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

Footnotes

1. For survey data, any reported differences (between sub-groups of the sample) are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level.

2. The current Census data does not provide details on how many hours children are registered for and only limited information on the characteristics of children registered for funded ELC (e.g. not SIMD or ethnicity).

3. It is possible that a service may offer several different types of care and learning e.g. a nursery may also provide out of school care provision in the form of a breakfast club, or a children and family centre may also offer a holiday playscheme. Further information on definitions can be found in Early learning and childcare statistics 2022, Appendix 1 (p30).

4. There were 108 responses to the day care of children services survey. Based on the latest registration data for the sector this represents around 6% of all registered private and voluntary sector services. There were 58 responses to the childminding services survey, which represents around 1.7% of all registered childminding services. More detailed information on the survey is available in the supporting Financial Sustainability Health Check Analysis and Evidence paper.

5. Scottish Futures Trust highlight that, "even though not all capital projects are operational, 1140 hours has been being delivered by all local authorities since the statutory deadline of August 2021. This is partly being delivered through robust contingency plans or transitional arrangements which have been put in place to ensure continued service delivery until the remaining projects are complete."

6. Scottish Women's Budget Group (2023) Policy Briefing: Childcare Survey 2023; Coram (2024) Childcare Survey 2024; Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland (2024) The Cost of a Child in Scotland in 2023.

7. See, for example: Kustatscher, M. et al. (2023) Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Delivery of Education to Children Under Five; Public Health Scotland (2022) Are the kids alright? Key messages from the third round of the COVID-19 Early Years Resilience and Impact Survey; Public Health Scotland (2022) Ensuring our future: addressing the impact of COVID-19 on children, young people and their families; Scottish Government (2022) Coronavirus (COVID-19): Advisory Sub-Group on Education and Children's Issues - children, schools, early learning and childcare settings - evidence summary.

8. The current Census data does not provide details on how many hours children are registered for and only limited information on the characteristics of children registered for funded ELC (e.g. not SIMD or ethnicity).

9. The ELC Joint Delivery Board was set up to review progress towards implementation of the 1140 hours expansion across all 32 local authorities and to agree actions to mitigate risk, respond to emerging issues, or put support in place where that may be required.

10. After April 2024, the Improvement Service will continue to collect data, though it is anticipated that the format of the collection and the level of detail collected may change. This is currently under discussion.