Scotland is to pilot funded early years education for children from the age of nine months, following in the footsteps of England.
In his programme for Government speech at the start of the new parliamentary year at Holyrood this afternoon (5 September), Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf outlined new measures to improve the country’s childcare.
The measures include piloting care for children from the age of nine months through to the end of primary school and ‘accelerating’ the expansion of funded childcare for two-year-olds.
Yousaf said there would be a phased extension for two-year-olds, with the most-needy benefiting first. He also promised to give parents greater flexibility over childcare.
