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I find it difficult. I have tried to reassure the committee that the matter would be looked at in the best interests of all the children and young people involved. Equally, for those very serious offences, it would be a matter for the Lord Advocate to consider where that should be dealt with and the outcome of that. I hear the concerns that are being raised and I will certainly take them forward in further consideration of the bill.

High-quality early learning and childcare has a positive impact on all children’s outcomes, and evidence shows that it has a greater positive impact on children living in poverty. It can also support parents to work, train or study—as the committee has heard during evidence—and it can have a direct impact on the drivers of child poverty through supporting household incomes.

In relation to our current and previous offer, modelling published by the Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland estimated that, at 600 hours, funded ELC lifted more than 10,000 adults and children out of poverty. It also notes that the expansion to 1,140 hours will have an even bigger impact. As Mr O’Kane referred to, our programme for government sets out how we will go even further.

If families paid for the existing 1,140 offer themselves, it would cost them around £5,000 per child per year, which is a huge amount of money. Independent research shows that 97 per cent of parents are satisfied with the quality of funded ELC. A range of on-going work is focused on delivering a robust and accurate evidence base and evaluation of the impact of 1,140 hours, including an economic evaluation of the expansion.

The baseline phases of the Scottish study of ELC were published in 2019-20. The fourth phase is on track to begin data collection in October. That will give us a clearer idea of the impact that our current offer is having, which will be further looked at as the programme is expanded.

I will refer to my official for that kind of in-depth answer.

I am very switched on to the challenges. I know that the committee has heard evidence on the issue, which has been raised with me in various meetings that I have held with key stakeholders and organisations. In the programme for government, as the member will be aware, the Scottish Government is committing to increasing pay to £12 an hour for early learning and childcare professionals working in the private, voluntary and independent sector who are delivering funded provision in early learning. That is a really important step. We will also expand the existing recruitment and retention pilots for childminders to grow that part of the workforce by 1,000 by 2026-27. Those two actions, coupled together, are critical steps towards addressing some of the issues around recruitment and retention.

I am also involved in further work. I will work closely with our partners, particularly the Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Social Services Council, to consider a robust regulatory and qualifications framework for school-age childcare. The pilot areas have already been mentioned. The work in the pilot areas recognises that the school-age childcare sector needs a varied workforce to meet the differing needs of children and families.

We have work going on with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on the findings of the joint Scottish Government-COSLA review of sustainable rates, which has also been raised with me in various meetings. I am sure that the member is switched on to that. Those findings will be published later in the year, and we will determine what actions are taken as a result.

Those are important first steps, but there is further work under way.

Yes.

Thank you for the question. I do not have to tell the member about the difficult public spending environment that we find ourselves in.

I completely appreciate the member’s concerns. We are currently investing more than £1 billion in delivering childcare in 2023-24. As we have discussed this morning, we are announcing plans for further expansion, and it is vital for funding to continue. On investment in childcare, the member will be aware that budgets are set through the budget process, and I would not be able to foresee or comment on that at the moment.

Obviously, this can fluctuate but, at the moment, there is capacity in secure care. There are currently six spaces and there are five 16 and 17-year-olds in young offenders institutions. However, as already mentioned, we look to expand the last-bed policy, which currently sits at four beds, to 16 beds to ensure capacity for Scottish children. That is being discussed at ministerial level and we hope to provide an update on it soon. Therefore, the answer is yes, in essence.

Yes.

I do not have a date for that at the moment. The working group has a meeting scheduled for 5 June, and stage 1 needs to be completed before that can happen. Everything that we have heard so far from committees and stakeholders will feed into that.

No. Stage 1 will feed into the financial memo, so it will be following that.