Public Contracts Scotland information regarding funded early learning and childcare partner providers: FOI release

Information requested

The following recorded information held by Public Contracts Scotland.

1. The total number of funded Early Learning and Childcare partner provider nurseries placed on an “Enhanced Monitoring Period” during the calendar years 2024, 2025, and 2026.

2. For each provider placed on an Enhanced Monitoring Period during this timeframe, please provide:

• The name of the nursery or funded partner provider.
• The month and year the Enhanced Monitoring Period commenced.
• The month and year the monitoring period concluded (if applicable).
• Whether the monitoring action was recorded, managed, or referenced through Public Contracts Scotland.

3. Please provide any lists, registers, spreadsheets, reports, or internal monitoring records held by the council which record or track funded partner providers that have been placed on Enhanced Monitoring.

4. Please provide copies of any policies, procedures, guidance documents, contract management frameworks, or internal guidance used by council officers to determine when a funded Early Learning and Childcare partner provider should be placed on an Enhanced Monitoring Period.

5. Within those documents, please provide details of any financial assessment criteria, financial risk indicators, or financial threshold values used to determine whether a provider should be placed on Enhanced Monitoring. This includes, but is not limited to:

• financial viability assessments
• cash flow or solvency concerns
• funding reconciliation discrepancies
• debt or repayment issues
• late or incomplete financial reporting
• any quantitative financial thresholds, scoring systems, or financial risk ratings used in monitoring providers.

6. Please also provide any guidance, briefing notes, or internal communications issued to officers responsible for monitoring funded partner providers that explain how Enhanced Monitoring should be applied.

7. Please provide any risk assessment frameworks, scoring systems, or monitoring matrices used by the council to assess the financial or operational risk of funded Early Learning and Childcare partner providers.

8. Please provide any standard templates, forms, or reporting requirements used by the council when reviewing the financial viability or financial sustainability of funded partner providers. This may include:

• financial monitoring templates
• sustainability assessments
• funding reconciliation review documents
• contract compliance monitoring forms.

9. Please provide the council’s recorded procedures or escalation processes used when concerns arise about a funded partner provider. This includes any guidance or documentation describing:

• the stages of monitoring or intervention (for example standard monitoring, enhanced monitoring, or other escalation stages)
• the criteria used to move a provider into or out of Enhanced Monitoring
• the actions that may follow if concerns are not resolved.

10. Please provide any reports, briefing papers, or internal summaries produced during 2025 or 2026 relating to the monitoring, financial sustainability, or contract compliance of funded Early Learning and Childcare partner providers.

For clarity, this request relates to monitoring of funded Early Learning and Childcare partner providers operating under arrangements managed by Dundee City Council, including where relevant records reference Public Contracts Scotland.

If any of the requested information is considered exempt under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, please provide the information that can be disclosed and specify the exemption relied upon for any information withheld.

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold any of the information you have requested within the Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) system. The reasons that the information is not held within the PCS system are explained below.

1. The PCS system is a national advertising website for Scottish public bodies to publish higher value regulated procurement notices to the UK e-notification service, known as the Find a Tender (FTS) system, lower-value notices and subsequent contract awards.

2. The PCS system only provides functionality to contracting authorities to publish contract notices and contract award notices and to issue and receive associated tender documents, including those related to low value tender opportunities.

3. The PCS system does not contain any additional contract management functionality that a contracting authority could use to request, capture and hold any of the information that has been requested.,

Local authorities have the statutory responsibility for ensuring all eligible children can access funded ELC, and have the responsibility of monitoring the compliance of all funded ELC providers against the National Standard.

You may wish to contact Dundee City Council. The contact details for Freedom of Information requests can be found at Freedom of Information (FOISA) | Dundee City Council.

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.