Training programme services

Tender description

The Scottish Government has a requirement to place a contract with an external service provider for the provision of Evidence Based Family learning programme. The contract will be for a period of 24 months – 6 January 2020 to 31 December 2021. The Scottish Government has a requirement to place a contract with an external service provider for the provision of evidence based family learning programme. As part of the expansion to 1 140 hours of funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) for all 3 and 4 and eligible 2 year olds by August 2020, we published a quality action plan in order to further improve quality of funded ELC offer. The quality action plan, published on 31 October 2018, commits us to increasing support for evidence-based family learning programmes to embed this in the early offer for families facing disadvantage (Action 12). Family learning is an early intervention and prevention approach aimed at encouraging family members to learn together, with a focus on intergenerational learning. It can also be designed to enable parents to learn how to support their children’s learning. This not only works as a catalyst in helping adults take up adult learning and training opportunities, gain employment or attain new skills but also impacts on children’s aspirations and learning journey. The programme will primarily aim to support the cognitive development, particularly in terms of communication/language and early numeracy skills. It will also aim to develop children’s social emotional development and confidence. The contract will be for a period of 24 months – 6 January 2020 to 31 December 2021. The bidder is required to: — roll out an evidence based family learning training programme across all 32 local authority areas, — provide training for a total of 432 practitioners (nationally) and support them in delivering the programme. The exact number of practitioners to be trained in each local authority area has been determined using the latest SIMD and Care Inspectorate data, which identified that there are 429 nurseries located in Scotland’s 20 % most deprived areas. Although they do not have any nurseries in the 20 % most deprived areas, Orkney, Shetland and Na h-Eileanan Siar have also been allocated one training place each to ensure that they have the capacity to support families who they think could benefit.