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All local authorities recognise that funded providers across the private and third sectors are vital to the delivery of the 1140 offer. This is reflected in local authority expansion plans which indicate that around a quarter of funded hours will be delivered by funded providers in the private or third sector or childminders by 2021-22.

The Scottish Government and COSLA have robust joint governance arrangements in place to ensure that all local authorities have the required capacity and capability in place and are well supported as they prepare for August 2020.

The Joint Delivery Board, which I co-chair with the COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People, is responsible for reviewing progress towards implementation of the 1140 hours offer across all 32 local authorities and for agreeing actions to mitigate risk, respond to emerging issues or put support in place where that may be required. The Board will publish further delivery progress reports at https://www.gov.scot/publications/early-learning-and-childcare-delivery-progress-report/

From August 2020 all providers in the private and third sector, including childminders, who are delivering the funded early learning and childcare entitlement will receive a sustainable funding rate that reflects the cost of delivery. The funding to enable providers to receive a sustainable rate for delivering the funded entitlement was included as part of the multi-year funding agreement between the Scottish Government and COSLA to fully fund the expansion to 1140 hours. Local authority settlements were informed by detailed local financial planning.

The costs of delivering early learning and childcare will vary across the country, and will reflect local circumstances. In order to ensure that these local circumstances are captured it is for individual local authorities to set hourly rates for providers operating in their areas. Guidance was published on 29 April 2019 to support local authorities to set sustainable rates for providers from August 2020 and is available from: https://www.gov.scot/publications/funding-follows-child-national-standard-early-learning-childcare-providers-guidance-setting-sustainable-rates-august-2020/ .

Meaningful and genuine partnership working between local authorities and funded providers is key to the expansion of funded early learning and childcare.

The Scottish Government and COSLA established the ELC Partnership Forum to bring together local authorities and funded providers across Scotland to share and promote good practice in partnership working. The Forum met in Aberdeen on 12 December 2018, including a number of providers from Aberdeenshire. Any provider who wishes to participate in the national ELC Partnership Forum can get further information by emailing ELCPartnershipForum@gov.scot

Local authorities are responsible for developing local partnership working arrangements. Aberdeenshire Council has advised that funding provider meetings take place termly, and that senior council officers are contactable via earlyyears@aberdeenshire.gov.uk.

The Scottish Government’s Delivery Support Plan for Providers, published on 19 December 2018, set out how we will ensure providers, including childminders, are supported through the transition to 2020. This includes the following measures which aim to support private and third sector providers with recruitment and retention:

• Funding COSLA to open up the myjobscotland public sector recruitment site for private and third sector ELC providers to post jobs on in the period up to 2020
• Confirmation that the funding agreement with COSLA will enable all childcare workers delivering the funded entitlement to be paid at least the real Living Wage from 2020
• The provision of targeted advice and support to providers to help them to implement Fair Work practices and to deliver the real Living Wage commitment

We are also implementing a number of measures to support the recruitment and training of the additional staff required to deliver the 1140 hours expansion overall, including: 

• Continuing our national recruitment campaign targeting school leavers and older career changers
• Working with the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland to create additional capacity in the college and work-based learning sectors to train the additional staff required for 2020
• Funding CEMVO to disseminate our national campaign messaging to ethnic minority communities, to broaden out the talent pool and diversify the sector.

In relation to retention issues in the partner provider sector: we would expect local authorities to consider the impact of recruitment exercises on their funded partners and recruit appropriately, and we know local authorities are considering the potential disruption to funded private and third sector providers when recruiting additional staff for the expansion of ELC. Indeed, many are recruiting from other areas, such as other Council services, to minimise their impact on private/third sector providers.

Guidance was published on 29 April 2019 - Funding Follows the Child and the National Standard for Early Learning and Childcare Providers: Guidance for Setting Sustainable Rates from August 2020 – to support local authorities to set sustainable rates for providers in the private and third sector, including childminders, delivering the funded early learning and childcare entitlement.

The guidance, which was developed by Scotland Excel on behalf of the Scottish Government and COSLA, sets out the overarching principles and points that should be taken into account by all local authorities when establishing sustainable rates. One of the principles, as set out in Section 2 of the guidance document, is that Local authorities and funded providers should work together to be as transparent and open as commercially reasonable when discussing rates and costs .

The guidance is available from: https://www.gov.scot/publications/funding-follows-child-national-standard-early-learning-childcare-providers-guidance-setting-sustainable-rates-august-2020/ .

The uncertainty relating to Brexit is impacting key economic indicators for Scotland with business and consumer sentiment surveys reporting notable falls in confidence.

The Scottish Government assesses consumer confidence through its Consumer Sentiment Indicator. The indicator is at its lowest reading since the series began in 2013 and has been negative since quarter 3 2016. In their latest forecasts, the SFC highlight that Brexit is likely to be a significant driver of this declining consumer confidence.

The Scottish Government does not hold comparable statistics on consumer confidence in Scotland and London. However, the latest OECD leading indicators data shows that consumer confidence has also fallen in the UK.

Forecasting VAT receipts is the responsibility of the Scottish Fiscal Commission.

This is a stressful time for all who are affected by the collapse of London Capital and Finance (LC&F). The regulation of financial services, including the services your constituent has highlighted, is a reserved matter to the UK Government. Consequently, Scottish Ministers are unable to intervene in the practices employed by financial services companies or in individual complaints.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has agreed with HM Treasury that there should be an investigation by an independent person into the issues raised by the failure of LC&F and whether the existing regulatory system adequately protects retail purchasers of mini-bonds from unacceptable levels of harm.

The FSCS is working closely with the administrators and the FCA to try to establish whether LC&F might have carried out any other regulated activity for which they could compensate customers. The FSCS investigation is focusing on whether there was any regulated advising, arranging or other activities that may trigger compensation.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken any new assessment of the impact of the most recent salmon and sea trout catch statistics. Our most recent assessment comes from a report by economic consultants PACEC, commissioned in 2015 and published in March 2017. This can be found at https://www2.gov.scot/Resource/0051/00514801.pdf .

Separately, Scottish Enterprise is currently leading a study with the Tweed, Spey, Tay and Dee rivers to look at both the impact of the decline in salmon numbers and the opportunities that there might be to develop the total fishing offer for the future. I understand this work is progressing well and look forward to seeing the outcomes later in the summer.

The Guidance on the presumption to provide education in a mainstream setting was informed by a wide range of information and evidence including the Not Included, Not Engaged and Not Involved report. The guidance takes account of the matters raised in the report, and these are framed within the advice and guidance to schools and education authorities in relation to the implementation of the presumption to mainstream education. The document therefore focusses on the legislative and practice requirements, for pupils with additional support needs and particularly highlights the need to focus on the individual needs of pupils. This is consistent with the recommendations of the Not Included, Not Engaged and Not Involved report.

In addition, and as part of our wider response to the Not Included, Not Engaged and Not Involved report the Scottish Government has convened a short life working group to consider Autism in schools. The group includes a wide range of stakeholders and the conclusions of the group will be made public in due course.