Early learning and childcare funding and statistics: FOI release

Information requested

1. The funding allocated to ELC funded places in Scotland in the academic years 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25?

2. The academic years 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25, how many nursery pupils in Scotland entered into the system for each month? For example, August X number of pupils started nursery, September Y number of students and so on.

3. What funding has been allocated to ELC places in Scotland for the 2025-26 academic year?

4. The 2025-26 academic year what are the anticipated numbers of pupils entering into the system on each month in Scotland? Places have been allocated so this information should be available.

5. All information related to cost analysis and financial discussions related to the change of policy. The previous policy was that pupils would begin after their third birthday which has been changed to the term after their third birthday. This should include but not be limited to meeting minutes, formal analysis and any internal discussion where there is a record of the associated financial implications (e.g. Email correspondence). This request is related to Scottish Government and not local council.

Response

The answer to each of your points in turn is as follows:

1. The funding allocated to ELC funded places in Scotland in the academic years 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25?

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people have access to high quality funded ELC in order to receive the support they need to reach their full learning potential, and to give them the best possible start in life. This is why since 2021, we have invested around £1 billion each year to fully fund the statutory entitlement of up to 1140 hours of Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) per year for all three and four year olds, as well as eligible two year olds.

However, the Scottish Government is not responsible for the allocation of Early Learning and Childcare funded places in Scotland. Through the local government settlement, the Scottish Government provides funding for local authorities to deliver funded ELC to all eligible children. Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the funded ELC entitlement is available for all eligible children in their area.

The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on ELC, on the basis of local needs and priorities. The Improvement Service have published an article to explain the background to the funding of ELC provision as administered and delivered by local authorities, which may be helpful. Local Authority Early Learning and Childcare Finance

There is some information available on the Scottish Government's website about financial allocations to local authorities, including allocations relating to early learning and childcare. It is important to note that the individual service allocations are not budgets or spending targets; they are simply an allocation methodology designed to distribute the overall levels of resources to be made available in a way that takes into account all relevant indicators of need. They are not intended to be used by local authorities to allocate resources. The decisions about the amounts allocated to individual services are made entirely by the local authority on the basis of local needs, having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Please note these allocations are by financial year (April to March) rather than academic year (August to July).

You can find information on the local government finance pages of the Scottish Government website - Local government finance statistics - gov.scot - in the section entitled "The funding of Local Government in Scotland". This provides information about the local government funding methodology, and through the "Green Book" links Supporting documents - Scottish Local Government Finance - Green Book: 2025-2026 - gov.scot, supplementary data tables about individual local authority allocations for ELC are shown in Table 3. Please do note, however, the comments above that these are not fixed budgets or spending targets to which local authorities must adhere.

This response also applies to your question number 3, in relation to 2025/26.

2. The academic years 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25, how many nursery pupils in Scotland entered into the system for each month? For example, August X number of pupils started nursery, September Y number of students and so on.

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because the Scottish Government is not responsible for the allocation of Early Learning and Childcare funded places in Scotland. Through the local government settlement, the Scottish Government provides funding for local authorities to deliver funded ELC to all eligible children. Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the funded ELC entitlement is available for all eligible children in their area. This is therefore a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

There is some information available through our annually-published statistics on schools and ELC settings. This is however an annual snapshot, in early September each year, and does not provide the numbers of children entering into ELC provision in each month. Information on the number of ELC registrations by year (from 2012 to 2024) are available in table 4 of the supporting tables on our 2024 published statistics, available at the following link: Supporting documents - Summary statistics for schools in Scotland 2024 - gov.scot . The September 2024 data is the latest information available.

You may also wish to contact the North Lanarkshire Council Early Learning and Childcare team via email at ef.earlyyears@northlan.gov.uk who may be able to advise on local services.

3. What funding has been allocated to ELC places in Scotland for the 2025-26 academic year?

Please refer to answer number 1.

4. The 2025-26 academic year what are the anticipated numbers of pupils entering into the system on each month in Scotland? Places have been allocated so this information should be available.

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because the Scottish Government is not responsible for the allocation of Early Learning and Childcare funded places in Scotland. Through the local government settlement, the Scottish Government provides funding for local authorities to deliver funded ELC to all eligible children. Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the funded ELC entitlement is available for all eligible children in their area.

This is therefore a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

However, you may wish to contact the North Lanarkshire Council Early Learning and Childcare team via email at ef.earlyyears@northlan.gov.uk who may be able to advise on local services.

5. All information related to cost analysis and financial discussions related to the change of policy. The previous policy was that pupils would begin after their third birthday which has been changed to the term after their third birthday. This should include but not be limited to meeting minutes, formal analysis and any internal discussion where there is a record of the associated financial implications (e.g. Email correspondence). This request is related to Scottish Government and not local council.

At the beginning of your email you provided some context that there was "a change of policy to ELC places from 2024-25." To clarify, there has been no change to the statutory expectations placed on Local Authorities with regards to the start dates of funded ELC places. Arrangements for when children become eligible for funded ELC are set out under The Provision of Early Learning and Childcare (Specified Children) (Scotland) Order 2014 . Three-year-olds are eligible to start funded ELC from the relevant start date, which is usually the term after their third birthday. At the time the 2014 Order was drafted and considered by the Scottish Parliament, the stated reason for having three start dates was to enable small groups of children to start at phased points and help to keep the system manageable and sustainable.

Local authorities do have powers to provide funded ELC from an earlier date, if they choose to do so. We encourage local authorities to use these powers where appropriate, however it remains at the discretion of each individual authority. We also encourage parents to engage with their local authority to help inform decisions around provision, settings and available hours.

I understand you reside within the North Lanarkshire Local Authority area. North Lanarkshire Council’s Early learning and childcare applications website (Early learning and childcare applications | North Lanarkshire Council) advises:

"From session 2025-2026 starting on 1 August 2025, start dates for Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) placements will change. These changes are in keeping with Scottish Government legislation and continue to allow for all eligible children to receive their statutory entitlement up to 1140 hours.

"The Government funding start dates are where a child's third birthday fall on or between:

• 1 March 2025 and 31 August 2025 they will be eligible for funding from August 2025 (autumn term) occurring in that year.
• 1 September and 31 December 2025 they will be eligible for funding from January 2026 (spring term) following their birthday.
• 1 January and last day of February 2026 they will be eligible for funding from April 2026 (summer term) following their birthday."

In light of the above, I must advise that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for, as this is a local authority change in start date policy. This is therefore a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

However, you may wish to contact the North Lanarkshire Council Early Learning and Childcare team via email at ef.earlyyears@northlan.gov.uk who may be able to advise on local services.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.