School age childcare: equality impact assessment

3. Using and developing an evidence base

For this EQIA, we have drawn, at a high level, on existing evidence and experience such as:

• the 2019 out of school care in Scotland - draft framework evidence base;
• our 2019 out of school care consultation responses;
• data and evidence that has underpinned the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan;
• experience and evaluation of projects testing approaches to school age childcare, including those supported through our Access to Childcare Fund and summer holiday programmes Get into Summer 2021 and Summer holiday food, activities and childcare programme 2022;
• input from our People Panel, and the work to create the School Age Childcare Children’s Charter, capturing the needs, rights and aspirations of those using and providing school age childcare;
• a vast range of other evidence, see for example evidence captured in the 2019 Out of School Care consultation document and reports and research referenced in this EQIA;
• data about the school age population, for example the School Pupil census statistics about gender and additional support for learning;
• lessons we have learned from the successful implementation of the 1,140 hours of early learning and childcare expansion to date; and
• analysis of evidence and engagement to date which has informed the creation of design principles for a new system, underpinned by the needs of those who use and deliver school age childcare.

We are using an agile approach for the Programme and projects, allowing us to put the user first, thinking about what they need. We will co-design and develop ideas iteratively, learning as we progress and explore, using new evidence and feedback from users including parents and children, and providers.

Evidence will continue to inform and adapt our approach and next steps in policy development and delivery. Monitoring and evaluation is a core component of our programme, with ongoing data gathering and shared learning built into projects. This includes collecting data to understand the experiences of different groups of parents and children. As we progress through the Programme’s ‘tests of change’ and ‘system build’ action areas (see the School Age Childcare Delivery Framework for more information), we will gather data and learning to inform each phase of the Programme. We will build a body of evidence to synthesise learning and produce recommendations to inform the design of a system of school age childcare in Scotland.

For example, we recognise there are gaps in the data available to us to understand the breakdown by protected characteristics of the children and families that use, or do not use, school age childcare. There is no obligation for parents to share their diversity data when using school age childcare services, or share diversity data about their children, and so gathering data is difficult. Also, while the Scottish Government collect data for the school pupil population, which would give us an indication of the diversity mix for potential school age childcare users, data is not collected for some protected characteristics as it is not considered appropriate.

We are however funding a data challenge. In Spring 2021, we sponsored a CivTech 6.0 Challenge^[2] to find a digital tool to help us better understand supply and demand of school age childcare in communities. Through the CivTech project, data will be captured on the needs of parents and providers for both school age childcare and for a digital product to source provision, including data on protected characteristics. This will form part of the evidence base for EQIAs. Further information will be included in the project EQIA for our Design and Engagement project.