 The next item of business is a statement by Marie Todd on early learning and childcare expansion. The minister will take questions at the end of her statement and so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on Marie Todd for up to 10 minutes, please minister. Thank you, Presiding Officer. We have made an ambitious commitment to offer every child in Scotland the opportunity to grow up in a country where they feel loved, safe and respected. Each and every one of them deserves the chance to reach their potential. This Government is dedicated to achieving the same. That is why we have committed to almost doubling the funded early learning and childcare entitlement for all three and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds from August 2020. At the heart of the expansion is the focus on quality. The earliest years of life are crucial for every child. Evidence tells us that, if our early learning and childcare offer is to help to give the children the best start in life and to contribute to closing the poverty-related attainment gap, it has to be of high quality. Yesterday, we launched the funding follows the child approach, which is underpinned by a national standard that is clearly focused on driving high-quality ELC for our children and their families. Our approach is provider-neutral. That means that all providers delivering the funded hours, regardless of whether they are in the public, private or the third sector, including childminders, will have to meet the same national standard. That provides reassurance to parents and carers that any setting that offers the funded hours can offer their child a high-quality ELC experience. Funding follows the child places the choice in parents' hands, enabling them to access their child's funded entitlement from any provider that meets the national standard and has a place available and is willing to enter a contract with the local authority. High-quality experiences for our children are underpinned by strong, positive and trusting relationships with the staff that they spend time with in early learning and childcare. The national standard underlines our commitment to ensuring that the workforce is professional, dedicated and skilled and that practitioners receive the support that they deserve and are empowered to develop their practice in innovative ways. We have engaged extensively with the sector and, in particular, with providers to finalise the details of funding that follows the child approach. I am very grateful to everyone who took the time to respond to the consultation or to attend one of our engagement events. The national standard has the full backing of COSLA. Both central and local government are fully committed to the new approach. ELC provision must be financially sustainable so that providers across all sectors are willing and able to deliver the funded hours. The Scottish Government and COSLA agreed a multi-year funding package that enables the payment of sustainable rates to funded providers and ensures that each child's funded entitlement is free at the point of access. The package includes funding to enable providers to pay all of the childcare workers delivering the funded entitlement at least the real living wage. That commitment represents the first step from our Government to ensure that our contracts and agreements reflect our fair work first principles in practice. The hourly funding rates that are received by private and third sector providers will significantly increase as a result of the funding deal. The expansion of funded ELC also offers us an opportunity to ensure that no child in ELC goes hungry because of their background. It also supports the development of healthy eating habits at a crucial stage. That is why, from August 2020, every child attending a funded ELC session will be provided with a free meal. The funding to deliver that commitment is additional to the sustainable rate for funded providers. Local authorities will ensure that there is transparency for funded providers as to the funding being provided to deliver the free meals. The expansion provides an opportunity to transform the way that we deliver early learning and childcare. Playing, learning and having fun outdoors helps to improve wellbeing and resilience. It helps to increase health through physical activity. It provides children with the opportunity to develop a lifelong appreciation of the natural world. The national standard ensures that every child receiving funded early learning and childcare, whether they are in rural settings or right in the heart of our cities, will have access to outdoor play during the session. In collaboration with the Care Inspectorate and Inspiring Scotland, we will publish Out to Play, an online resource with practical guidance for creating outdoor play experiences in early learning and childcare, with advice on how to access and create safe, nurturing and inspiring outdoor learning experiences. I commend its publication to Parliament as an important step towards increasing outdoor play in early learning and childcare. Although quality is absolutely at the heart of our approach, we know that flexibility for families is a welcome element of the expansion. We intend to introduce legislative changes ahead of August 2020 to increase the maximum length of a funded ELC session to 10 hours. We are confident that we can demonstrate that providers are able to offer a high-quality experience over longer sessions, and the national standard will offer opportunities for us to measure that over time through Care Inspectorate quality evaluations. However, we will monitor the impact of the change to ensure that there is no detrimental impact on children's wellbeing and outcomes. Providers from all parts of the sector will be vital to ensuring the delivery of our ambitions. Our new funding follows the child approach and will ensure that local authorities assess the potential impacts of their policy and investment decisions on the sustainability of other ELC providers in their area, including in relation to the recruitment of high-quality staff. We are also working closely with Scotland Excel to ensure that the processes for becoming a funded provider are simplified and to reduce the burden on settings and commissioners. Today, I can announce a comprehensive delivery support plan for providers, which will support the financial sustainability of providers, strengthen partnership working, support workforce recruitment and training, and improve communication with parents and carers. As part of that, we will work with the Care Inspectorate to recruit additional improvement advisers. They will identify and support settings that are already offering funded hours to meet the quality evaluation criteria within the national standard if they are not currently meeting that. In order to encourage meaningful and genuine partnership working, we will build on the work of the ELC partnership forum with a summit for providers and local authorities to showcase good practice and partnership working. That will further support the delivery of high-quality ELC for all our children. That plan will pay a key role in ensuring that everyone included in the expansion to 1140 hours feels valued, respected and included in the ambitions that we have for our youngest children in our society. Local delivery of the expansion is now well under way in communities across Scotland. Local authorities reported in September that more than 11,000 children are already benefiting from access to more than 600 hours of early learning and childcare, including 1100 eligible two-year-olds. I have had the pleasure of visiting a number of settings already providing 1140 hours, and I have been absolutely thrilled to hear of the positive benefits that children and their parents are experiencing. That is an ambitious and challenging transformation programme. We need robust and transparent governance arrangements to ensure that the expansion is delivered on time. As I set out to Parliament in October, we have established a joint delivery board to oversee progress towards delivery of the expanded entitlement, which I co-chair with councillor Stephen McCabe, my counterpart at COSLA. The board received its first update on local authority progress when it met in Greenock on 31 October. The improvement service is working with local authorities to collect data on workforce recruitment, creation of new capacity and uptake twice a year. I can confirm to Parliament today that the first report is now available on the Scottish Government website. The report shows that we are on track to deliver the expansion, but there are no grounds for complacency, and we must continue working together to ensure that the capacity and capability that we need to deliver the expansion is in place across Scotland. Our funding follows the child approach, and the national standard that underpins it presents us with a fantastic opportunity to show the importance of early learning and childcare in improving outcomes for our children and our families. We have ambitious aspirations to help to ensure that our children can realise their full potential. We hope that, by prioritising high-quality early learning and childcare and unlocking choice, we will ensure that all our children have opportunities to learn, play and flourish. The minister will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement, and I'll allow around 20 minutes. It would be helpful if members who wish to ask a question were to press their request to speak buttons, and I call on Alison Harris. Thank you. I thank the minister for an advanced sight of her statement. We welcome the national standard and the adoption of the Scottish Conservatives provider neutral principle. Listening to the minister's statement, you would think that all is going well. However, in truth, the roll-out of this policy is in trouble. The goalposts are constantly shifting and this policy needs better governance. As the minister mentioned in her statement, the roll-out is already well underway in communities across Scotland. In light of what many providers have told us, can I ask the minister why it has taken until now to provide a delivery support plan for providers? Also, in the operating guidance published by the Government yesterday, it is stated that, to receive funding for provision, private providers must adhere to the national standard, while also committing to work within the parameters of the local authorities model of delivery. That translates minister to one national standard and 32 local standards, total inconsistency. So what concrete reassurances can the minister give to private providers that, in adhering to the national standard, they will not continue to be excluded with their businesses suffering? I welcome the support from the Conservative party for this expansion. I am absolutely delighted to receive it. I can assure you that there is very strong governance around this. As I said, we have published information today on the website that shows progress on delivery for this expansion. As you mentioned in your question, 11,000 children are already benefiting from this, and I hear stories everywhere I go, every visit I go on, where somebody is receiving 1140 hours already. There is undoubtedly—I can see the benefit already—there is a very profound impact on the ability of the children to fulfil their potential. In terms of adherence to the national standard, let me be absolutely clear on this point that, by 2020, when this is fully rolled out, the only standard that funded providers will have to adhere to is the national standard. That standard was developed with the support of partner providers and with full commitment from COSLA. That is the only standard. There will be no extras. As I mentioned at the meeting that we held with partner providers for this concern about extra standards being applied was raised, I would be very grateful if partner providers and members across the chamber could contact me and give me information if they hear of that occurring. We recognise the scale of the challenge ahead in the programme that we committed to in building those actions. Undoubtedly, there is a challenge and it is an ambitious plan. It is going to be challenging to deliver. That is why, today, with the delivery support plan for providers, we have put in place a number of actions to support the financial sustainability of providers. A 100 per cent business rate relief already happened, but through the multi-year funding, I expect to see the rate going to partner providers increase over the next year and increase again right up to 2020. Ian Gray Thank you to the minister for early sight of our statement. The national standards are generally welcome, but the key concern about this policy has always been how it will be delivered in practice and, in particular, how enough qualified staff will be recruited. Let me ask two questions. The standards for childminders providing funded hours say that they must begin training or at least have unsuccessfully applied for training within five years. Surely that means that some childminders could be providing funded hours for anywhere between five and 10 years without having actually qualified. Is that really acceptable? Secondly, unison yesterday published figures of early years workers in training, which show clearly that we will not achieve the required numbers in time. While the minister's own document today, far from showing that delivery is on track, revealed that recruitment is already 17 per cent behind target after only five months. So, what new and additional measures does she plan in order to recruit the workforce that we need? Mary Todd The requirement for training for childminders is proportionate, given the number of children that they work with. It is very, very reasonable. In fact, childminders and all partner providers work very closely with the Government to develop this national standard. I believe that it will deliver quality and I can assure you on that. In terms of the workforce, we recognise absolutely the challenges of recruiting the additional staff required. It is difficult but achievable. As I said, the delivery board meetings have assured us that we are on track to deliver what we need to. Although we absolutely are on track, I can assure you that we are on track. Let me reiterate again the many ways that we have put in place to ensure that we are on track with workforce. In 2017-18, we funded the Scottish Funding Council to deliver 650 extra HNC courses. We have 400 additional graduate-level places. We expect most practitioners to become qualified through vocational on-the-job training routes, such as SVQs. An uptake of early learning and childcare modern apprentices has increased significantly in 2017-18, up 21 per cent when compared with the figures for the previous year—more than double what we anticipated. We move to the open questions. We have quite concise questions and answers, please. Rona Mackay, followed by Liz Smith. Can the ministers say when providers will know what the increase in the hourly funding rates will be? Mary Todd. The agreement on the hourly funding rates is to be between the local authorities and the partner providers. The local authorities will announce the funding rates. I assure you that there is work going on nationally to establish what is required to provide a sustainable and transparent funding rate. There has been a huge amount of work going on, and I assure you that the funding rates will increase over the course of the expansion to a fully sustainable rate in 2020. Liz Smith, followed by Fulton MacGregor. In light of the comments that the minister makes on page 2 about extending parental choice, can I ask what discussions the minister has had with the independent school sector about how many partnership places will be available in their schools in session 2019-20? Mary Todd. As the member will be well aware that the expansion was targeted to occur first, the expansion will happen first in the areas that need it most. I can check with my officials what communication there has been with the independent school sector, but generally the expansion has first been in areas of high deprivation with favouring local authority expansion initially. I can assure you that independent schools can apply to become funded partners. All they need to do is meet the national standard and they will be able to become funded partners. Fulton MacGregor, followed by Jenny Marra. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I have had contact with partner nurseries in my constituency, such as Walkview Nursery and Gart Cosh, in relation to the roll-out of 11, 40 hours in the difficulty that they have had dealing with the council. Can the minister explain the importance of strong communication with such partner nurseries in achieving this bold and ambitious target, and can she outline what actions the Government is taking to ensure that local authorities engage fully with them throughout the process? Thank you. I thank the member for that question. I am aware that there are challenges in relationships between partner providers and local authorities in a number of areas throughout the country. Let me make absolutely clear that we expect that local authorities and providers work together meaningfully and in genuine partnership to deliver the expansion in early learning and childcare. The Scottish Government wrote to local authority directors of education in August this year to highlight the key role for local authority leaders to promote meaningful and genuine partnership working and to build trust and to strengthen the communication with providers and also to encourage the development of networks for sharing good practice. Jenny Marra, followed by Alison Johnstone. The minister's statement says that the package includes funding to enable providers to deliver at least the real living wage. Presumably, many staff will be paid more, as commensurate with their qualifications. Can she tell me what ratio of nursery teachers to other qualified staff her funding package allows for? How many nursing teachers does your funding package allow for? That will depend on local circumstances and on what is required in the local area. I can assure you that I am glad that you welcome the living wage accreditation. I think that it is one of the best parts of the entire expansion of the living wage commitment. I can tell you that the living wage commitment in 2016, when we did the groundwork to estimate how many people that would benefit, we estimated that up to 8,000 staff currently working in partner providing settings would benefit from that commitment. Welcome the minister's assurances that high-quality childcare is underpinned by professional, dedicated and skilled staff, but some providers in Lothian region have expressed concerns that there is a lack of funding available for training staff aged over 25. They say that the funding for those of this age to be put through training is a lot less than the under-25s. I ask what the minister is doing specifically to attract those who might change career into early learning in childcare, because, clearly, given the challenges that we face delivering this, it is an area that requires specific focus. For the question, I can assure you that there is ample capacity in the education system for everyone who wants to enter the expansion. We have also changed the amount of money that we pay on the modern apprenticeship, for older entrants, and we are working to remove the barriers for older entrants. We are very well aware that attracting career changers is an important part of achieving the workforce that we want to achieve. A number of parents who have experienced the joy of raising their own parents will then want to contribute to the sector afterwards. Tavish Scott, followed by Gil Paterson. On the Government's own figures that have been published today, local authority nurseries have hired 18 per cent fewer additional staff than forecast, and there are 4 per cent less childminders between 2017 and 2018. How does the Government plan to address that, particularly given that there is now some evidence that local authority nurseries are gaining staff with expensive private nurseries because of the wage rates? I can assure you that our early data shows that we are on target to deliver the workforce required for this. What is interesting about that is that the data also, when you look at the data, shows that there are more children in places in placement than we anticipated at this point. Despite the workforce being slightly under what we expected, the children in the 1140 hours are higher than we anticipated. The reduction in childminders numbers was largely down to a drop in the number of inactive childminders. There are more childminders registered in order to deliver funding. With regard to the third point that you raised, which was about local authorities attracting staff from partner providers, we have made it very clear to them, and COSLA has made it very clear to local authorities that they must aim to recruit internally first. In assessing the capacity that is available in their entire local authority area, they have to be very careful not to disrupt that capacity by taking staff from one area and causing a shortage in another area. They are very carefully working to ensure that they can internally recruit the staff that they need to deliver the expansion. Gil Paterson, followed by Oliver Mundell. The summoning statistics for schools in Scotland that was published last week showed an impressive near universal uptake of funded early years in childcare among three and four-year-olds and only a slight increase in the uptake of eligible two-year-olds on last year. Therefore, can the minister outline what action the Scottish Government will take to increase the uptake of eligible two-year-olds in the next coming year? The member asks a very important question, because ensuring that those who will benefit most get early access to high-quality funded DLC is absolutely key to realising the full benefits of this expansion. The joint agreement with local governments gave them an ambitious target of 64 per cent for the two-year-olds. We have a way to go with that. The delivery board data that we looked at, we were ahead of what we anticipated in terms of recruitment of two-year-olds, but you are right that there is more work to be done. The children and young person improvement collaborative is working with nine local authority areas in multiagency teams to address those barriers. We will share the outputs from that improvement practicum right across Scotland and consider other ways to support local authorities in their work on the two-year-old entitlement. I am a bit confused, minister. I have businesses, nursing businesses, in my constituency who are being asked to deliver 1140 hours in the new year, and they are being told that they will receive £4.8, while the local authorities own study an independent review into fair funding found that the sustainable rate was actually £5.35. How can she expect those businesses to survive until 2020 with a discrepancy like that? I assure the member that I am aware of that situation and I can confirm that we are substantially increasing the level of investment right across the sector through the multi-year funding deal that we agreed with COSLA in April, including supporting the payment of sustainable rates to funded providers. I expect to see early rates increase significantly right across the country. My question was related to the question just asked by Oliver Mundell. I have raised already with the minister the issue of sparklers nursery, which is still waiting to hear from the local authority in Dumfries and Galloway, at which rate it will be paid once the 1140 hours are rolled out in the town of Annan. Will the minister give us any more detail about that specific local authority? Can she tell us if local authorities continue—if they are properly funded but they continue to fail to pass on sustainable rates to partner providers, will the Government do something else to intervene to force them to pay sustainable rates? I can assure you that my officials have been in contact with that particular local authority. Many local authorities are already using the additional resource available in 2018-19 to increase their rates paid to funded providers and further increases are expected next year as they transition towards the full sustainable rates for roll-out of 1140 hours from August 2020. Scotland Excel is working very closely with providers and local authorities to develop technical guidance to support local authorities to set sustainable rates for providers from 2020. In the period from 2020, funded providers in the private or third sector offered this as part of the local phasing programme. Let me be absolutely clear, we expect local authorities to set rates locally that reflect their current assessment of a sustainable rate. I have time for the final two questions if the first one is not over long, Johann Lamont, followed by Clare Adamson. I will not take it personally. The national standard states that the real living wage will be paid to all childcare workers delivering the funded entitlement. We are not ensuring that all providers are living wage accredited by a more robust means of upholding the fair work principles. Mary Todd. As you know, the Government absolutely supports and encourages all the employers to become living wage accredited. I would not disagree. Can I ask the minister how important childminders are to the delivery process and how the joint delivery board will ensure that childminding communities are fully engaged in the process going forward? Excuse me, Ms Adamson. Can we stop having conversations across Bench, please? Ms Adamson, would you say your question again? I certainly did not hear it. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I ask the minister how childminders are involved in the process going forward and how the joint delivery board will ensure that they are fully engaged in the consultation processes going forward? Mary Todd. I thank the member for the question. We have very good relationships with the SCMA and I am delighted that our parental survey indicates that considerable demand for parents. We have seen an increase in the number of childminders registered to deliver the funded entitlement and I expect childminders to play an absolutely vital part in the delivery of this, particularly for eligible two-year-olds. That concludes the statement on early learning and childcare expansion, and we will move on to the next item of business. As soon as everyone has got themselves settled.