Agenda Item No. 4(d) South Ayrshire Council Report by Depute Chief Executive and Director - People to Leadership Panel of 12 June 2018 Subject: Progress Report on the Expansion of Early Learning and Childcare 1. Purpose 1.1 The purpose of this paper is to update Members on the Council’s progress with preparing for provision of 1,140 hours of early learning and childcare (ELC) to children aged three and four and eligible children aged two by 2020. 2. Recommendation 2.1 It is recommended that the Panel agrees the direction of travel in preparing for, and implementing, 1,140 hours of early learning and childcare across South Ayrshire. 3. Background 3.1 The Scottish Government has made a commitment to extend the entitlement of funded early learning and childcare to all 3 and 4 year olds and eligible 2 year olds from 600 hours to 1,140 hours a year by 2020. This is set out in A Blueprint for 2020: Expansion of Early Learning and Childcare In Scotland’. The Leadership Panel of 19 September 2017 approved the draft plan for the expansion of early learning and childcare in South Ayrshire. 3.2 Local authorities were required to submit their initial plans to the Scottish Government by 29 September 2017. Following meetings with the Scottish Government, local authorities were asked to revise and resubmit their financial templates by 2 March 2018. 3.3 On Friday 27 April 2018, COSLA Leaders agreed distribution of the funding. On 1 May 2018, the Scottish Government confirmed multi-year revenue and capital allocations to each local authority. This funding is allocated as a specific grant and protected for investment in early learning and childcare. The budget allocated for South Ayrshire includes an incremental increase in revenue funding over the period to 2021 rising to £9.695 million (inclusive of inflation), and £15.360 million (£0.560m 2017/18) additional capital funding to deliver 1,140 hours of ELC. 4/ 1 4. Proposals 4.1 Capital Programme A programme of work including extensions, adaptation and refurbishments to other establishments is required to create capacity for the increased provision. Details of this work are outlined in Appendix 1 and this work will be fully funded by the Scottish Government capital grant. During 2017/18 capital funding was invested in Maidens and Annbank early years centres. These centres were refurbished to include provision for two year olds and increased provision for children aged three to five. Updates on progress with investment in our early years establishments will be provided to Leadership Panel as part of the regular General Services Capital Programme reports. 4.2 Phasing of 1,140 hours Between August 2016 and June 2018, five early years centres (Space Place, Annbank, Ballantrae, Newton and Colmonell) introduced pilots to deliver the 1,140 hours. These pilots have been beneficial in refining operational approaches to ensure that children continue to receive high quality early learning and childcare during extended days and full year provision. As part of the phased implementation, 3 additional centres will offer 1,140 hours (Crosshill, Maidens and Dailly) in 2018/19. 4.3 Staffing The revenue funding provided by Scottish Government assumes inflation of 1.3% and a slower implementation than that included in the Council’s submission. Officers are concerned that inflation may be higher than 1.3% assumed and have amended the original implementation plan to reflect 2.5% inflation and the slower implementation. Based on the funding that has been granted, indicative staffing arrangements have been amended: EY staff in post 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 Original submission 195.3 204.2 281.2 356.9 535 536.1 (Sept 17) March 18 Submission 183.5 194 255.5 321.5 354 401 Amending in line with 183.5 188 215 272 353 406 funding (May 18) The Leadership Panel report of 17 September 2017 provided the Chief Executive with delegated authority to implement the delivery plan, including creation of any new posts required to support the expansion of early learning and childcare. The indicative staffing arrangements outlined may alter to reflect refinements in service delivery during the implementation phase. This will continue to be delivered within existing early years budgets and the additional resources allocated from the Scottish Government. The programme, overall, offers significant employment opportunities in terms of training, career development and redeployment. 2 4.4 Additional Graduate Commitment By August 2018, early years centres in the most deprived areas across Scotland will benefit from an additional graduate. South Ayrshire has been allocated 12 Additional Graduates, with £0.331m (part year) included in the revenue settlement for 2018/19. These posts, at senior practitioner level, will support early intervention and closing the poverty related attainment gap. The Scottish Government is committed to meeting the recurring full year costs of this commitment. The additional graduate posts are funded to improve outcomes in areas of deprivation and were advertised during May with a start date of August 2018. A further £6m has been retained by Scottish Government and Councils are invited to bid for additional graduates. Any balance of unused funding remaining after the bid process will be distributed to Councils on the basis of pre-school education grant-aided expenditure, adjusted to take account of the estimated eligible 2 year olds. 4.5 Free Meal Entitlement Currently, eligible children attending early years centres for more than 4 hours are entitled to free meals, including those attending partnership centres. By 2020 this will be extended to all children, similar to the primary 1-3 free school meals programme. Planning for this extended provision of meals is being undertaken in partnership with the Council’s Facilities Management team. This includes production kitchens in larger centres, provision of services during holiday periods, purchase of crockery and cutlery, and arrangements for the transportation of lunches. Funding of £0.76m was requested as part of Council submission and is included within the revenue funding allocation. 4.6 Training Implementation of early learning and childcare across South Ayrshire will require approximately 222.5 additional staff to deliver the expected level of service. The South Ayrshire ‘Training Academy’ is now delivering qualification training to candidates to ensure a sufficient, qualified workforce is available. The first cohort of school assistants started qualification training in March 2018. Furthermore, a second cohort of modern and adult apprentices began in May 2018 and it is anticipated that further cohorts will run during 2018/19. 5. Legal and Procurement Implications 5.1 The recommendations in this report are consistent with legal requirements and reflect appropriate advice. 5.2 The recommendations in this report are consistent with procurement requirements and reflect appropriate advice. 6. Financial Implications 6.1 The phased implementation of the expansion plan has been amended to take account of the financial settlement. 3 6.2 Revenue Costs (£m) 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 Base budget 7.130 Additional Funding requested based on 0.652 3.653 6.797 7.834 9.001 financial template(March 2018) Funding allocated from 0.338 1.451 5.253 8.691 9.695 Scottish Government Funding required based 0.261 1.646 5.000 8.263 9.002 on amended template (PY) Funding required based on 2.5% compound 1.646 5.125 8.681 9.694 inflationary increase from 2019/20 Difference 0.077 0.195 0.128 0.010 0.001 It is anticipated that funding overall will be sufficient. and income generated from selling additional spaces in early years centres will be used to help balance expenditure over the years. 6.3 Capital Costs (£m) 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 Total Refurbishment projects 0.820 0.556 0.056 0.680 2.113 Extension projects 0.560 3.197 0.938 4.695 New build projects 1.840 1.166 2.803 5.809 Outdoor spaces 0.250 0.250 Inflation (compound 2.5% pa) - 0.074 0.224 0.359 0.657 Total required 0.820 3.030 4.643 5.031 13.524 Total allocated 0.560 5.000 5.800 4.000 15.360 6.4 The capital programme will be reviewed to ensure maximum impact of the additional funding for children and families. 7. Human Resources Implications 7.1 Revenue funding will be used to increase staffing to deliver 1,140 hours. The proposed increase in staffing is 222.5 FTE over the next 4 years. 4 8. Risk 8.1 Risk Implications of Adopting the Recommendations 8.1.1 New risk(s) have been identified and assessed in line with the Council’s risk management process as follows: Failure to deliver the capital programme; and Failure to employ sufficient staff. These will be managed within existing operational activities and reference to the status of mitigations will be recorded through the People and Place Directorate Risk Registers. 8.2 Risk Implications of Rejecting the Recommendations 8.2.1 Rejecting the recommendations will have a negative impact on the reputation of the council and may give rise to external criticism, breach of statute or legal challenge. 9. Equalities 9.1 This report provides an update on progress of a recent Panel report which was assessed for potential equality impacts, and the relevant documentation is attached as Appendix 2. 10. Sustainable Development Implications 10.1 Considering Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) - The Scottish Government Gateway has been contacted regarding this plan, policy, programme or strategy, and it has been determined that an SEA will not be pursued. 11. Options Appraisal 11.1 An options appraisal has not been carried out in relation to the subject matter of this report.