 The next item of business is a statement by Mark MacDonald on the expansion of free early learning and childcare. The minister will take questions at the end of his statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on Mark MacDonald. Presiding Officer, this Government is committed to delivering a bright future for Scotland's children. The key to this is ensuring that all our children get the best possible start in life. That is why we have done more than any previous devolved administration and, indeed, any other Government in the UK to expand high-quality free early learning and childcare provision. If we are to achieve our aim of making substantial progress to close the attainment gap between children from the least and most deprived communities and interrupt the cycle of poverty that attacks the life chances of too many of our children, we must intervene early and provide a high-quality learning experience before they go to school, as well as appropriate support to enable parents to take up and stay in work, training and education. Achieving excellence and equity for our children is a systemic challenge, one that the whole system involved in delivering education and children's services needs to respond to. That includes those sectors and services that are involved in delivering early learning and childcare. Every child and family is different, so our work with them needs to respond to those individual circumstances. Put simply, our public services need to focus on the individual, not their own organisational arrangements. Our blueprint 2020 sets out how we will seek to achieve that by near doubling the current 600 hours per year of free early learning and childcare entitlement to 1,140 hours. This expansion will be built around quality, flexibility, accessibility and affordability to meet the needs of children and families across Scotland. Our consultation between October and January saw views on our blueprint. I want to thank all the individuals and 128 organisations that contributed responses or attended our seven consultation events for their thoughtful input. We are publishing an independent analysis of those responses today. Having carefully considered those responses, I can advise Parliament that today we are publishing the blueprint action plan, which sets out 31 steps that this Government will take in the coming year to work towards expansion of early learning and childcare provision to 1,140 hours by 2020. Quality is ready and will continue to be at the heart of our entire approach. We will develop a quality action plan by October 2017, working with stakeholders who know what drives quality and what more we need to do to strengthen it. As part of that, we will introduce a quality standard that all providers will be required to meet before they can access funding to deliver the free hours. That will draw on existing quality standards to create a coherent, consistent national standard. We also want to ensure that the service model maximises flexibility for families so that all parents can take up their entitlement for their children. Parents have told us that they want genuine choice of provision across sectors. That involves removing barriers to private and third sector providers delivering funded ELC. The service model for the future must ensure more financially sustainable provision across all sectors, including community-led provision such as the approach to extended hours being supported through the Argyll and Bute trial involving the Mull and Iona community trust. I want to make clear that local authorities will continue to play a vital role in delivering ELC and building capacity for the expansion to 1,140 hours. They will be the main guarantor of quality and enabler of flexibility and choice, but the service model that we will develop is fundamentally provider-neutral, prioritising the settings that are best placed to deliver quality outcomes for children and supporting our ambition to close the attainment gap, regardless of which sector they are provided by. This model will ensure that funding follows the child. It will be underpinned by a rigorous approach to ensure the quality of learning and care, so we will also establish a new national standard for funded provider status. Sustainability and fairness will also feature in the new model to help to drive quality. My officials will work in partnership with local authorities to develop the detail of the funding model and the national standard. I can also announce that we will commission a feasibility study to explore potential costs and benefits of introducing an early learning and childcare account in the future. As already stated, local authorities will continue to play a key role in the delivery of our action plan and will retain their statutory responsibility to ensure that funded entitlement is available for all eligible children in their areas. We also need to support them to build the capacity needed in their communities to provide 1140 hours. We will provide support to local authorities to provide access to professional and technical expertise on common and complex issues and additional service innovation and redesign capacity. That support will be shaped by the involvement of local authorities themselves. I can further advise that we are issuing ELC expansion planning guidance to local authorities today to help them to think through their key infrastructure, workforce and delivery model approaches in a systematic manner as they move towards providing 1140 hours. Increasing the role for childminders in delivering the funded hours received significant support in consultation responses. Our new provider neutral approach and accompanying funding model will help to make that a reality, but we must also ensure that childminders are enabled to play their part. We will work with the Scottish Child Minding Association and local authorities to ensure that childminders are properly promoted as a high-quality option for the funded hours. In September 2017, we will publish a new learning and development pathway to encourage more people to choose to become childminders. Now that the policy framework has been announced, local authorities can develop more refined cost estimates for the expansion. It is key to ensuring that we collectively maximise public value from this significant investment. I am clear that the new funding model will ensure that resources provided for early learning and childcare directly reach front-line delivery in order to best meet the needs of individual children and their families. While the details of actual funding allocations will be made clear in the formal budget process later this year, we will provide greater certainty to local authorities over multi-year revenue and capital funding assumptions over the coming weeks and months. We remain absolutely committed to meeting the cost of expanding the entitlement, and I reaffirm that commitment today. The role of the early learning and childcare workforce is critical to our principal aim of achieving better outcomes for children. The expansion will see an opportunity for the workforce to grow substantially, resulting in the creation of new employment opportunities in all parts of Scotland. We need to demonstrate how much we value that work by offering fulfilling career opportunities, entrance pathways and progression routes at all levels, from apprentices through to centreheads, and by ensuring that the workforce is fairly remunerated. That will be a key focus of a new recruitment marketing campaign that will be developed and ready for autumn 2017. We will work with delivery partners to develop recruitment and career pathways to assist in attracting and retaining high-caliber candidates in the workforce to raise the profile of a career in ELC among underrepresented groups and to seek to improve gender balance across the sector. We will also increase the focus on access to graduate-level early years educators, seeking to strengthen the practice-based element of graduate-level training with clear measures to be set out in our quality action plan. Our expansion plans will be built on a foundation of fairness for the workforce, with the living wage extended to all childcare staff delivering funded entitlement from the full roll-out of 1,140 hours in 2020. As the First Minister stated at the weekend, we will provide local authorities with up to £50 million additional annual revenue funding to enable funded providers to pay the living wage to childcare staff delivering the entitlement. Up to 8,000 staff in the private and third sectors will benefit from this uplift. Expanded provision must be accessible and delivered in a way that ensures equality of access for all children. The consultation highlighted that it can still be difficult for some families to access their entitlement if their child is disabled or has additional support needs. We are therefore introducing a new fund that will enable the provision of better support to meet children's needs. Providers will be able to access funding for specialist training and equipment, with a total of £2 million available over the next four years. Research shows that high-quality learning and care in early years has a positive effect on a range of outcomes for children and has the potential to make a key contribution to closing the attainment gap. That is why we are determined to ensure that the expansion of early learning and childcare in Scotland helps to deliver the strong foundations that our children need to succeed at school and in life. The blueprint action plan being published today sets out 31 key steps that we will take in 2017-18 to progress delivery on our key commitment to near double free early learning and childcare to eligible two-year-olds and all three and four-year-olds in Scotland by 2020. Crucially, by finding those steps on core principles of quality, flexibility, accessibility and affordability, we will ensure that the expansion helps to give every child in Scotland an equal chance of fulfilling his or her potential. The minister will now take questions for around 20 minutes. If members wish to ask a question, I would urge them to press their request to speak but now, and I call on Liz Smith, to be followed by Daniel Johnson. Liz Smith, I thank the minister for sight of the statement and can also very warmly welcome the move towards a model that will ensure that the funding will follow the child and especially the prospect of a childcare account and a model that I think will remove a lot of the inflexibility in the system that has prevented many parents from accessing the childcare of their choice. I think that those moves are exactly what the Conservatives have been calling for for some time, but, more important, they are what families and providers have been asking for, so we are very much appreciative of that move. I wonder if I could ask the minister three questions. First, in his desire to improve the quality of care, as well as the quantity of places, the minister states that providers will have to meet new standards. We welcome that, but could I ask what thought has been given to the measurements of the standards on a regular inspection basis so that they can maintain and enhance those standards over time? In other words, what data will be used in order to do that? Secondly, in recommendation 12, the minister mentions a new fund for ASN support. I wonder if I could ask how much money is being devoted to that new fund. In that context of ASN, which is so important, I wonder if he has given any further thought to the letter that he sent back to me on 21 February, in which I raised some concerns about the need for all providers to have a level nine. It is very good to have a highly professionalised group of people who are obviously involved in that, but there were many providers who flagged up the concerns about the additional cost of that, particularly for some people who are in very small units. Can I begin by thanking Liz Smith for the positive way in which she has approached that and for her welcome to the approach that the Government is taking forward? On the issue of quality, we will give careful consideration to how that is to be measured, because we want to ensure that, where those standards are in place, we keep track of how different providers are performing in relation to those standards. That will form part of the judgment in terms of developing those standards. It will be not just the development of those standards but how those standards are to be measured as part of the wider inspection process, so we will give careful consideration to that as we are taking that work forward. On the ASN support, the fund, which was announced, will be £2 million over four years, so £500,000 per annum is being allocated to provide support for staff training and purchase of equipment to support children with additional support needs in the early learning and childcare settings. In relation to her third point, if I remember correctly from the letter that I sent to her and I do not have it in front of me, so do not quote me on my powers of recall, I seem to recall that I mentioned in that letter that we will continue to give careful consideration to the points that she raised. That remains the case and we will continue to look very carefully at the points that she has raised and the concerns that she has fed back to me. Daniel Johnson to be followed by Clare Haughey. Thank you Presiding Officer and I would like to thank the Minister for Advanced Sight of today's statement. While Labour has many criticisms of the Government's approach to education, we welcome the ambition and direction of this expansion of early years and childcare. We know that whether you measure equality, attainment or getting parents back to work, childcare is a huge part to play in improving our society. We back the commitment to expanding provision, but we remain concerned about the investment that is required to meet it. To deliver 1140 hours, there needs to be substantial investment in buildings. Just this week, First Step Community Nursery in Hamilton was officially opened at a cost of £3.2 million for just over 100 places. If that is what 100 places cost, the £30 million capital investment in the budget surely is insufficient to meet the commitment to almost double provision. What capital funding will be made available and when will it be available? I also note the Minister's emphasis on the continued role for local authorities in providing childcare. However, the new funding model implies a significantly changed role for them in funding and regulation. What is the future role of local councils in terms of quality and standards in childcare? To deal with the points that Mr Johnson has raised in terms of the capital allocation, the capital allocation in this year was to allow local authorities to start the process of developing their expansion plans towards 2020. Today's announcement provides the clarity that local authorities will want in relation to what the model is going to be and the approach that we will take in terms of provider status, which will then help them to refine some of the plans that they have been discussing with the Scottish Futures Trust. In terms of future capital allocation, that will obviously form part of the budget process that I outlined in the statement and will form part of our discussions between local authorities and Scottish Futures Trust. However, I reiterate the point that we remain committed to fully funding the expansion that is taking place. In terms of the role of local authorities, local authorities will continue to have a key role in mapping and shaping provision in their own local area and providing the support in terms of the quality assurance that we as a Government are going to set in place. That will be taken forward as a continuation in terms of partnership. However, we recognise the point that Mr Johnson himself will have recognised from the feedback that we have received that too often there is a feeling that the funding that is put in place does not necessarily relate to the delivery of flexibility in terms of both ours and providers. We are seeking to address that by approaching that from a provider neutral model where funding follows the child. I welcome the focus and quality in the plans to near double free early learning and childcare and the acknowledgement of the role that a highly skilled workforce plays in that. Can the minister advise how the action plan announced today will help to provide security for the existing workforce and also increase diversity and skills? The plan sets out a range of different approaches that will take to develop the early learning and childcare workforce, improve career pathways and attract more workers to the early learning and childcare sector. For example, an increase in the number of modern apprenticeships in the sector by 10 per cent year on year up to 2020, launching our recruitment marketing campaign in the autumn of this year, as I highlighted in my statement. Working with Skills Development Scotland to produce updated guidance on opportunities in early learning and childcare for careers advice organisations and working with the Care Inspectorate and Other Partners to publish that new learning and development pathway for childminders in September 2017. Alongside that, our commitment to delivering £50 million of funding to ensure payment of the living wage across the sector provides both the security in terms of the existing workforce and the encouragement that is required to attract new people into the workforce in order to ensure that we can deliver on our aims for expansion. I welcome the statement by the minister this afternoon. I suspect that some of the detail of the devil will be in the detail, so we look forward to seeing how it works over the next few months. However, will the minister agree with me that there is still an issue in regard to parents who live in one local authority but work in another local authority trying to get the childcare that they want? Will he work with local authorities and how does he intend to work with local authorities to make sure that the parents get the nursery where they want it, not necessarily where they live? I thank Jeremy Balfour for his question. First of all, I agree with him that where parents choose to access their funded entitlement, that funded entitlement should be delivered. We have issued guidance to local authorities in relation to cross-boundary funding of placements. Where that is not occurring and where we can demonstrate that that is not occurring, I am more than happy to have discussions with those local authorities. As well as us preparing for the expansion for 2020, we also have to ensure that the here and now is being addressed in terms of the entitlement that is currently available. I will continue to have discussions with local government in relation to ensuring that the appropriate flexibility is afforded and that those cross-boundary issues are addressed. It would be fair to say that in terms of the model that we are putting in place, the funding following the child provider neutral model, that will help to address those cross-boundary issues that Jeremy Balfour rightly identifies and which the Government is taking steps to address. The minister has talked about the need to build capacity and that seems correct, and the importance of all sectors in providing so that childcare can be expanded. In the private sector, one of the problems that has been faced right now by nurseries, of course, is a very significant increase in their costs through business rates. One example from a constituency of an increase of over 40 per cent. What can the minister do to try to ensure that those providers survive this increase in their costs so that they can contribute to the strategy? I would say two things in relation to that. One may be more than two, we will see how it goes. The first is that, of course, the opportunity is therefore businesses to appeal any revaluation decision, and that should be the first step that any business takes in relation to a revaluation that they feel is unfair in relation to the costs that will land upon their business. The second is that we as a chamber took a decision to pass the Community Empowerment Act 2020, which provides power to local authorities to implement localised rate relief schemes, which is happening in a number of local authority areas across Scotland. The power is there for local authorities to identify sectors that require rates relief at a local level and put that in place. We have taken steps at a national level based on the feedback that came to the Government from the business community and from opposition parties in the chamber to put in place specific rate relief schemes, but the power extends to local authorities and additional money was allocated in the budget through the deal that was struck between the Government and the Green Party, which enables local authorities and some local authorities have chosen to do that, to put in place their own localised rate relief schemes. I would encourage Mr Gray to have conversations with his colleagues at East Lothian Council about the approaches that they could take in relation to rates relief at a local level. Rona Mackay, to be followed by Alison Johnson. Parents, as demonstrated by the fairer funding for our kids campaign, have often voiced concern at their difficulty in actually taking up current free provision for their children compared to what has been on offer from local authorities. Can the minister advise how the announcement today to ensure that funding follows the child might change that? The new funding following the child system that we will be putting in place will remove some of the key barriers that providers in the private and third sector have highlighted currently preventing them from offering the funded entitlement. Introducing a standardised approach to offering the funded entitlement that removes some of the inconsistencies and approach that exists in terms of gaining partner provider status with different local authorities, but also underpinning a national quality standard that providers will have to meet. The approach should encourage more providers in the private and third sector to offer the funded entitlement or, if they are providing already, to increase the number of funded places that are available, which will unlock more choice for parents but, at the same time, ensure that that guarantees a high-quality provision. Alison Johnson, to be followed by Tavish Scott. Thank you. The Scottish Greens have previously called for a living wage for all working in childcare and warmly welcomed the Scottish Government's commitment to that. I am also pleased to read about the additional support need fund of £2 million, which aims to increase diversity of the workforce and the promotion of childminders. Can I ask the minister why he has taken a provider-neutral approach over a local authority first one? If the minister agrees that all children should have access to a GTCS-qualified teacher, thank you. In terms of the approach that we have taken in terms of provider-neutral, the discussions that I have had with local government have very much focused on the fact that there needs to be that approach in terms of a range of providers being available in relation to that. We also recognised that, in a number of local authorities—and it would be fair to say that, in some local authorities, they have taken the approach of, for example, involving childminders in terms of their delivery of the 600 hours—we have recognised that that is not being applied on a universal basis currently. The provider-neutral approach allows us to bring providers such as childminders very much into the delivery of the expanded hours. In terms of Alison Johnstone's question about teacher access, the Government has put in place funding to ensure that, in some of our most deprived communities, for example, an additional teacher or graduate will be able to be working in those settings. We are looking very carefully at how we increase the number of graduates working within the sector, and that was part of the statement that I laid out here, because we recognise that, as well as the teachers that Alison Johnstone identifies, there are also graduates in BH altitude practice who have a lot to offer in this sector, and we want to ensure that as many routes into the profession are available as possible. Tavish Scott, followed by Fulton MacGregor. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Can I thank the Minister for Advanced Copies of his statement and recognise the role that he has brought in bringing this together? Indeed, he probably has now named the great conciliator on the front bench of bringing all the parties together in broadly welcoming what has been announced today. Well, maybe. There is always a but, as Jeremy Balfour rightly said. The figures that were presented about the workforce planning needs to the education committee of this Parliament earlier in the year, including from both the minister and indeed the cabinet secretary for education, suggested that between 14,000 and 20,000 extra members of staff would be needed to fulfil the needs of this plan. Could he set out today for Parliament if he believes that that will be met against the exacting timetable of the policy that is being established? I cannot help but feel that Tavish Scott is trying to set me up for some kind of a fall there by heaping such praise upon me. I will do my best to live up to such high expectations. In terms of the staffing numbers, part of the discussion that we will be having with local authorities following today's statement will be to give careful consideration to how that will impact in terms of the staffing requirements that will be needed in order to deliver that. The recruitment campaign, which will be launching in the autumn of this year, is very much focused on ensuring that we get the numbers of individuals taking the different pathways into the early learning and childcare workforce to ensure that we meet our requirements for the expansion by 2020. However, I can assure Tavish Scott that this Government is fully focused on ensuring that we have not just the right numbers of staff, but also the right quality of staff in place to ensure that we can deliver that expansion and deliver high-quality provision to the children of Scotland. Fulton MacGregor, to be followed by Ross Thompson. Fulton MacGregor. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is important that all children are able to benefit from free early learning and childcare. Can the minister provide more detail about what the access fund announced yesterday will provide and how it might help more disabled children to take up their entitlement? Fulton MacGregor, for his question, he will have heard in terms of the response that I gave to Liz Smith that we are providing £2 million over a four-year period to enable training to be provided for staff and the opportunity for equipment to be purchased, which will help to ensure that some of the barriers that children with additional support needs can face in accessing the early learning and childcare entitlement can be overcome. One of the key principles behind the expansion that I outlined at the outset and have repeated throughout is accessibility. That does not just mean geographical accessibility and being able to access your entitlement in a local setting. It also means accessibility in ensuring that no child finds themselves excluded from provision as a consequence of their needs. That fund is designed to ensure that that is what happens. Ross Thompson, to be followed by Marie Todd. Ross Thompson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. On those benches, we have consistently raised the unfairness of birthday discrimination, where a child born in August receives a full two years of Government-funded provision before starting school, but a child born in September will only receive 18 months and a child born in January will receive only 15 months. Can the minister clarify today whether the measures that he has outlined will tackle this inherently unfair situation for children and families in Scotland? Currently, local authorities have the flexibility to be able to offer entitlement at an earlier stage than that that was outlined by Ross Thompson, and some local authorities choose to do that. That will not change as a consequence of the position that I have outlined. What I am focused on and determined to continue to focus on is driving improved uptake among the eligible two-year-olds who come from situations of being looked after or low-income backgrounds, because we recognise that they have much to benefit from accessing the entitlement, which I believe will address some of the points that the Conservatives have raised about ensuring that those who require the provision and would benefit most from the provision receive it. It is good to see that so many people and organisations took part in the consultation on the blueprint 2020. Given the impact that this policy will have on local authorities, can the minister advise which local authorities provided their view? Similarly, did any of the Opposition parties or spokespeople provide views? In terms of the responses that were received from local authorities, we received responses from 27 of the 32 local authorities in Scotland. The only local authorities from whom we did not receive a response were Clackmannanshire, East Dunbartonshire, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and Stirling. We received a response from COSLA, but we did not receive a response from the Scottish local government partnership. While we did not receive formal responses from the Opposition parties in the chamber, I had the opportunity to have meetings with Liz Smith, Daniel Johnson, Tavish Scott and Alison Johnson. Without telling tales out of school, I am sure that they would agree that those were very constructive discussions, and I am sure that they will have seen some of those discussions reflected in the statement that I have made to Parliament today. Jenny Marra, to be followed by Willie Coffey. Jenny Marra. The minister will have seen the survey from the NDNA this morning, which said that just half of private nurseries were likely to provide places for the expansion. Dundee City has a disproportionate number of private nurseries at almost 50 per cent of provision compared to a third for Scotland as a whole. How will the minister ensure that local authorities like Dundee are not left behind in the expansion, and how will he put the right conditions in place to encourage private providers to take up funded places? I would hope that the steps that I have outlined around the approach that we are going to take in terms of the funding model and the approach that we are going to take in ensuring that funding is provided to ensure that living wage can be provided and in terms of ensuring that we create a suitable quality standard will be the sort of measures that will help to encourage more providers to offer funded entitlement, whether that is expanding what they currently offer or bringing themselves to the table as new providers. I am confident that the issues that have been highlighted by the NDNA in terms of their survey and I thank them for their continued constructive input and they have been involved as part of the on-going discussion that we as Government have had in developing both the action plan and the wider policy framework. We will continue to have those discussions with the NDNA, but I am confident that the measures that we have outlined here will help to address some of the points that NDNA have highlighted to us as part of their survey. Willie Coffey. Thank you very much. It is also on the NDNA survey. One of the issues that they raised in the survey was about staff wages and recruitment, particularly. Could the minister tell us what the Scottish Government is doing to ensure that private nurseries, which play a key role as partner providers, can address those issues? Yes, absolutely. As I have highlighted on more than one occasion, the £50 million of additional revenue to ensure that all staff delivering the funded entitlement are paid the living wage will help in relation to that. In terms of the recruitment campaign that we are going to be bringing forward, one of the things that has been raised with me on numerous occasions has been a feeling that the role of staff in early learning and childcare settings has not been valued highly enough. I want to change that mindset that can sometimes exist out there. Essentially, what we are asking people to do is to join with us in transforming children's lives in Scotland, and I do not think that there can be any higher status in relation to what we are looking to deliver than that. That is essentially the driving principle behind this. I hope that that will help to encourage more people to come into the sector, because as well as seeing the living wage being paid, we are now having better salaries in positions, but also in terms of career progression within the sector. Those are areas that we are going to work on to ensure that we continue to attract high-quality staff to help to deliver the entitlement. Thank you very much. That ends our statement on the expansion of free early learning and childcare. We are going to move on to a debate in the consultation on the British sign language. I am delighted to say that we are providing the signing facilities for the benefit of our audience of those watching at home. We will just take a few moments to change seats when we start this debate.