Scotland's funded early learning and childcare offer for eligible two-year-olds represents a significant investment in some of the country's most disadvantaged children. But uptake varies - and in some areas, a substantial proportion of children who are entitled to a place are not taking one up.
Last month, the Improvement Service brought together early learning and childcare leads from local authorities across Scotland to explore how data can help change that. The workshop - focused on data, demand and delivery - examined what local authorities currently know about eligible two-year-olds in their area, what the evidence says about what drives higher uptake, and how national tools can better support local planning and outreach.
The conversations surfaced consistent themes across very different local contexts - from island authorities managing constrained capacity to urban councils working in areas of concentrated deprivation. Colleagues shared practical approaches that are already making a difference: email contact with families generating better response rates than postal letters; settings being asked to hold spaces based on expected eligible demand; and data being used to map provision against concentrations of eligible children at a neighbourhood level.
One of the most interesting conversations to emerge from the session was about maximising the value of the data local authorities already hold. The Datapipeline - a dataset provided by Scottish Government containing details of children who may be eligible for the funded offer - is primarily used to contact families directly. Working with Scottish Government colleagues, we are exploring how that data can be used more strategically to support planning and delivery.
A Sway capturing the key messages from the session - including a summary of breakout discussions, key themes and practical next steps - is now available. Whether you attended the session or not, it is designed to be a useful reference for anyone working on or with an interest in the eligible twos offer.
The workshop is part of the Eligible Twos National Improvement Project, which is supporting local authorities to strengthen delivery through shared learning, testing of approaches, and improvement in data-informed practice. If you'd like to know more, get in touch via the ELC inbox – ELC@improvementservice.org.uk