> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.peoplesfuture.scot/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # 13. Strong Families – The Scottish Way 🟢 - URL: https://www.peoplesfuture.scot/13-strong-families-the-scottish-way/ - Published: 2026-08-20T10:23:11.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-20T10:23:11.000Z - Description: Every three- and four-year-old is entitled to 1,140 funded hours a year, with no parental work test. Eligible two-year-olds have the same hours; take-up among them was about 55 per cent in 2025. - Author: The Peoples Future Scotland - Tags: The 28 Every three- and four-year-old is entitled to 1,140 funded hours a year, with no parental work test. Eligible two-year-olds have the same hours; take-up among them was about 55 per cent in 2025\. Under-twos still pay the market. The 2018–2025 evaluation found more hours used and some parental-employment gain, and no improvement in cognitive and language scores. Early learning is fully devolved. A large extra tax-free sum for marriage is not. --- ## Current reality ### Legal and institutional position The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 and subsequent regulations set the funded entitlement. Local authorities must secure a place for every eligible child. Delivery is mixed: council settings, private and voluntary partners, and childminders, under “funding follows the child” and the National Standard. Care Inspectorate grades and SSSC registration are the quality and workforce rules. School-age childcare is also devolved. The 2026–31 child-poverty delivery plan funds a national breakfast-club offer for primary and special schools by August 2027. **Income tax:** Scotland sets rates and bands on non-savings, non-dividend income. The Personal Allowance, its taper, and the Marriage Allowance are reserved. One spouse or civil partner may transfer £1,260 of unused Personal Allowance; the maximum saving is £252 at 20%. Cohabiting couples are excluded. A clean, automatic multi-thousand-pound Scottish marriage allowance would require the reserved allowance architecture. ### The latest official numbers **Entitlement and take-up (national outcomes evaluation, March 2026).** 1,140 hours from August 2021: about 30 hours a week in term time or 22 hours stretched. Three- and four-year-old take-up remains near universal. Eligible two-year-olds: 55 per cent registered in 2025 (57 per cent in 2024; 52 per cent in 2023). Of children using funded hours in April 2025, 87 per cent used the full 1,140 hours (88 per cent of those aged three and over; 72 per cent of two-year-olds). Parents’ 2025 survey: 95 per cent of 3–5s used funded ELC; 66 per cent of two-year-olds used paid care; only 3 per cent of under-twos were in funded ELC. **Scottish Study of Early Learning and Childcare (final report, March 2026).** Mean funded hours at the main setting for “ELC Leavers” rose from 15.6 to 26.3 a week. Total hours in any care rose; paid extra hours fell, with the largest proportional saving in lower-income households. One evaluation strand reported about a seven percentage-point improvement in maternal employment outcomes. Cognitive and language: leavers “on schedule” for communication fell from 88 per cent to 82 per cent. Social, behavioural and emotional difficulties among leavers rose (few or no difficulties 85 per cent to 78 per cent). Eligible two-year-olds showed a larger post-expansion improvement in social-emotional scores after a year of funded hours. The study itself says there is limited evidence to date on the child-development outcomes the expansion sought. **Quality and workforce (Care Inspectorate 2024; evaluation).** 89.3 per cent of daycare services offering funded ELC were good or better on all assessed themes at 31 December 2024 — high, and slightly below earlier years. Childminding services: 3,040, down 5.7 per cent from 2023\. Funded ELC workforce: 25,580 in 2016 to 36,200 in 2024 (+42 per cent). Public-sector share of that workforce rose from 49 per cent to 57 per cent. **Price of the gap (Coram Family and Childcare Survey 2026).** Scotland, under-twos, nursery: £133.08 for 25 hours; £259.10 for 50 hours. Those averages rose about 5% in 2025\. England’s working-parent entitlement for under-threes has cut costs there; Scotland has no funded under-two offer. **Money.** Child-poverty plan and Budget language: over £1 billion in 2026–27 to maintain 1,140 hours. Additional 2026–27 money for a 5.2 per cent partner-rate uplift tied to the real Living Wage of £13.45\. Breakfast clubs: £15 million in 2026–27, then £44 million a year, with more than £100 million across 2026–29. ### How it is experienced in daily life A four-year-old can spend a funded week in a partner nursery. A ten-month-old’s place costs a private bill of nearly £250 a week. An eligible two-year-old may not take the hours because the local pattern does not match shifts. A childminder list is shorter than in 2016\. A married basic-rate couple can claim £252\. A cohabiting couple cannot. ### How it got here Universal pre-school grew in stages. The 2014 Act locked 600 hours; policy then doubled it, live from August 2021 after pandemic delay. Scotland chose universality by age, not a work test. England later chose younger ages for working parents. Childminding contracted as group settings grew. The public-sector pay premium pulled staff out of partners. The Marriage Allowance remained a small UK instrument. ### What has already been tried, and what that showed Capacity and the funded workforce can be grown. Most older children take the full hours. Parental paid hours fall. Quality stays mostly “good” while “very good/excellent” has been harder to hold. Child outcomes in the flagship study did not move as hoped on language. Eligible two-year-olds show a social-emotional signal. Partner rates remain a sustainability fight. Best Start named under-threes and school-age wraparound; the 2026–27 Budget still “safeguards” 1,140 rather than legislating a baby entitlement. Breakfast clubs are the school-age increment that has a date. --- ## What needs to happen ### The improvement in measurable terms - Eligible-two take-up rising from 55 per cent, especially in low-take-up authorities. - A funded under-three offer, if pursued, with places, ratios and grades that do not fall. - Childminder numbers stabilising. - Partner rates that retain staff rather than feeding the council sector only. - School-age wraparound that matches the breakfast-club timetable already set. - Child-development measures that at least stop worsening. - No pretence that a large marriage allowance can be built from rate-and-band powers alone. ### Sequence Hold quality and take-up on the present entitlement. Raise eligible-two registration. Expand school-age cover on the published breakfast-club path. Only then add younger ages, because baby ratios consume more staff per child. Workforce pay and training have to lead places, not follow them. ### Workforce, capital and standards Tighter ratios for under-twos, baby-suitable rooms, SSSC qualifications, and a narrower public–private pay gap. The National Standard is the quality floor; expansion that breaches it fails the developmental case. ### What would count as success in twelve months - 2026 census: eligible-two take-up not sliding again - Partner-rate uplift actually reaching the Living Wage in partner settings - Breakfast-club build toward the 2027 duty, with numbers - A published under-three options paper with costs and workforce, or a decision not to proceed - No announcement of a Scottish transferable Personal Allowance that the Act does not allow --- ## What can be done under current powers ### Who holds the lever Scottish Ministers and the local-government settlement: entitlement, rates, breakfast clubs. Local authorities: places and commissioning. Care Inspectorate and SSSC: grades and registration. Colleges: training volume. UK Treasury: Personal Allowance and Marriage Allowance. ### The statute, budget or direction 2014 Act; National Standard; 2026–27 Budget ELC line; child-poverty delivery plan 2026–31; Scotland Act tax exceptions. ### What is already possible and unused A harder eligible-two take-up programme. Childminder recruitment that reverses the Care Inspectorate decline. Rate-setting that goes beyond the 5.2 per cent floor where authorities can afford it. School-age hours beyond breakfast. Targeted funded hours for younger children in high-poverty areas, which Best Start already contemplated. Couples can be recognised only through imperfect rate-band design or non-tax payments — not a second Personal Allowance. ### What would still be true if management improved tomorrow Under-two market fees would still be set by ratios and wages. SSELC’s language results would not rewrite themselves. The Marriage Allowance would still be £252\. Rural travel time would still break a “30 hours” week. --- ## Where the limits are ### Law and reserved powers ELC and school-age care are not reserved. The Personal Allowance is. ### Money The present system is already about £1 billion a year. Baby hours, at tighter ratios, are not a cheap increment. A meaningful tax recognition would cut yield inside the Fiscal Framework. ### Workforce and capital 42 per cent workforce growth delivered 1,140 hours. Under-twos need more adults per child. Childminder capacity is falling. Baby rooms are not empty classrooms. ### Time, geography, UK-wide systems Phasing is in years, not a term. Islands cannot run the same shift pattern as Glasgow. England’s under-three offer changes the UK comparison without changing Scottish competence. ### Political difficulty, kept separate from legal impossibility Paying for babies competes with everything else in the Budget. That is a priority, not Schedule 5\. Inventing a large marriage tax break and calling it devolved would be legally false. --- ## What is not yet known 2026 ELC census take-up. Whether breakfast-club rollout hits August 2027\. A full official cost of a six-month entitlement. Next Care Inspectorate quality series. SSELC follow-up on the same children. How many partner settings close if rates lag wages? --- ## Honest summary **Achievable now.** Defend 1,140 hours. Raise eligible-two take-up. Pay partners enough to keep staff. Build breakfast clubs. Train and retain. **Only partly achievable.** Universal free wraparound from six months at current quality, in one step, across rural Scotland. A simple, large, automatic extra tax-free amount for marriage. **Would require reserved change.** Redesign of the Personal Allowance and Marriage Allowance. **Colour mark: green.** The distinctive Scottish family instrument is funded early learning. It is already in statute. Extending it is a Budget, workforce and quality problem. Green does not mean the next age-band is cheap, and it does not mean the 2026 evaluation proved cognitive gains. The tax half of the draft is reserved; it is recorded as a limit, not as a deliverable. **What this item does not settle.** It does not choose six months over one year. It does not treat marriage recognition as superior to other household forms as a legal matter. It does not claim 1,140 hours closed the attainment gap. The test is whether the next official year shows more eligible two-year-olds using the hours they already have, grades that do not slip, and a school-age offer that exists in schools rather than in plans — before anyone legislates a baby entitlement the workforce cannot staff. --- ## Connection Item 6 is the later school years the same children enter. Item 7 is the parental and practitioner labour market. Housing and household bills (item 8) set the cost of the years before funded hours start. Public finances pay the £1 billion. Item 11 is why a Scottish marriage allowance cannot be built from the Personal Allowance. The Independence Debate is engaged only on that reserved tax architecture. --- **People’s Future Scotland**