Item 10 - Early Learning and Childcare Progress Update

West Dunbartonshire Council · 14 December 2022
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL
Report by Chief Education Officer
Education Services Committee: 14 December 2022
_______________________________________________________________
Subject: Early Learning and Childcare Progress Update
1. Purpose
1.1 This report provides progress made to provide high quality Early Learning and
Childcare (ELC) in West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) and summary of the
key points of  Best Start: Strategic early learning and school age childcare
plan for Scotland 2022-26 (www.gov.scot)
2. Recommendations
2.1  It is recommended that Committee notes:
(a) progress to deliver the statutory entitlement of 1140 hours of high quality
early learning and childcare and;
(b) key points of Appendix 1, Best Start: Strategic early learning and school
age childcare plan for Scotland 2022-26.
3. Background
Expansion
3.1  Research suggests that those children, especially those from the least
advantaged backgrounds will benefit from expansion of ELC. The policy
directive to expand ELC provision was to improve children’s outcomes and
reduce the poverty related attainment gap. In order to do that high-quality,
flexible, affordable and accessible ELC has been provided by WDC. Parents
have taken up their child’s entitlement to funded ELC. As a result of this
universal provision, children's development should improve, the poverty-
related attainment gap should narrow and more parents should be able to
work, study or train. In WDC the poverty related attainment gap measured
through literacy and numeracy shows that the gap is narrowing but work is
required to ensure that the gains continue to be maintained between our least
and most advantaged children. The extent of the impact on parents  which
enables them to work, study or train is not yet known in WDC.
3.2 Affordable, flexible ELC can improve standards of living and address child
poverty; reducing pressures on family income and enabling parents
and carers, particularly women, to participate in work, education or training.
This also has important benefits for a child’s own wellbeing, which is
negatively impacted by living in poverty. In the context of the current cost of
living crisis this is even more important. The importance of childcare in
enabling parents and carers to work, or increase their working hours
cannot be underplayed. The international evidence also indicates that ELC
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provision can help to address gender inequality in pay, as well as supporting
parents and carers to combine caring for their children with seeking or
returning to work, or taking part in education or training. The literature has
focused on the links between maternal employment and children taking part in
ELC, suggesting that the existence of ELC provision helps to support
mothers to work. At this stage of 1140 implementation, we do not know
how many parents work or study lives have been impacted by expansion but
we do know that almost all parents in WDC use the full 1140 offer.
3.3 The Growing Up in Scotland Study findings also show that while children
benefit from ELC their experience must be of high quality to impact on their
development and learning. Quality of provision is influenced by a wide range
of factors, including: staffing levels and aspects of working conditions, staff
qualifications and development, relationships and interactions between
staff and children, the physical environment and the curriculum. Our quality
improvement programme this session, is designed to evaluate the quality of
our ELC, impact and outcomes for children and to hear the views of
staff, children and their families about 1140. 
4. Evaluation of 1140
4.1 The self-evaluation tools which support ELC to measure progress and
plan improvement have been provided and improved over time. The tools are 
reflective and supportive of the scrutiny and regulation which the sector is
subject to by Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate. Specific self-
evaluation tools have been provided to critically reflect on practice and to
evaluate the 1140 hours curriculum offer. 
4.2 This session’s quality improvement programme of visits at our ELC provision
is underway. The focus of improvement visits is implementation of 1140
curriculum models and outcomes for children and families. During the
process leaders share:
• Self-evaluation of curriculum rationale and design
• Leadership of pedagogy and play
• Curriculum learning and development pathways
• Development of skills for life and learning.
The One-ery model  of early level learning, curriculum delivery based on play
pedagogy and nurturing approaches will be included in this series of
improvement visits. Views and experiences in relation to 1140 expansion and
One-ery of staff, parents, children, parents and carers will also be gathered. 
4.3 The Scottish Government Evaluation strategy for 1140 was published in
October 2022. The purpose of the evaluation is to understand what is
working, whether the policy is making a difference and where any challenges
remain. The approach to assessing how the ELC expansion is making a
difference for the sector is set out in Best Start: Strategic early learning and
school age childcare plan for Scotland 2022-26 (Appendix 1). The focus of the
evaluation will be on quality of provision for children, their parents, carers and
families. A final report is currently planned for 2025. The evaluation aims to
strengthen the existing evidence base by including and assessing how
funded ELC can help parents and carers to move closer to the labour market.

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4.4 The West Partnership 1140 Evaluation Study compliments the work we are
doing with our ELC stakeholders on the impact and benefits of 1140. The
West Partnership evaluation will include aspects that have not been
covered within the Scottish Government's national evaluation of 1140 hours,
such as views and experiences of practitioners and parents on perceived
impact and children's experience of 1140.
Inspection Evaluations
4.5 A key focus of the Criteria for the National Standard is inspection evaluations.
As previously reported the National Standard Criteria sets a minimum quality
threshold for providers delivering the funded hours of ‘good’. Embedding
quality at our ELC remains our highest priority underpinned by a National
Standard that all services have to meet in order to deliver funded ELC. The
National Standard criteria include the elements of quality that all children
and their families should expect from their ELC experience. External
scrutiny by the Care Inspectorate has resulted in evaluative grades at good
and above at all inspected settings. All childminders in partnership have
evaluative grades at good and above with one inspection providing excellent
evaluations.
4.6 Care inspections from a sample of ELCs, from August 2021 to November
2022 provided the following evaluations:
• How good is our care, play and learning? 4 settings were rated good
and 9 rated very good
• How good is our setting? 6 settings were rated good and 7 at very
good
• How good is our leadership? 2 settings were rated good and 11 at very
good
• How good is our staff team? 3 settings rated good and 10 at very good
4.7 Nationally the percentage of funded ELC providers evaluated as good or
better in all quality themes remains high but declined between 2014 and 2021
from 93.2% to 89.4%. This trend was reversed in WDC between 2014 and
2021 from 85% evaluated as good or better to 100% inspections in 2022
evaluated at good or better. WDC is the guarantor of quality, providing the
support and challenge to ensure that this remains at 100% positive
inspections at our ELC.
5. Funding Follows the Child: Admission to early learning and childcare
5.1 The Admissions Policy is undergoing updates for the statutory deferred entry
policy, including processes and criteria for children aged 3 and 4 years. The
current policy for children with additional support needs (ASN) is also being
reviewed to ensure that we meet children’s needs. This review is being
undertaken by a working group who will provide proposals to support our staff
teams to provide the service required for families with children with ASN for
school session 2023-24. Information for parents, staff and funded providers
will also be provided. The Council website continues to be reviewed
and updated on a regular basis to provide the most up-to-date information for
parents/carers. This includes how to apply for funding for early learning and
childcare for eligible 2 year olds, 3-5 year olds and deferred entry as well as

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additional hours’ costs and paid places. It also contains information on Cross
Boundary Protocols. The Frequently Asked Questions continue to be
updated regularly.
6. Best Start: Strategic early learning and school age childcare plan for
Scotland 2022-26
6.1  Appendix 1 summarises the vision for early learning and school age
childcare. This plan aims to embed 1140 hours programme, build a system of
school age childcare and an early learning and child care offer for one and
two year olds who need it most. Three Separate publications to support this
strategy will be published later in 2022:
1. Strategy setting out how the expanded entitlement to 1140 hours  of
high quality funded ELC and its impact will be evaluated.
2. Delivery framework for school age childcare in Scotland.
3. Strategic framework for Scotland’s childcare profession.
6.2  Plan on a Page
The plan on a page contained in the strategy provides the key aspects of
vision, priorities and outcomes which are:
• Realising the benefits of the expansion to 1140 hours of funded Early
Learning and Childcare
• Progressing the expansion of the childcare offer, including building a
system of school age childcare and developing a new offer for one and
two year olds.
• Ensuring that the delivery of priorities is supported by a sustainable,
diverse and thriving sector and profession.
• Ensuring that ambitions are underpinned by fair funding and outcomes
frameworks, robust data and organisations that work together to
regulate services and support quality improvement.
7. People Implications
7.1 As previously reported a high quality, diverse and well-qualified professional
Workforce is key to delivering the expansion and the quality of ELC.
7.2 Support is provided for ELC staff teams and leaders identified to support
delivery of the high quality ELC and increased expectations of 1140 hours
model of curriculum
8. Financial and Procurement Implications
8.1 As reported previously to ensure that it is protected for investment in early
learning and childcare, the multi-year funding package for expansion is
allocated through a specific grant. There are no changes to the multi-year
funding allocation to this authority; figures are cumulative. The multi-year
allocations for West Dunbartonshire:

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Financial Year Revenue Capital
£m £m
2018/19 1.410 0.580
2019/20 5.268 2.380
2020/21 8.717 4.480
2021/22 9.723 5.880
2022/23 9.485 0.794
8.2 The outdoor expansion projects at various locations will be completed in the
next few months. Projects planned for Linnvale ELCC, St. Mary’s Alexandria,
and Christie Park Primary School are at various stages of implementation see
details below. Budget has been allocated for projects within existing
budgeted resources.
- Linnvale ELCC work underway
- St Mary’s ELCC Alexandria – planning in place, building warrant
and start date required
- Christie Park Primary School – plans have been drawn up.
9. Risk Analysis
9.1 The Key Risks:
• Maintaining high quality ELC at all funded providers to ensure that they
meet the National Standard Criteria.
• Failure to deliver 1140 hours curriculum by confident, well-trained ELC
staff teams.
• The Christie Park project is required for August 2023 which if delayed
will impact our capacity to deliver the number of ELC placements
required for deferred entry policy. If delayed this may require
contingency planning.
10. Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA)
10.1 An EIA for the Expansion Plan was undertaken previously. There was no
requirement to undertake another EIA for the purposes of this report as it is
providing an update to Committee on the expansion.
11. Consultation
11.1 Regular consultation with stakeholders including parents and carers, ELC
staff, Unions, Council partners in the project and partner ELC providers
continues through the various WDC fora and regular meetings.
11.2 Legal Services and the Section 95 Officer have been consulted in relation to
the content of this report.
12. Strategic Assessment
12.1 This report reflects the Council’s aspiration to have a strong local economy,
improved employment opportunities and efficient and effective frontline

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services that improve the everyday lives of residents. These are strategic
priorities for 2017-2022.
Laura Mason
Chief Education Officer
Person to Contact: Kathy Morrison, Senior Education Officer, Education,
Learning and Attainment
Telephone No: 07813 534420
Email: kathy.morrison@west-dunbarton.gov.uk 
Background Papers: Best Start: Strategic early learning and school age 
childcare plan for Scotland 2022-26 (www.gov.scot)
Appendix 1, Best Start: Strategic early learning and
school age childcare plan for Scotland 2022-26. 
Wards Affected: All