The public spending watchdog has questioned government plans to fund increased nursery provision in Scotland. The Accounts Commission says in a new report (below) there is a “significant risk” councils will not be able to resource the government’s ambitious plan to double early learning and childcare hours by August 2020.
Councils are preparing to provide 1,140 funded hours for all 3 and 4-year-olds – and eligible two year-olds – to improve outcomes for children and to support parents to work, study or train.
Providing those hours will require a large increase in the number of childcare staff and changes to premises. This will be difficult to achieve in the time available, says a report prepared for the Auditor General and Accounts Commission.
The report says detailed planning by the government should have been started earlier to help councils meet the 2020 deadline. It also highlights the considerable gap between what local councils and the Scottish Government expect the policy to cost.
The report also assessed the earlier 2014 expansion of funded early learning and childcare to 600 hours. It says:
- The government did not identify measures of success before committing almost £650m to the increase, making it difficult to assess whether it is delivering value for money;
- The expansion was agreed without evidence that it would achieve the desired outcomes for children and parents and without considering other ways of achieving those objectives;
- The government and councils worked well together and parents were very positive about the benefits of funded hours to their children;
- However parents surveyed as part of the research said funded hours had a limited impact on improving their ability to work.
Caroline Gardner, Auditor General for Scotland said: “Focussing on the early years has the potential to make a real difference to young peoples’ lives but the Scottish Government was not clear enough about what the expansion of funded hours in 2014 was expected to achieve.
“We are encouraged that the Scottish Government is now planning better for how it will assess the impact of the expansion to 1,140 hours and has already published some baseline information.”
Graham Sharp, chair of the Accounts Commission, added: “The scale of change needed over the next two years is considerable and there are significant risks that councils will be unable to deliver that change in the time available.
“There is now an urgent need for plans addressing increases in the childcare workforce and changes to premises to be finalised and put in place.”
The Scottish government has promised to almost double the annual hours in paid-for nursery places to 1,140 and has repeated it’s pledge to fully fund the policy.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said during a visit to the Cowgate Nursery earlier this week: “I want to give every child in Scotland the best start in life, regardless of their background, and our expansion of free early learning and childcare will do just that.
“As well as transforming the choices and chances of children, this policy will save families thousands of pounds in fees every year and further benefit the wider economy through the creation of thousands of new jobs.
“This government is investing an extra £54.3 million this year alone to expand and upskill the early learning and childcare workforce, including through increasing the number of apprenticeships and our national recruitment campaign.”
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