Public Sector Transformation for Families and Pupil Placement Teams

The statutory entitlement for 3 and 4-year-olds, and eligible 2-year-olds, brings complex eligibility rules, changing policy frameworks, and a heavy load of manual administration. The legacy admissions system relied on disparate processes, spreadsheets, and institutional knowledge that made it difficult for families to apply with confidence and for council teams to operate effectively at scale.

With the introduction of Scotland’s expanded ELC entitlement, the council needed a solution that could reduce administrative burden, improve transparency, and support better outcomes for families and staff. This brief was taken forward through CivTech Challenge 7.8: Admissions for Early Learning and Childcare, a Scottish Government innovation programme designed to find robust, scalable tech solutions for public sector challenges.

Managing ELC admissions is notoriously complex. Parents had to navigate an opaque process, often contacting the council for updates. Staff dealt with high volumes of enquiries, manual data handling, and inconsistency in how placements and waiting lists were managed. Policy changes, including entitlement hours and eligibility windows only added layers of complexity. The council needed a solution that addressed these systemic pains while supporting operational continuity.

Through CivTech, we partnered closely with West Lothian Council’s digital transformation, education, and IT teams to deeply understand the admissions landscape. We ran a structured discovery phase, mapping workflows, stakeholder needs, and the points of friction for both parents and admissions officers. This insight informed the design of Admit, a cloud-based admissions platform built to standardise, automate, and surface clarity across the ELC admissions lifecycle. As the project progressed, we extended the scope to include Primary and Secondary school admissions, which have their own complexities associated with them, such as reasons for refusal. As we learned more about the processes and reporting requirements, we added funded hours calculations, which will have a significant impact on reducing admin overheads.

Parents access a clean, responsive interface to submit applications and track progress, while council teams gain a centralised dashboard to monitor activity, manage capacity, and generate reports. The system is highly configurable and is built to adapt to future changes in legislation and evolving placement flexibility offered to parents and carers.

Admit has changed the way ELC and school admissions are managed in West Lothian. By automating much of the placement logic and embedding policy rules into the platform, the council has reduced reliance on manual spreadsheets and individual staff knowledge. Parents now enjoy clear, time-stamped updates and improved visibility of their application status. Council staff are freed from repetitive tasks and can focus on exceptions and high-value decision-making. There is extensive logging and audit trails on the system to ensure decision-making is transparent and fair.

The system’s configurability means it can adapt as statutory requirements evolve, supporting local authorities across Scotland that face similar complexities in admissions. Pilot feedback highlighted reductions in administrative bottlenecks and increased satisfaction from both carers and council teams.

While Admit continues to roll out, early indicators show tangible operational improvements:

By centralising data and decisions into a common platform, Admit provides a foundation for more resilient and scalable admissions management across both current and future entitlement frameworks.

With the successful pilot demonstrating clear value, we are focused on supporting broader adoption across Scottish local authorities. The platform is being refined with ongoing feedback from users, with enhancements planned for self-service automation and deeper integrations with national education and identity services.