The Scottish Approach — Love, Relationships and the Great Outdoors
Joe Griffin, leader of the expansion of funded early learning and childcare in Scotland, shares their approach, which is all about love, relationships and the great outdoors.
I’m Joe Griffin and I have the privilege of being the Scottish Government official leading the expansion of funded Early Learning and Childcare in Scotland. I am also a dad and a husband, a civil servant, policy professional and diversity champion. I am very lucky to do the job I do and have the opportunity to deliver a policy which will make such a positive difference to so many families in Scotland. Together with my team, we are determined to lead this policy in a way that improves outcomes, and to do so by working closely with, and listening to, the 40,000 or so people in our wonderful sector.
My career has taken many different twists and turns and throughout my time in the Scottish Government, I’ve worked in many different areas including Safer Communities, Fair Work and Employability. As I’ve seen how difficult it can be for people to turn difficult problems around as adults, I’ve come to understand the importance of prevention and early intervention. This has seen me have a growing consciousness of the early years.
When the opportunity arose to work for the Cabinet Secretary for Education to lead the programme of early learning and childcare expansion, I knew this was my real opportunity to make a difference to children and families right across Scotland.
The Scottish Approach
In our children we see ourselves now and in the future. They are the measure of our wellbeing as a nation. Through early years provision, we enhance the life chances of children and we support families when they need it. Evidence tells us high-quality early learning and childcare (ELC) that is accessible to all children can be the cornerstone to closing the gap in educational attainment between the richer and poorer children in our society. This is something that the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has described as the defining mission of her administration.
Our offer, from this August, will be a universal offer of 1140 hours of ELC per year for all 3 and 4-year-olds per year, and for around a quarter of 2-year-olds based on eligibility criteria. 1140 hours per year equates roughly to 30 hours per week if families choose to take it during term time. However, local authorities are offering different models of ELC provision to parents/carers to suit their children and family’s needs to allow much more flexibility and choice than is currently available. We are building our expansion programme with a child first approach and measuring our success on outcomes for children and their families — in respect of their development, employment and wellbeing.
The targeted offer for 2 year olds is based on international evidence that high quality ELC makes a particular difference to children experiencing the worst disadvantage. For that reason, the eligibility criteria target children under the care of local authorities and children in families on a lower income or in receipt of benefits.
The need for high quality ELC is woven into every aspect of our policy decisions and changes. From how we communicate what we are doing, to the legislation underpinning the policy. Ultimately, though, high quality ELC can only be achieved if we have a high quality, skilled and diverse workforce across Scotland who are day in day out delivering ELC to our children.
Love and relationships
We know that individuals who work in the ELC sector do it because they are passionate, they truly believe in giving children the best start in life and are dedicated to supporting every child’s development.
I meet and speak with staff who work on the ground in ELC regularly all over Scotland, from Shetland to Dumfries, and I am mentored by a nursery practitioner. These conversations and relationships have helped me advise ministers on shaping the policy underpinning the ELC expansion. This ”coalface” perspective is invaluable to me and my team in the Scottish Government. I truly believe that those working in the ELC sector have the most important job of all — to love, care, nurture and teach the next generation. Love isn’t often a word used by policymakers but I think love has to embedded within ELC, policy, practice and everyday interactions. In fact, the Scottish National Performance Framework, which sets out what we are trying to achieve as a public sector, describes the outcome for children as “We grow up loved, safe and respected so that we realise our full potential.”
We’ve created a range of resources, tools, documents and support packages for staff working in ELC from induction resources to new modules for continuous professional development. We are really working hard to change outdated perceptions of what it means to work in ELC. We want ELC to be valued as a lifelong career and we are working to increase the diversity of people in the sector by encouraging more men and people from ethnic minority communities to come on board. Some of the human stories here are fantastic. I was reading just last month about a 44-year-old man who swapped being a golf professional to come and work in ELC. He spoke about how he works with children who have additional support needs and how he adapts his approach to suit each child’s need. He sees his role as much more than supporting children’s development but providing them with skills for life and involving parents to be part of that journey too.
Relationships have also been key to improving some of the partnerships in the system. At points in the expansion, it has been fair to say that some of the private nursery owners have felt anxious about the potential impact of the expansion on them, and their ability to deliver high quality ELC. There have been sticking points at times around the rate being offered by local authorities to deliver the service, or around a potential drift of staff from private to public settings. These are complex and sensitive issues, but we have worked hard with our partners in local government, and in the private sector, to promote dialogue, improve communication and foster more trust between the different players in the system. This has helped deliver real improvements in working relationships, a range of funding rates from 2020 that are fair, and an overall increase in the market share of private nurseries in delivering the funded expansion.
Importantly, in our offer, we empower parents to choose the best ELC setting for their child and family. Our Funding Follows the Child approach is provider neutral and ensures local authorities are providing provision to suit local needs. For some families, the best environment for their child is to be with a childminder in a homely and nurturing space where they can grow and learn. Particularly for our youngest children and children with additional support needs.
Outdoors
We have based our whole system of funded hours on quality. Together with local government and other partners, we’ve created a national standard that any provider (local authority nurseries, private nurseries, third sector nurseries and childminders) delivering funded early learning and childcare must meet. This covers things such as quality of care, the provision of a free nutritious meal and access to the outdoors for all children. Outdoor play and learning is something I am passionate about, Scotland has some of the most beautiful scenery in the world (yes, I’m biased!) and no matter where you live you don’t need to go far to find it.
We are working with a third sector organisation, Inspiring Scotland, and with local authorities to increase the amount of outdoor provision, including fully outdoor nurseries in Scotland. Yes, that does mean children are outside in rain, snow, wind and hail, it just adds to the fun! We know that when children have regular access to outdoor environments it has a positive impact on their social, emotional and physical wellbeing and with a bit of creativity any indoor learning opportunity can be done just as easily outdoors too.
We are already seeing the positive impact of children accessing more outdoor provision, and trialled and evaluated this in a community in Glasgow, Castlemilk. Children and families were taken on a journey of transforming a woodland area which was previously a known drug-taking spot to creating a clean, safe, outdoor learning environment where Monday to Friday children are seen engaging with their natural environment. At weekends, the space is filled with local families enjoying being outdoors together in all weathers. This is just one story of many of how the environment is delivering outcomes (including unintended ones) for children, families and communities in Scotland.
Where we are now
We are now in the delivery year, with six months to go until the full rollout of the expansion. We continue to work closely with local authorities and partners and delivery thus far is going well. National-level data shows that we have over half the workforce recruited, over half the required capacity is in place and nearly 50,000 children are already receiving their extra hours. For me, as well as these quantitative “at scale” measures, stories are an important indicator in measuring our success, and it is so gratifying to hear the many positive examples of the child’s development and Mums and Dads going back to college, or increasing their hours at work.
We are not complacent when it comes to delivering ELC and we know we still have a lot of work to do, as do councils and other partners. Of course, the work doesn’t stop in August. August is an important milestone but it is the end of the beginning and where a lot of the work starts.
Beyond 2020
Since the inception of the ELC expansion in Scotland, we have always been looking beyond August 2020 at the long-term outcomes and long-term change ELC will have for Scotland. The ELC expansion is the biggest social infrastructure programme for the Scottish Government for many years. We know this progressive policy will touch the lives of so many children and families in Scotland. We will see on so many other related public services, and most importantly in communities up and down the country. But we know one ‘service’ can’t fix everything and we continue to work across sectors and boundaries to improve and make things better for children and families in Scotland beyond August and beyond ELC.
Whenever we create or develop policy and deliver change and practice if we have kindness, love and relationships embedded we won’t go far wrong.
‘Whatever the question is the answer is always relationships,’ John Carnochan, previous leader of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit.
Joe Griffin was appointed Director for the newly formed Directorate of Early Learning and Childcare in April 2018, after two years leading the work as part of a wider portfolio.
He has been working for the Scottish Government since 2004 in mainly policy roles, including:
* Deputy Director for Creating Positive Futures, Directorate for Children and Families
* Acting Director for Fair Work
* Head of Reducing Reoffending, Directorate for Justice Principal Private Secretary to First Minister
Before his move to Scotland, Joe was a diplomat at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which included postings to New York and Paris.
Twitter: @ELCScotgov
Email: DirectorForEarlyLearningandChildcareProgramme@gov.scot
