC provides children with the skills and confidence to carry throughout their lives, and is a cornerstone for closing the poverty-related attainment gap between the most and least advantaged children.
As we delivered our transformative ELC expansion programme, we progressed work to raise awareness and increase uptake of the 2-year-old offer. We have seen a year-on-year increase in the number of 2-year-olds accessing a funded ELC place, with the latest data published on 14 December: Summary Statistics For Schools In Scotland 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Although this is reassuring, there is still more that we can do to support these children and families to make them aware of their entitlement, and to provide them with the relevant information to help them to make an informed decision.
The Committee are aware that the Scottish Government has been working with UK Government to establish a legal mechanism to allow DWP and HRMC to lawfully share the data of households with an eligible 2-year-olds with Scottish local authorities for some time. Local authorities in England and Wales already benefit from established legal mechanisms which allows them to access the information needed to identify and target eligible families for their childcare offers.
While our qualifying criteria intend to target those 2-year-olds who stand to benefit the most from early access to high quality funded ELC, uptake of this targeted offer has consistently remained lower than the universal offer to 3- and 4-year-olds. We know that not all families will take up their entitlement even when they are aware but allowing families to make an informed choice is critical. Research has identified that a key barrier to raising awareness amongst eligible families in Scotland is due to Scottish Government and Scottish Local Authorities not having access to household level information about those families who meet eligibility criteria.
The draft Regulations that are the subject of this consultation will benefit local authorities in Scotland - allowing them to effectively and efficiently target local information to eligible families.
Underpinning all of this is the joint commitment between Scottish Government and Scottish local authorities to maximise uptake of funded ELC in order to ensure we realise the benefits of the investment: Children's development improves and the attainment gap narrows; Parents' opportunities to be in work, training or study increase; and Family wellbeing improves through the enhanced nurture and support available through the funded hours.
I look forward to your continued support for this work.
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