Early Years Scotland is committed to providing the very best start in life for every child in Scotland. We are the leading national third sector organisation for children pre-birth to 5.

Early Years Scotland’s remit is broad, but with a strong focus on the professionals and families who care for the youngest members of our community.

There are four strands to our work:

1. Working Directly with Young Children and their Families

Our range of Stay Play and Learn services offer a two generational, play-based approach. Our qualified early years practitioners encourage and engage with young children and their parents/carers to reduce the poverty related attainment gap by strengthening and improving confidence, attachments, interactions, the home learning environment, transitions, shared learning and attainment. We work in a range of prisons across Scotland to support children affected by parental imprisonment. Our professional staff offer these much needed services across a variety of local community settings including schools, community and church halls, nurseries, schools and prisons.

2. Membership and Support for ELC Settings, Professionals and Students

We offer a number of support services and membership benefits to assist a range of professionals who work for, and on behalf of, Scotland’s youngest children. We also support parents to establish, run and improve Parent and Toddler Groups in local communities. Early Years Scotland membership benefits include a helpline, curriculum, inspection and business support, professional learning opportunities, regular magazines and bulletins, a members’ area on our website, specialist insurance and legal advice, policy templates and much more. We also offer membership to students, practitioners, childminders, colleges and universities.

3. Professional Learning Academy

In order to respond to requests from the workforce for high quality Early Learning and Childcare professional learning, Early Years Scotland delivers a range of learning opportunities for providers of Early Learning and Childcare, colleges, universities ,local authorities and many more partners. As the size of the workforce is set to almost double by 2020, Early Years Scotland has invested in establishing an expert dedicated professional learning team who design, develop and deliver affordable, accessible, relevant high quality professional learning opportunities across the country. Thanks to funding from the William Grant Foundation, we now have a new Online Learning Platform, which will offer the Early Learning and Childcare sector new opportunities for professional learning and the development of Early Learning and Childcare National Collaborative Learning Communities.

4. Policy, Practice and Legislation: Advice and Advocacy

We are committed to ensuring that we remain connected and fully engaged with developments, initiatives and debates on matters relating to young children across the country. As Early Years Scotland is a membership and service-delivery organisation, we have a responsibility to ensure that our children and members’ voices are represented at local and national level. A significant strand of our work therefore lies in informing, influencing, supporting and challenging early years legislation, policy and practice, to ensure Scotland’s children have the best start in life.