There is an assumption amongst policy makers that on the whole public policy interventions are gender neutral. However in practice this is often not the case and in some instances public sector spending may actually serve to reinforce exiting patterns of gender inequality. A good example of that is the Modern Apprenticeship (MA) programme in Scotland. The research evidence suggests that the MA programme is skewed towards investment in the human capital of men compared to women. Traditional apprenticeships such as those in engineering, construction and plumbing tend to be male dominated are associated with better outcomes, particularly in terms of pay, and better completion rates than those in the non-traditional areas. Overall, women are less likely than men to access MA training, particularly in the 16-19 age group, and, where they do take up the MA programme, they are concentrated in sectors associated with their gender in caring and service occupations. Pay is considerably less in these occupational frameworks and there is evidence to suggest that they are not as 'valuable' to employers as those in the traditional, male dominated, apprenticeships. In short, the MA programme displays severe occupational segregation with largely negative consequences for female MAs. Furthermore the traditional apprenticeships tend to last longer and require more public investment than the female dominated service based apprenticeships. The key challenge for policy makers is to ensure that their interventions do not exacerbate or reinforce existing gender based inequalities. Particularly since the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) requires that all public sector organisations include equality considerations in the design of policies and the delivery of services. One way of meeting this challenge is to use a Gender Impact Analysis (GIA) to evaluate existing and new policies. The purpose of this research project is to develop such a tool using the MA programme as a case study. 'Accounting for gender in the Modern Apprenticeship Programme in Scotland' is a proposed research and knowledge exchange project stemming from the existing work of Women in Scotland's Economy (WiSE) Research Centre at Glasgow Caledonian University and Close the Gap, a partnership organisation which works with a range of organisations in Scotland to tackle the gender pay gap. The MA programme in Scotland is a national flagship training programme which commands a considerable proportion of the Scottish education and training budget. The MA programme currently represents a somewhat 'missed opportunity' for a national training programme to challenge occupational segregation and stereotyping in the labour market thus helping to overcome gender inequality in training, work and pay. As it currently operates the MA programme reinforces inequality. But it could affect real, positive change in terms of the 'gap' between male and female labour market outcomes if occupational segregation was fully considered in the implementation and funding of the programme. This project seeks to generate impact mainly through dissemination of the GIA tool which will be facilitated through the submission of an academic paper and two seminars, one hosted by WiSE for a public audience and one hosted by Close the Gap, to a specialist audience, drawn from their existing networks.

High-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) and afterschool-care (ASC) services are crucial for children's equal opportunities, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. They are also crucial for supporting parents' ability to work and families' financial security. The closure of schools and childcare facilities and other social distancing measures in the wake of Covid-19, while important policies to reduce the spread of the virus and its burden on healthcare systems, created a national 'childcare crisis' with potentially severe effects on families' livelihoods and wellbeing, particularly for families in vulnerable circumstances. Since Covid-19 and its impacts are likely to be persistent, there is an urgent need for crisis-resilient solutions of high-quality childcare provision reaching all families beyond key workers. We know that community-based co-production can lead to more sustainable and effective local solutions than top-down policy-implementation, particularly for hard-to-reach groups. This project has two objectives: firstly, it will collate an evidence-base providing the most comprehensive picture on how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected families' childcare arrangements and wellbeing in the short and longer term. This will include collection of rich new data (in-depth interviews with parents and stakeholders) identifying the specific childcare needs and challenges of families in different circumstances (including socio-economic background, protected characteristics and geographical area), and its triangulation with secondary analysis of a wide range of data-sources on Covid-19 impact (including nationally representative surveys and convenience samples). Secondly, in partnership with local and national stakeholders and policymakers, the project will develop a co-produced policy-toolkit providing community-based implementation and practice pathways to support Local Councils' crisis responses and local communities in developing effective and sustainable childcare solutions during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. This childcare-toolkit will draw lessons from two local co-production labs (in a rural and an urban setting), from mapping exercises of diverse childcare contexts, and the collation of evidence on specific access problems and needs of different groups of families, particularly those in vulnerable circumstances. The innovative project-design combining a comprehensive array of data analysis with a collaborative co-production strategy for local service solutions will be pioneering in designing resilient childcare provision that protects family wellbeing during this pandemic and beyond. Our extensive analysis of a wide range of data will allow us to identify gaps in the existing data on experiences of families with young children during the Covid-19 pandemic and to make recommendations to policy-makers and data-collectors on what further data is required and what questions should be included in future data-collection. Our close collaboration with a wide range of project-partners in policy-making and civil society (e.g. Scottish Government, The Improvement Service and advocacy organisations such as Child Poverty Action Group, Close the Gap, One Parent Families Scotland, and Children in Scotland) helps ensure that our policy-toolkit is useful and applicable for a wide range of ongoing national and regional Covid-19 activities (e.g. 'CHANGE: Childcare and Nurture'; 'Access to Childcare Fund'-projects; 'Caring Community'- and 'Resilient Community'-projects; 'Critical childcare for vulnerable children'-programmes), and secondly, that it is widely disseminated by our partners across the country and different sectors