Expanding provision in Scotland

I'm fortunate to meet practitioners in early learning settings across the country, and to see first-hand the important work they're doing daily to help parents and carers give so many of our children the best start in life.

There is strong evidence - in particular from the Growing up in Scotland longitudinal study and the Effective Provision of Pre-School, Primary and Secondary Education study - highlighting the important role that high-quality early learning and childcare plays in children's cognitive and social development.

The PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) study has shown that the benefits from early learning and childcare can even persist into secondary school.

That is why the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring all children and their parents and families have access to high quality, flexible, accessible and affordable early learning and childcare.

We have committed to investing at least £280m over the next two years to expand funded early learning and childcare for three- and four-year-olds to almost 16 hours a week from this August and to extend this to the most disadvantaged 27 per cent of two-year-olds over two years, reaching around 15 per cent in first year.

In the White Paper for an independent Scotland, Scotland's Future, we outlined our ambition to use the budgetary choices and economic opportunities available with independence to transform childcare - moving to a universal system of 30 hours a week from age one.

This would benefit about 240,000 children and 212,000 families, helping improve educational and other social outcomes while boosting the economy.

A significantly expanded, and suitably skilled and qualified workforce, will be vital to deliver these plans, which are estimated to require about 35,000 additional staff in nurseries and early years centres. This represents double the number currently working within these settings.

One of the key recommendations of the last National Review of Early Years and Childcare Workforce in Scotland, in 2006, was to develop a new ordinary level degree for those managing early years and out-of-school care services.

Two papers being published this summer show the positive impact that this degree - the BA in Childhood Practice - is having on the quality of provision in the sector.

A paper by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) highlights that qualifications are starting to have an impact on the professionalism of the early years sector, and that workforce development and education due to Childhood Practice is attracting attention from beyond these shores.

Since the SSSC register for early years workers opened in 2006, qualification levels for early years professionals have gone from 55 per cent to 89 per cent with the remaining 11 per cent working towards the qualification relevant to their job role.

SSSC also commissioned research by Dr John Davis of the University of Edinburgh, which gathered evidence from Childhood Practitioners themselves, and sought to find out about the effect the qualification has had on their practice.

The practitioners told how the degree had a significant impact on their practice, confidence, leadership abilities, and their status and employment prospects. I am heartened by these findings, and it goes to show how positive an impact the degree qualification is having in the sector.

In January, we announced plans to invest £4m in further developing the workforce over this year and next - to provide more than 200 training and development opportunities for postgraduate teachers specialising in early years, and graduates in Childhood Practice.

Given the significantly changed landscape in early years since 2006 in general, and our bold ambitions for early learning and childcare in particular, it is timely to undertake a new workforce review.

That is why we asked Professor Iram Siraj to lead the independent Review of the Early Learning and Childcare Workforce and Out-of-School Care Workforce. She will look at a range of key issues, including: skills, training and qualifications at all levels; recruitment and retention; and, linked to this, the status of the workforce.

I look forward to receiving Professor Siraj's report and recommendations in spring next year. I am sure that they will assist us greatly in considering the steps needed to ensure we have the skills, qualifications and training within the workforce to deliver our ambitious plans to expand early learning and childcare of the highest possible quality.

Our children and young people deserve nothing less.