Early learning and childcare funding: FOI release

Information requested

When a local authority (e.g. West Dunbartonshire) applies for a child’s 3-5 years funding from the Scottish Government.

If a child was born in 2022 (e.g. 02/01/2022) and again if the child was born (02/01/2023), is this issued from the child’s 3rd birthday in each case or when?

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the information you have requested because of an exemption under section 17 (1) (b) (Notice that information is not held).

You have asked about funding of Early Learning and Childcare, and when a local authority applies for a child’s funding.

That is not how funding allocations work and authorities do not apply for funding for each individual child. The vast majority of funding available to local authorities 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 on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The block grant calculation takes into account a long list of factors that affect how much funding councils need to deliver those statutory duties. This includes, amongst other things, the number of young children in their area and the number of children attending their early learning provision.

This does not equate to funding ‘for’ those children or ‘for’ Early Learning specifically, but does ensure that the needs of children and Early Learning are pertinent to the overall funding distribution calculation. In theory children will be included in the population counts if they are included in the National Records of Scotland mid-year estimates of the population, for each age, which is as at 30 June, and will be included in the count of children in pre-school provision, for each age, if they are in pre-school centres at the time of the September Pre-school Census. In terms of what age we consider them, in the September 2025 Pre-school Census, 4 year olds are those born between March 2021 and February 2022, etc.

The full methodology for the Early Learning indicator within the block grant is available here, see Table 3. The calculation of the related element of the block grant is published here, see the ELC page.

If you have any further queries related to funding, please contact gaestatistics@gov.scot directly.

Reasons for not providing information

An exemption applies

An exemption under section s.17 (1) (b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. S.17 details a notice that information is not held. In this instance, information is not held, as stated, because Local Authorities do not apply for funding for each child.

This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.
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.