Mapping Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) provision for 1- and 2-year-olds in Scotland
From August 2021, the funded entitlement to Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) in Scotland increased from 600 to 1,140 hours per year for all 3- and 4-year-olds as well as eligible 2-year-olds. In the 2021 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government further committed to expanding funded ELC to all 1- and 2-year-olds. As children of different ages have different needs, the Scottish Government set out to design the new offer based on evidence-based best practice. As part of this research, Alma Economics was commissioned to map current ELC provision across Scotland to identify examples of good practice, and salient challenges.
The project was conducted in two phases. The primary goal of Phase I was to map provision nationally to develop a high-level understanding of what ELC exists for 1- and 2-year-olds. Research activities in Phase I included an analysis of secondary data from the Care Inspectorate, a survey of local authority leads across the country, a focus group with relevant stakeholder organisations, and interviews with Scottish Government policy teams.
Phase II then built on the findings of Phase I through detailed case studies exploring specific challenges and good practice examples within four local authorities: Scottish Borders, Glasgow, Moray, and Fife. In researching the case studies, our team engaged with local authority representatives, Care Inspectorate officials, and ELC providers.
Our research in Phase I revealed that there are significant gaps in ELC provision for 1- and 2-year-olds in Scotland. These gaps are more pronounced in rural, remote and island communities. For example, in Orkney council, for every 1-year-old child, there are only 0.11 ELC places in group-based settings.
In urban and less remote areas, the gaps are less pronounced, but there is still a much lower level of provision for 1- and 2-year-olds as compared to older children. Our survey of local authorities highlighted that the most popular provider types for 1- and 2-year-old children were childminders and nurseries. The main challenges in providing ELC to this age group nationally included a lack of capacity to meet demand, having to make changes to infrastructure to appropriately address the needs of younger children, and staffing shortages. Due to low population densities, these challenges were again more pronounced in rural and remote areas, where families often must travel long distances to access a provider serving a large area.
Several interesting examples of good practice were identified in the case studies developed in the second phase of the project. Scottish Borders runs both a supported childminding scheme as well as four Early Years centres in areas of high deprivation. The Early Years centres work with children and parents together and provide parenting support and access to a wide range of family programmes. In Glasgow City, young people who become parents as teenagers can access help through the “Young Parent Support Base”, which includes access to a nursery based in a school allowing parents to continue their education. Prior to the expansion of the funded offer, Fife already offered some funded places for 2-year-olds that met established criteria (e.g. having additional support needs). As part of this funded provision, parents can access other services to help them care for their children including parenting classes and additional help from voluntary organisations.
Read the full report here.