Early Learning And Childcare Consultation Survey Launch

9th September 2024

The Highland Council's Early Learning & Childcare Consultation is now live, and we want to hear from those living across Highland. The survey is open until Friday 4 October 2024 and can be filled out at the link on this page.

About this survey - The ELC consultation survey is carried out every two years to help us get a better idea of family's ELC needs by area. The ELC service value your feedback and ask that people complete the survey.

The survey is about Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) services, and includes questions for families who:

are currently using ELC,
have used ELC in the past,
are not currently using any ELC services.

Education Committee Chair, Cllr John Finlayson said: "Our ELC staff and service value feedback from people who currently use ELC provision, may use in the future or have used in the past to contribute to the consultation. This enables a wide range of feedback and data to be gathered that helps us better understand the requirements on an area by area basis.

"We understand that certain areas across Highland experience different ELC challenges and needs at varying times, and by carrying out the consultation every two years it allows us to capture those changes and identify patterns which in turn informs our ELC service delivery."

Funded ELC provision is free to parents, funded by the Scottish Government. If your child is 3 or 4 years old and some 2 year olds dependant on eligibility criteria, you can get up to 1,140 hours of funded ELC a year (around 30 hours a week in term time or 23 hours a week over the whole year). Funding is available from the term after your child turns 3 (August, January or April) and depending on their start date (if not starting in August) they will get pro-rata hours.

For more information on Education and Learning across Highland, please visit the Council website HERE

The survey is available now and remains open until Friday 4 October 2024 and can be filled out HERE

Those who have already contributed to the survey from the North area do not require to resubmit, your feedback will be considered, however it does offer the opportunity for those from the North area that may have missed out at the beginning of the summer to contribute now.