Early learning and childcare expansion: CRWIA
Children’s rights and wellbeing impact assessment (CRWIA) to consider the impacts that increasing the statutory entitlement to 1140 hours of funded ELC and modifying the current session lengths will have on children eligible for ELC in Scotland.
Monitoring and review
The SSELC is a cross-sectional and longitudinal study that will evaluate the expansion of the funded entitlement to 1140 hours. Baseline data is being collected from children and their parents accessing 600 hours of funded ELC. In 2022-23, data will be collected from those accessing 1140 hours. Measuring before and after the expansion allows for an assessment of the extent to which the expansion’s long-term benefits have been achieved. These benefits are: improved child development and narrowing attainment gap; increased family resilience and improved child and parent health and wellbeing; and more parents in work, training, or study.
The SSELC will also explore the number of hours a child attends a setting per day and the number of days per week. From this we will be able to ascertain whether there are any correlations between session length/frequency and developmental outcomes.
In addition, the data transformation project will improve the data available on the provision of statutory ELC. It will address evidence gaps and advance our understanding of the characteristics of the small
percentage of families who do not currently take up their child’s ELC entitlement.
A significant part of the project is to improve the ELC census, which currently records data on the number of registrations for funded ELC.
By 2022, the census will be based on an individual child level collection, and will collect characteristics data on children accessing funded ELC, including: sex, ethnicity, disability status, whether the child has any additional support needs, and the home postcode of the child (to enable analysis by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation). This should allow for more substantive analysis on how different families use funded ELC and help to identify where new or different policy interventions are required to improve awareness and uptake of the statutory entitlement and better understand children’s experiences and use of ELC.
| Bill - Clause | Aims of measure | Likely to impact on . . . | Compliance with UNCRC requirements | Contribution to local duties to safeguard, support and promote child wellbeing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (no.2) Order 2019 | The expansion will deliver three main benefits for children and families:
|
All 3 and 4 year olds and around a quarter of 2 year olds. |
|
Will have positive impacts on all wellbeing indicators as set out in Annex A. |
| The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (no.1) Order 2019 | This measure aims to enable families to access different patterns of provision. | All 3 and 4 year olds and around a quarter of 2 year olds. | Will have positive impacts on the following UNCRC articles:
|
Published research measuring outcomes for children in ELC does not gauge the impact of a specific number of hours per day on children’s wellbeing. This means we cannot currently state that a certain number of hours per day has a negative or positive impact. All credible research which we have reviewed[36] agrees that the most consistent indicator and greatest contributor to improved outcomes for children is high quality. Given that current data is not available to ascertain whether the impact of this legislative change will be either positive or negative on children’s wellbeing this will have to be monitored. |
| CRWIA Declaration | |
|---|---|
| Authorisation | |
| Policy lead |
Date |
| Deputy Director or equivalent |
Date 1 May 2019 |
Contact
Email: katrina.troake@gov.scot
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