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Consultations and published responses are available on the Scottish Government website: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/

Data is not collected for nursery settings specifically, but for all centres providing the funded entitlement of Early Learning and Childcare (ELC). The following tables show the number of teachers working in ELC settings from 2010 onwards, broken down by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintiles, based on the location of the setting. This analysis is based on data collected through the ELC census in September each year.

Comparable data is not available prior to 2010 as the census process was changed in this year.

From 2014 onwards, data on centrally employed teachers in ELC was collected separately. This affects the breakdown by SIMD since these teachers work in various settings across their local authority, and therefore cannot be assigned to a particular or single SIMD area. This means that the results from 2014 onwards are not directly comparable to those from earlier years.

We have therefore presented the figures in two separate tables, with table 1 covering the period 2010-2013 and table 2 covering the period 2014-2016 and showing the number of centrally employed teachers which could not be allocated to an SIMD quintile.

Table 1: Teachers working in ELC settings by SIMD quintile, 2010-2013

1. SIMD 2012 was used for analysing 2010 to 2013 data. There were a small number of teachers that worked in settings for each year that could not be assigned to an SIMD quintile.

Table 2: Teachers working in ELC settings by SIMD quintile, 2014-2016

1. SIMD 2012 was used for analysing 2014 and 2015 data, and SIMD 2016 was used for 2016 data. There were a small number of teachers that worked in settings for each year (apart from 2016) that could not be assigned to an SIMD quintile.

2. Centrally employed teachers cannot be assigned to an SIMD quintile as they work in various locations across the local authority, from the most to the least deprived areas.

The Scottish Government has corresponded with European Free Trade Association (EFTA) officials to make practical arrangements for the meetings referred to in the answer to S5W-07503.

The Scottish Government has similarly been in contact with representatives of the Faroese and Danish Governments to make arrangements for fact-finding meetings to discuss a range of issues.

Neither programme has been in operation for five years.

Foundation Apprenticeships are in the early development phase. They are two year courses delivered in the senior phase since 2014. They were tested during 2014-16 with pilots running in West Lothian and Fife.

Statistical reporting for Foundation Apprenticeships is different from Modern Apprenticeships as they are one option in senior phase curriculum at school. They allow pupils to replace one of their subject choices with a foundation apprenticeship. Like other subject choices Foundation Apprenticeships can be changed or dropped by pupils.

In 2014-16 pathfinder there were 72 starts that delivered 42 completers and 21 early leavers. Early leavers include staying on at school, going to College, University, Apprenticeships and employment. The reporting for the 15/17 cohort will be available in the autumn of 2017.

Foundation Apprenticeships are undertaken at school so individuals are not employed and can’t be made redundant.

Graduate Level Apprenticeships were introduced from February 2016. 27 Graduate Level Apprentices have started between February 2016 (first intake) and January 2017. None have left the programme to date.

No Graduate level apprentices have been made redundant. SDS has a process in place that will ensure that any GLA apprentice facing redundancy will be supported to continue their apprenticeship with another employer where possible.

Although we currently do not collect data on graduates working within nurseries in Scotland, we will add questions on graduates to the Early Learning and Childcare census in September 2017 to be published in December. This will include the location of where graduates are based. Collecting this information each year will help us monitor our commitment to ensure that nurseries in the most deprived areas will benefit from an additional graduate by 2018. We are currently working with local authorities to consider how this data could be complemented by additional local information.

Yes

We continue to develop proposals to pilot approaches to providing support for parents in low income households with the upfront costs of childcare during 2017-18. I will provide an update to the Education and Skills Committee when further details are available.

The MA target for 2016-17 is outlined in the Skills Development Scotland Letter of Guidance 2016-17 as 26,000 starts https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/41986/letter-of-guidance-2016-17-final-web-publication-version.pdf .

The target for 2017-18 is 27,000 and includes higher level MAs at levels 4 and 5 and Graduate Level Apprenticeships.

The ambition is for the delivery of 30,000 apprentice starts including higher Graduate Level Apprenticeships, by 2020.

In August 2016, 351 young people had started a Foundation Apprenticeship and from August 2017 the number of places available will increase to 1,900. By the end of 2019, up to 5,000 Foundation Apprenticeship places will be available for young people.

Further Apprenticeships targets will be subject to Scottish Government annual spending reviews.

The Scottish Government publishes annual total marketing spend, broken down by services provided by the Marketing Services Framework.

The spend on each of its advertising campaigns in each of the last five years, including campaigns to promote the extension to free Early Learning and Childcare entitlement, can be found via the following links:

2011-12: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/People/Directorates/Communications/advertising-marketing/spend/2011-2012spend2012?refresh=0.3206473765435549

2012-13: http://www.gov.scot/About/People/Directorates/Communications/advertising-marketing/spend/publicinfosocialadspend-2012-13

2013-14: http://www.gov.scot/About/People/Directorates/Communications/advertising-marketing/spend/2013-2014

2015-16: https://beta.gov.scot/publications/advertising-spend-2015-2016

Current uptake calculations are based on the number of registrations for funded early learning and childcare, as collected from settings and agreed with each local authority. We are aware that improvements are needed to the data collection for this sector, and are planning on moving to an individual child level census, using data held by local authorities. By changing to a more detailed data collection, we will be able to resolve issues such as the double counting of children with split placements and reporting of cross boundary placements as we will have the necessary detail to address this issues. Uptake figures based on this more comprehensive data should be available in summer 2019.