Item 10 - Early Learning and Childcare Progress Update
West Dunbartonshire Council · 20 March 2024
Back to Educational Services Committee — 20 March 2024 and its agenda
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL Report by Chief Education Officer Education Services Committee: Wednesday 20th March 2024 _______________________________________________________________ Subject: Early Learning and Childcare Progress Update 1. Purpose 1.1 This report provides progress made to provide high quality Early Learning and Childcare in West Dunbartonshire Council. 2. Recommendations 2.1 It is recommended that Committee notes: progress to deliver the statutory entitlement of 1140 hours of high quality Early Learning and Childcare. 3. Background 3.1 Early Learning and Childcare Within Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) we now deliver, across all our settings, up to 1140 hours to eligible 2 year olds and children aged from 3 to those not yet attending primary school. Places for children under the age of 2 are available in our partner settings for working families and in our council settings for those families who require some support. Overall children are very well supported, provided with exciting learning opportunities, and are nurtured by well trained staff. 3.2 Training There continues to be a wide range of training available to all our ELC providers through our Professional Learning Framework. We are further extending our One-ery guidance and relevant training has now begun which will be available to teachers teaching Primary 1 to Primary 3. Following on from the training from Education Scotland on Inclusive Practice and in response to feedback from our recent audit some of the Early Stage Teachers delivered Nurture Principles training on the February in-service. Our Early Years settings continue to receive training from Speech and Language and Educational Psychologists in the Up, Up and Away resource. It is intended that all settings will have engaged in this training by December 2024. This training will further support our staff to meet the needs of all learners in their care. We continue to source and provide training from external trainers to support our settings in developing a further understanding of national early years perspectives and have secured further training for all early years leaders in Pedagogical Leadership which will take place from May 2024. ITEM 10
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4. Main Issues 4.1 Quality of our Early Learning and Childcare Outcomes for children continue to be very positive, however, none of our settings has been inspected recently so there are no current inspection grades to share since our December 2023 report. 4.2 Scottish Government – Programme for Government in Early Learning and Childcare This states that from April 2024 those staff in the Private, Voluntary and Independent Sector (PVI) delivering funded Early Learning and Childcare should receive a minimum hourly rate of £12. We have been informed that it is expected the funding for this will be allocated through the sustainable rate allocation, we await further guidance on this. 4.3 Eligible 2 Data Scottish Government have provided us with data on families living within West Dunbartonshire Council that may have an entitlement to access 1140 hours of early learning and childcare for an eligible 2 year old living in their household. We intend to link in with local Health Visitors to further promote this eligible 2 year old offer to those families who are not yet accessing this entitlement. 4.4 Children’s Progress Since August 2023 we have begun to monitor attendance on a monthly basis within our early years settings in order to have a deeper understanding of the current barriers and challenges experienced by our settings and identify any further supports and interventions to support improved attendance in all settings. Average Attendance Percentage within WDC Early Years Settings August 2023 September 2023 October 2023 November 2023 December 2023 January 2024 80.2% 81.9% 81.7% 78.2% 78% 80.6% Assessment data gathered in December 2023 shows that children continue to progress well in literacy and numeracy outcome measures. Percentage of Children Achieving Literacy Benchmark (Concepts of Print) – December 2023 11% 49% 40% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Dec-23 Concepts of Print - December 2023
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Our literacy stretch aim at present is 69% of all children will achieve the benchmark in Concepts of Print. Since 2017 we have progressed overall from 52% to 59%. Data gathered in December 2023 shows that at present 11% of children have already met this benchmark, despite this being a benchmark spanning the whole of early level, achievable by the end of Primary 1. Additionally 49% of children are making good progress towards reaching this benchmark, putting us on track to meet this stretch aim. Percentage of Children Achieving Numeracy Benchmark (Number and number processes) – December 2023 Our numeracy stretch aim is 35% of children will achieve the benchmark in Number and Number Processes. Last session we achieved 32% and as with literacy have seen a steady upwards trajectory since 2017. We continue to promote the Stages of Early Arithmetical Learning Programme as the key driver for raising attainment in numeracy. In December 2023, 4% of children had already met the ambitious benchmark, despite this being a benchmark spanning the whole of early level, achievable by the end of Primary 1. 65% of children are making good progress towards reaching this benchmark, putting us on track to meet this stretch aim. 5. People Implications 5.1 Support is provided for Early Learning and Childcare staff teams and leaders to enable effective delivery of the high quality ELC and the expectations of the statutory offer of 1140 hours for eligible 2 year olds and 3 year olds to pre school aged children. 5.2 We have 59 career changers to date; 2 who have just completed their training and gained their Early Learning and Childcare qualification; and a further 7 who are undertaking the qualification at present. 32 career changers have secured employment within ELC within the last 5 years. We will continue to promote this career path and route to qualification. Additionally we currently have 8 Modern Apprentices being supported to work towards achieving the Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) Level 3 within our Early Learning and Childcare settings. 6. Financial and Procurement Implications 6.1 Financial Year Revenue Capital £m £m 2018/19 1.410 0.580 4% 65% 31% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Dec-23 Number and Number Processes - December 2023
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2019/20 5.268 2.380 2020/21 8.717 4.480 2021/22 9.723 5.880 2022/23 9.485 0.794 2023/24 9.742 0.287 7. Risk Analysis 7.1 The Key Risks: • Maintaining high quality Early Learning and Childcare at all funded providers to ensure that they meet the National Standard Criteria. • Failure to deliver 1140 hours curriculum by confident, well-trained Early Learning and Childcare staff teams. • Evaluations of good for environment by Care Inspectorate are at risk if Early Learning and Childcare building assets are not maintained. 8. Equalities Impact Assessment 8.1 An Equalities Impact Assessment for the Expansion Plan was undertaken previously. There was no requirement to undertake another Equalities Impact Assessment for the purposes of this report as it is providing an update for Committee. 9. Consultation 9.1 Regular consultation with stakeholders including parents and carers, Early Learning and Childcare staff, Unions, Council partners in the project and partner Early Learning and Childcare providers continues through the various Council fora and regular meetings. 9.2 Early Learning and Childcare Statutory Guidance As detailed in Section 50 of the Early Learning and Childcare Statutory Guidance we have a duty, at least once every 2 years, to: - Consult with persons who appear to be representative of parents of children under school age in their area about how they should make early learning and childcare available. - Have regard to the views expressed in the consultation and must prepare and publish a plan setting out how they intend to make early learning and childcare available. As our last consultation took place in 2021 we went out to consultation again in November 2023. The consultation was open for 4 weeks for public consultation during the month of November 2023. In total there were 329 responses from residents living in West Dunbartonshire Council from across all areas. The consultation highlighted the following points:
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• 64% of respondents rely on their child attending an early years setting to allow them to work. • 85% of respondents used a local authority early years service. • 14% of respondents used a partnership nursery service. • 8% used a Childminding service. • 88% of respondents use/plan to use their full 1140 hour entitlement. • 79% of respondents preferred term time for the delivery of 1140 entitlement. • 21% of respondents preferred 50 weeks for the delivery of 1140 entitlement. • 28% of respondents feel that there are barriers to accessing their child’s entitlement. The main barrier noted was that they would like to have the option to purchase additional hours. • 62% of respondents would consider accessing entitlement to a fully funded deferred year. In light of this consultation we will work on creating a plan to improve our service to better meet the needs of children and families. 9.3 Legal Services and the Section 95 Officer have been consulted in relation to the content of this report. 10. Strategic Assessment 10.1 This report reflects the Council’s aspiration to have a strong local economy, improved employment opportunities and efficient and effective frontline services that improve the everyday lives of residents. These are strategic priorities for 2017-2023. Laura Mason Chief Education Officer Person to Contact: Alison Bowers, Senior Education Officer, Education, Learning and Attainment Telephone No: 07813 534420 Email: alison.bowers@west-dunbarton.gov.uk Background Papers: none Wards Affected: All
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