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Podcast Transcript – Early Learning & Childcare

I’m here with Rebecca Smallwood, part of the audit team behind a new report on the Scottish Government’s early learning and childcare policy. 
Rebecca, before we get to the meat of your findings, could you just quickly explain what we mean by that phrase – ‘early learning and childcare’. We’re not just talking about nurseries here are we?
That’s right. Children can receive early learning and childcare in a variety of places, including school-based nurseries, stand alone nurseries, early years centres, playgroups and childminders. And it can be delivered by people working in the public, private or third sectors, such as community groups and charities.
With that as our scene-setter, can you just tell us what the purpose of your report was?
Well, we aimed to see how effectively the Scottish Government and councils are working together to increase access to early learning and childcare. In 2014 the Scottish Government increased funded early learning and childcare to 600 hours a year for three and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds. They now plan to double this to 1,140 hours by August 2020. 
We were interested in what evidence the government based policy on; how they were planning to assess its cost and impact; what the main challenges are now to increasing hours by 2020; and what planning they’ve put in in place to address those challenges. 
This is a policy that aims to improve outcomes for children and help their parents to work, study or train with the time they get back, so we were also keen to hear from parents and carers about their own experiences.
And what exactly did you find?
The Scottish Government’s ambition is to double early learning and childcare hours by August 2020 – but the evidence suggests that it will be difficult to achieve this aim on time. The three main risks are: the number of new staff needed to deliver the increase, the necessary changes to buildings and land to provide the increase, and agreement between the Scottish Government and councils on the way to make these changes, and to provide the expanded service. It’s difficult to see how all of these challenges can be overcome in the time available. 
Does that not come back to planning then?
We believe the government should have started planning earlier to help councils meet the 2020 deadline. We know they’re all working hard to address the challenges but plans now urgently need to be finalised and put in place.
This is a policy that’s evolved over time, with the number of funded hours for 3, 4 and eligible two-year-olds increasing in stages. In particular, your report looked at the 2014 increase to 600 hours. Has it been a success? 
It’s difficult to say. We found that the government and councils worked well together to deliver the increase, and parents were very positive about the benefits for their children. But at the same time parents we spoke to said the funded hours had a limited impact on their ability to work. 
Because the government didn’t identify measures of success before committing to the policy, our job of assessing whether it’s delivered value for money or not has been very difficult. There isn’t clear evidence to show that the expansion in hours will necessarily help children and parents in the way that the Scottish Government intends.  There was also no consideration of other ways those objectives could have been met. No other options were looked at besides increasing the hours in the way the Scottish Government has done.
Have lessons been learnt then for the expansion to nearly 1200 hours?
Yes, in the sense that the government is now planning better for how it will assess the impact of the expansion. They’ve already published some baseline information and that’s encouraging. However, the risks around implementing the increase to 1,140 hours on schedule are considerable, and it’s very important that councils and the government urgently finalise and implement their plans for changes to the childcare workforce and infrastructure. 
Rebecca, thank you very much. 
And if you want to read our Early Learning and Childcare report you can download it from our website - audit-scotland.gov.uk. 
ENDS