The Scottish Government recognises that high quality, accessible and affordable early learning and childcare is vital in rural and island areas to support children’s outcomes and to enable parents or carers to train, work, or study.

At a national level, several work programmes are underway to support childcare access in these communities. This includes funding a new national childminder recruitment and retention programme, making grants available to local authorities via the Addressing Depopulation Fund (two of which contain a focus on addressing childcare issues) and investing £16 million over two years into our six early adopter communities, including those in rural and island locations.

Decisions relating to the school estate, including whether to temporarily close council schools and nurseries, are for local authorities to make in consultation with the local community. Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to make Early Learning and Childcare services available to all eligible children within their area and are responsible for local service delivery planning, this includes a duty to consult and inform parents every two years regarding local demand. We are currently reviewing guidance on mothballing to provide greater clarity on when it is an appropriate action to take. That will ensure that local decisions are based on effective engagement with the community, better reflect the needs of rural families and help to maintain access to early learning in those communities.

I would therefore encourage any families affected by planned service closures to engage with their local council about how the Early Learning and Childcare needs of their children will continue to be met.

The rateable value of the building is not the only measure of value for money and nor is it an indication of the cost to replace with a new building. There are other relevant factors with respect to looking at alternatives for public sector buildings. For instance, the local property market and availability of alternative properties and land. It is also imperative that public bodies have good quality, efficient premises which reduce energy costs. As well as this, a key consideration for public bodies will be ensuring that they are located in areas that meet the needs of the essential services they provide.

In many cases, public bodies are not looking to unlock the value of the building through a sale and will retain buildings over the long term, necessitating their upgrade over time. Applicants to the Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant Scheme must therefore evidence that all buildings included in an application will be retained over the blended useful life of all measures installed as part of the project.

The Scottish government does not hold information on the number of nurseries which are closed or mothballed.

Decisions relating to local ELC provision are for local authorities to make, in consultation with the local community. Mothballing should only be for a temporary period and should be subject to regular review, at least annually, against the same requirements which led to the original decision to mothball.

The Care Inspectorate publish a monthly list of all service closures which can be found here: Changes to registration, variations and cancelled services

The annual Care Inspectorate Early Learning and Childcare Statistics publication (Early learning and childcare statistics 2023) sets out information on the availability and quality of registered daycare of children and childminding services for children and families across Scotland. This also includes data on annual service cancellations across the sector.

The Scottish Government are contributing £9.08 million towards the cost of this project through the Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant Scheme and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service are contributing the remainder. While the cost of the works exceeds the value of the property, the market value of the property does not relate to its importance either as part of the historic environment or its usefulness as a public building.

This building is used to provide a vital local service in the area and will remain in public ownership over the longer term. Therefore, we must invest in it – and our other public buildings – over time to support public bodies, and other building owners, to end their use of polluting heating to reach net zero by 2045. The Edinburgh Crown Office occupies a Category B listed building, situated in the Old Town UNESCO World Heritage Site in the city centre of Edinburgh. We recognise it will be more challenging and more expensive for some properties to achieve this, particularly where they are part of the historic environment and are therefore harder to treat.

The Scottish Government spend with Amazon Web Services in each of the last 3 financial years is detailed in the following table:-

Although there has been increases in homelessness applications and non-compliance with statutory duties in some areas, 12 local authorities reduced the number of households in temporary accommodation in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23 and 20 councils reduced the number of children in temporary accommodation.

Increasing housing supply is key to reducing levels of homelessness. As part of our £768 million investment in affordable housing in 2025-26, we are providing targeted funding of £40 million in 2025-26 to the local authorities with the most sustained temporary accommodation pressures. 80% of this funding has been targeted to five local authorities in the central belt experiencing the most sustained temporary accommodation pressures to help increase the supply of social and affordable homes through acquisitions, including, where appropriate, properties suitable for larger families.

We continue to work with our partners to increase the delivery of more affordable homes, the majority of which will be for social rent. We are taking all possible actions to help deliver more high quality, permanent homes, providing the right homes in the right places, and ensure a settled home for everyone.

We have a strong track record in affordable housing by supporting the delivery of more than 136,000 affordable homes since 2007, with more than 97,000 of those being for social rent. We remain focused on delivering 110,000 affordable homes across Scotland by 2032 with at least 70% for social rent and 10% in our rural and island communities.

Children’s Parliament was established in 1996. Their organisational mission is to lead the development of a rights-based culture in Scotland and ensure that children’s voices are actively engaged in shaping our world. They support the Scottish Government, local authorities, and other public bodies to fulfil their legal obligations to promote and protect the human rights of everyone and fulfil their duty of care toward children. Through their rights-based, creative practice, they provide children up to age 14 years old from diverse backgrounds across Scotland, with opportunities to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings so that they can influence positive change in their lives at home, in school and in the community.

The Scottish Government engage with a variety of organisations, including the Children’s Parliament, to ensure there are mechanisms and channels that help to ensure that the voices of children are considered in decision making processes.

In 2023, 13 organisations competed, through an open procurement exercise, to be part of the Children and Young People’s Participation Framework Agreement. The Framework Agreement allows policy teams, from across the Scottish Government to commission engagement with children and young people from a list of pre-approved providers. To be appointed onto the Framework Agreement organisations had to demonstrate their experience and expertise in meaningful engagement with children and young people and the scope, reach, and impact of their work. The Children’s Parliament is one of nine organisations appointed.

Children’s Parliament was established in 1996. Their organisational mission is to lead the development of a rights-based culture in Scotland and ensure that children’s voices are actively engaged in shaping our world. They support the Scottish Government, local authorities, and other public bodies to fulfil their legal obligations to promote and protect the human rights of everyone and fulfil their duty of care toward children. Through their rights-based, creative practice, they provide children up to age 14 years old from diverse backgrounds across Scotland, with opportunities to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings so that they can influence positive change in their lives at home, in school and in the community.

The purpose of the annual Cabinet Takeover meeting with children and young people, is for decision makers at the highest level of government to listen to the voices of and hear issues that matter most to children and young people.

The meetings are an opportunity to demonstrate Scottish Government’s commitment to meaningfully engage with children and young people with the aim of improving the development and implementation of policy and legislation to help make Scotland the best place in the world to grow up. The meetings also support Scottish Ministers to comply with the compatibility duty in section 6 of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024, and to secure better or further effect of the rights of children, including the right under Article 12 to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them, and to have their views considered and taken seriously.

Since 2017, the Children’s Parliament and Scottish Youth Parliament have been involved in the co-design of an annual meeting of Cabinet Ministers with children and young people. At each meeting the children and young people bring their Calls to Action which become tangible commitments to be taken forward by the Scottish Government.

Progress reports from previous Cabinet Takeover Meetings can be accessed via the following links:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/children-young-peoples-voices-matter-progress-report-march-2023/

Children and Young People’s Voices Matter: Progress Report - March 2022

https://www.gov.scot/publications/annual-cabinet-meeting-with-children-and-young-people-fifth-meeting-16-march-2021/

Children automatically become a Member of the Children's Parliament (MCP) when they become involved in projects, run by the Children’s Parliament, that are designed to give them the opportunity to engage directly on issues that matter to them. Children are selected for this opportunity to represent the diversity of all children in Scotland. (Children are not elected to become MCPs).

In 2023-24 the Children’s Parliament worked directly with 1,665 MCPs and indirectly with 5,565 other children. Those children directly engaged include those from minority ethnic groups, those who are neurodiverse, from low income families, young carers and children from migrant/refugee families.

The Children’s Parliament demonstrates a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. Their work includes engaging with a cross-section of children including those whose rights are most at risk. Targeted projects work with children who will gain the greatest positive impact from participating, including those who are disengaging from learning, struggling with confidence or peer relationships, have life circumstances which mean they are under some stress at home or in the community and who have protected characteristics.

Children’s Parliament was established in 1996. Their organisational mission is to lead the development of a rights-based culture in Scotland and ensure that children’s voices are actively engaged in shaping our world. They support the Scottish Government, local authorities, and other public bodies to fulfil their legal obligations to promote and protect the human rights of everyone and fulfil their duty of care toward children. Through their rights-based, creative practice, they provide children up to age 14 years old from diverse backgrounds across Scotland, with opportunities to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings so that they can influence positive change in their lives at home, in school and in the community.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any complaints or concerns raised about the conduct of any Members of the Children’s Parliament in the last three years.