Since February 2018, the Scottish Government has been in frequent dialogue with stakeholders about the import provisions of the US Marine Mammal Protection Act, in order to ensure that Scotland can continue to export quality Scottish seafood to the US.

Details of specific meetings include:

• March 2018 – SFIA: Seafood Regulation Expert Group.
• July 2018 – Scottish Government internal conference call.
• May 2018 – Meeting with Scottish Government and Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation.
• October 2018 - Meeting with Officials from Canada, Chile, Norway and Scotland under the auspices of the International Memorandum of Understanding on aquaculture.
• May 2019 – Meeting with Scottish Government and Faroese Government.
• July 2019 – Conference with Scottish Government and the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs.
• August 2019 - Conference call with Scottish Government and the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Marine Management Organisation, Seafish and Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
• August 2019 – Meeting with Officials from Canada, Chile, Norway and Scotland under the auspices of the International Memorandum of Understanding on aquaculture.
• September 2019 – Meeting with Scottish Government and Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation.
• October 2019 – Meeting with Scottish Government and Genuswave.
• November 2019 – Conference call with Scottish Government and the British Trout Association.

Local authorities are responsible for recruiting additional staff to meet the local requirements of expanded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC). In fulfilling that responsibility, local authorities have provided forecasts of the anticipated additional staff needed in their area and report, to the Improvement Service, progress in recruiting those anticipated additional staff. The latest Improvement Service delivery progress report published on 2 October 2019 shows that 4,069 additional FTE staff are now in post, which is almost half of the total forecast requirement for expansion. Further breakdown of workforce data is not collected by the Improvement Service.

At a national level, the Scottish Government facilitates the recruitment and training of additional staff by funding additional places on ELC training courses in further and higher educational institutions, via Skills Development Scotland’s (SDS) apprenticeship funding, and by funding local authorities for those who are trained via vocational routes. For example, since 2017-18 we have created over 2,000 additional HNC places and over 800 graduate level places at colleges and universities across Scotland. We are creating just under 2,000 additional college and university places in the 2019-20 academic year and uptake of ELC Modern Apprenticeships increased by 24% in 2018-19 against the previous year. That is significantly above the 10% year on year increase SDS committed to each year up to 2020.

The process to prepare these reports for publication requires significant work by the Improvement Service and local authority partners from the point of collection to the release of the final publication. It is important that ample opportunity is given to allow for quality assurance and detailed analysis of the data, to ensure quality and accuracy in the final report.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of transparency, and proactively publishes progress reports when appropriate quality assurance is complete.

The Scottish Government Letter of Guidance to the Scottish Funding Council for academic year 2017-18 sought an additional 650 places on Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) related HNC courses. The number of people completing ELC related HNC courses in the 2017-18 academic year was 1,564.

An additional 350 places at graduate level were also sought for the 2017-18 academic year. The number of people entering such courses in 2017-18 was 645.

Information for academic year 2018-19 will be available for graduate level courses in December 2019 and for HNC courses in January 2020.

The Scottish Government publishes proactively Early Learning and Childcare Expansion Delivery Progress Reports at a national level. These reports are based on information provided in confidence by local authorities to the Improvement Service, to enable reporting to the ELC Expansion Joint Delivery Board.

Local authorities reasonably assume and expect that the data they provide in confidence will be used to inform the nature of targeted support offered; programme assurance at a national level; and the routine publication of national level data; and not the publication of individual narrative text at local authority level. The free and frank exchange of views between local government, the Improvement Service and central government is an important enabling condition of a successful ELC expansion and therefore in the public interest.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of transparency and proactively publishes delivery progress reports when quality assurance processes are complete.

The process to prepare these publications requires significant work by the Improvement Service and local authority partners from the point of collection to the release of the final publication. It is important that ample opportunity is given to allow for quality assurance and detailed analysis of the data, to ensure quality and accuracy in the final report. This process takes time. The reports published in December 2018 and August 2019 cover a wide dataset, and a full 6 month reporting period.

The most recent publication related to an additional data collection focused on a snapshot of data at ‘one year to go’, and were collected over the summer period, and covered a more limited dataset. As a result the collection, analysis and assurance process as a whole was quicker, and officials worked to enable publication of the data on 2 October 2019.

The Scottish Government’s Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment considered the impacts of the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) expansion on private and third sector providers. In the current market, the majority of private and third sector providers’ income (around 77%) comes from fees charged to parents and carers for non-funded hours (i.e. additional childcare on top of the funded entitlement; or childcare for children not yet eligible for funded ELC).

Local authorities’ original expansion plans forecast that the share of providers’ income accounted for by funded hours would increase with the roll-out of 1140 hours, as settings allocate more capacity towards delivering funded hours. This is reflected in the latest delivery data. The increase will be, in part, due to previously paid-for (wraparound) hours now being funded, and in part due to children newly accessing funded hours at the setting.

Local authorities and private and third sector ELC providers are working in partnership to develop a local offer of funded ELC that responds to parental demand and may include different patterns of provision based on different business models. There is no requirement on private and third sector ELC providers to change their overall capacity and therefore staffing models as a result of the ELC expansion, although we recognise that providers may of course choose to do so.

We recognise also that private and third sector providers are being affected by large scale local authority ELC recruitment. We are working with sector representative bodies to support providers with recruitment, including through our campaign website: www.childcarecarecareersscotland.scot which hosts job adverts from across all ELC sectors.

We know that high quality early learning and childcare can play an important role in reducing the poverty related attainment gap. We have dedicated funding for 435 equity and excellent leads to work in all 32 local authorities with a focus on improving outcomes for children in the most deprived areas of Scotland.

Local authorities have reported that 94% of the Equity and Excellence lead posts have now been filled (410 full time equivalent posts). The Scottish Government is continuing to work closely with local authorities with outstanding posts to fill. Progress is monitored on a regular basis. Local Authorities are aiming to fill these posts as swiftly as possible.

Some posts have taken longer to recruit for than anticipated. This is partly because these roles can be very specialised and many local authorities have included additional criteria to ensure the most suitable, highly qualified candidates are in place to support children experiencing disadvantage.

DWP provide aggregate data to SG to estimate eligible 2s when new data becomes available. This is part of our ongoing relationship. Use of aggregate, administrative data for analytic purposes does not require creation of a new gateway. We are in regular contact with DWP on a range of data sharing issues. As outlined in my response to S5W-25751 on 6 November 2019, regular updates are requested inside our ongoing working relationship, but DWP are not currently able to provide an expected date for the supply of the latest data. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Based on the latest published data, Local Authorities forecast that 26% of funded ELC places will be provided in private sector, third sector or childminding settings in April 2021, with the remaining 74% provided in local authority settings. This will mean an increase in the share of private, third and childminding sector providers’ income accounted for by funded hours, in part due to previously paid-for hours becoming funded with the increase in the statutory entitlement, and in part due to children newly accessing funded hours at the setting.

There is no requirement that providers in the private, third and childminding sectors change their overall size of service as a result of the ELC expansion – it is up to providers to work with their local authority to agree whether and to what extent they wish to offer funded hours, in order to meet local parental demand. We are aware that some local authorities are supporting providers who do wish to increase their funded provision, including through access to grant funding. In July this year we published a summary of the different types of support available to providers in each local authority: https://www.parliament.scot/S5_Education/Inquiries/In_Attachment_ELC_rates.pdf .

Local authorities are investing in expanded services. The latest published data shows that local authorities are currently planning to deliver 900 infrastructure projects to support the ELC expansion, including refurbishment, extension and new build projects. As of September 2019, 214 projects were complete; 120 in construction; and a further 566 in development.