Early Learning and Childcare Expansion to 1140 hours: Interim Evaluation Report

Annex 1: Data sources

ELC Census

The ELC Census (accredited Official Statistics) provides data on children registered for funded ELC by age and, where relevant, by eligibility criterion. The Census is currently completed by the centres that provide funded ELC in Scotland and the analysis possible is limited since it collects aggregated data on registrations for funded ELC, not individual-level data.^[8] Currently, the ELC census cannot provide information on the number of hours being used by each child. Take up is calculated using estimates of the eligible population at the time of the census, based on NRS population projections. The most recent NRS population projections available were produced in 2018, and so estimates for the most recent years may be less accurate if rates of population change have varied from the predictions. Prior to 2023, a robust estimate of the eligible two year old population was unavailable, and so the total population for this age group has been used instead.

Care Inspectorate

All daycare of children and childminding services which make up ELC must be registered with the Care Inspectorate in order to operate in Scotland. The Care Inspectorate publishes an annual report on the provision and use of registered daycare of children and childminding services in Scotland as at 31 December, as well as supporting data tables in Excel format. The report and tables are based on ELC services on the Care Inspectorate register and incorporate evaluations of the quality of these services, as well as additional information from annual returns completed by service providers. The Care Inspectorate ELC Statistics include information on: the number of ELC services registered; services' capacity; the number of services providing funded places; the number of children registered with services and the quality of services. More information on definitions, methodology and data sources, as well as how the Care Inspectorate assesses quality, can be found in Early learning and childcare statistics 2022, Appendices 1-6.

Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC)

The annual SSSC Children's Services Workforce data tables provide information on the children's services workforce, including the ELC workforce. They include information on the size and distribution of the workforce, demographic characteristics such as age and gender, and qualifications. The tables supplement data published in the annual Scottish Social Service Sector Workforce Data report (Official Statistics). The reports combine administrative data from the Care Inspectorate with data collected by the SSSC directly from local authorities to form a comprehensive picture of the paid workforce employed in the social service sector. SSSC also publish information on the numbers of people registered with them. One of the SSSC's statutory duties is to keep a Register of social service workers, social workers and social work students in Scotland. Registration is for staff who work directly with people who use social services. Teachers and other professional groups working in a registered care service are not required to register with the SSSC if they have a current registration with their own professional body.

Improvement Service Delivery Progress Data Collection

To provide information on the implementation of the expansion to 1140 hours, the Improvement Service and Scottish Futures Trust collect and analyse data on the delivery of funded ELC across Scottish local authorities. The objective of the data collection is to understand the status of the ELC sector across Scotland in relation to take up, workforce and capacity. The Delivery Progress reports informed the ELC Expansion Joint Delivery Board^[9], which provided overall governance of the ELC expansion programme between 2018 and 2022. The first data was collected for the period May to September 2018. Up to March 2020, the Improvement Service collected data at the beginning and end of each academic year, while the Scottish Futures Trust collected data on infrastructure quarterly. From August 2020 until September 2022, data was collected every academic term, returning to the beginning and end of each academic year during 2023 and 2024.^[10] It should be noted that the Improvement Service liaise with local authorities in seeking to ensure consistency of data returns, but do audit the data, systems and processes used to capture the data within local authorities. Also, for some reports, one local authority was unable to provide data in the time frame, so either the

Scottish Household Survey (SHS)

In 2018, questions on the use of childcare were added to the SHS (accredited Official Statistics). The majority of these questions are asked of households with a child aged two to five years old and not yet at school, considering only that child. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the survey methodology was changed in 2020 and 2021 (and results were published as experimental statistics). Results from these years are not comparable with results from 2018 and 2019. However, results from 2022 can be compared with 2018 and 2019. Additionally, there have been changes to the questions between 2018 and 2022 to improve the data, which affects comparisons between years. The number of people responding to these questions is often low, and so comparisons should be treated with caution. The question on reasons for not using funded ELC that the child is eligible for has particularly low response rates, and so for some indicators results from the question on issues with funded ELC used are presented instead. Although this does not show us what proportion of households did not take up their entitlement due to issues, it does allow us to monitor the proportion of those using funded ELC with these issues.

ELC Parent Research

Parents' views and use of early learning and childcare: report 2017 (2018). This Social Research report provides baseline data on patterns of ELC use prior to the roll out of the ELC expansion. In 2017 Scottish Government commissioned Craigforth to undertake research with parents of children under the age of six. The overall aim of the research was to provide a greater understanding of parents' use and experiences of ELC and how these differed between parent groups. The study involved two main fieldwork strands: (i) a survey of parents, incorporating a public web-survey and a telephone survey of parents drawn from the re-contacts database of the SHS, and (ii) follow-up discussion groups and telephone interviews with a subset of survey respondents. A total of 10,526 valid survey responses were received. Follow-up discussion groups and telephone interviews took place with 63 survey respondents.

Early learning and childcare - parents' views and use: survey findings 2022 (2022 Social Research report). In 2022 Scottish Government commissioned Progressive Partnership to undertake a follow-up survey of parents. The research explored parents' perceptions of quality, flexibility, accessibility and affordability of ELC. It built on the 2017 parent survey. The study sought the views of parents in Scotland with children aged under six years who were not yet in school. The research involved an online survey, primarily promoted to parents through ELC providers, and telephone interviews with parents who have pre-school children drawn from the re-contacts database of the SHS. Efforts were also made to include parents whose children were cared for by childminders and those not in ELC. It should be noted that the respondents to the online survey were self-selecting. The main fieldwork took place in April and May 2022 and a total of 8,181 valid responses were received.

Decisions influencing early learning and childcare use: understanding social policies and social contexts (2022 Social Research Report). In 2021 Scottish Government commissioned Wellside Research to undertake qualitative research with parents. In total, 39 in-depth interviews were conducted by telephone between October 2021 and February 2022, with parents who had children that were eligible (or nearly eligible) for funded ELC, whether or not they used it. The research focussed particularly on recruiting families from ethnic minority backgrounds; lone/single parents; and those who had, or lived with or cared for someone with, a health problem or long-term physical or mental health condition or disability. Interviews sought to understand these families' choices around childcare and the use of expanded funded ELC provision, as well as to explore challenges and barriers. As the research was qualitative in nature, the sample size and structure cannot be considered as representative, either of the population as a whole, or within the sampled groups. Rather, the research provides insight into the views and experiences of those who participated in the research.

How to access background or source data

The data collected for this social research publication:

☐ are available in more detail through Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics

☒ are publicly available at the referenced websites

☐ may be made available on request, subject to consideration of legal and ethical factors

☐ cannot be made available by Scottish Government for further analysis as Scottish Government is not the data controller