Best value service review of Early Years – recommendations agreed at Cabinet
At the recent meeting of Cabinet, a Best Value Service Review of East Ayrshire Council’s Early Learning and Childcare provision was considered and eight recommendations were agreed, which will see £394,000 being invested in the service.
All public bodies in Scotland have a duty to carry out Best Value Service Reviews to ensure that services have good governance and effective management resources to deliver the best possible outcomes for their communities.
The Council recognises that an effective Early Years provision is essential for local families to thrive and shares the Scottish Government’s vision that - through access to rich and nurturing early learning and school age childcare experiences, children, families, and their communities are enabled to reach their full potential and the poverty-related outcomes gap narrows.
High quality Early Learning and Childcare that is flexible, accessible and affordable is critical to giving children the best possible start in life and to support parents and carers to work, train or study.
In East Ayrshire, Early Years provision has faced significant challenges in recent years with the service having started this year with an adverse budget position of £1.027m, which had been carried forward from 22/23. Through a reduction in costs and by using non-recurring balances, this was reduced to a year-end overspend of £0.418m.
The report to Cabinet, which was based on the Best Value Review Framework, recommended measures to establish the most effective operational model for funded Early Learning and Childcare, while ensuring a sustainable financial position in future years to deliver the best service possible within the budget allocated to the service.
The eight recommendations agreed by Cabinet will allow for an investment of £394,000 in the service, while at the same time reducing the overall spend by £999,030 through management actions.
The agreed recommendations are:
- that the revised hourly rate in academic year 2024-25 for funded providers is increased from £5.92 to £6.00 for 3-5 year olds and £6.15 for 2 year olds and the hourly rate for childminders is increased from £5.12 to £6.00 for 3-5 year olds and £6.15 for 2 year olds
- that £168,000 is invested in payments to funded providers and childminders in East Ayrshire to address the current shortfall
- that £100,000 is invested in payments to cross-boundary funded providers and childminders to support increases to the hourly rate in the current financial year 2024/25
- that £54,000 is invested in an enhanced rate for funded providers who support children with assessed complex additional support needs. Payment of an enhanced hourly rate would allow funded providers to invest in additional support for identified children
- that through the cross-cutting review of children’s services, seek a commitment from other services to review the system for Requests for Assistance where contributions may be sought from partners in relation to assessed need and childcare
- that a further £20,000 is invested in ELC meals, which will provide a total budget of 1,355,100
- that a further £20,000 is invested in cleaning ECCs, which will provide a total budget of £165,000
- that all areas of Early Learning and Childcare reviewed provision will undergo a consolidated Self-Assessment and identify further improvement actions across the service.
Councillor Elaine Cowan, Cabinet Spokesperson for Education, and Children and Young People said: “Evidence shows that the poverty related attainment gap starts well before children start school. Reducing child poverty is a priority for the Council and one of the key ways of doing this is to ensure that parents and carers have access to flexible childcare to help them train, study or return to work.
“The reality for the delivery of Early Years provision, and indeed for all our services, is that we have to ensure moving forward that we are able to deliver within strict budget constraints. The Best Value Service Review guided the decisions that were taken by Cabinet and allowed us to find investment opportunities that will bring future stability to the service.
“Moving forward it is vital that we now utilise our resources to timeously match our workforce with service demand, to ensure the Council meets its statutory responsibilities to deliver 1140 hours of funded Early Learning and Childcare to all three and four year olds and eligible two year olds and fulfil its duty to provide day-care for children in need.”