DEVASTATING CHILDMINDING SKILLS LOSS UNDER ELC
The childminding workforce in Scotland has declined by 30% with the loss of 1671 childminding businesses and over 10,000 childminding places for families in the last five years during the expansion of Early Learning & Childcare (ELC) and the delivery of ‘1140 by 2020’. The Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA) supports ELC policy but has major concerns over how this has been implemented.
There is increasing evidence that the main reason childminders have been leaving or are planning to leave the workforce is the unsustainable increase of bureaucracy and paperwork under ELC expansion which has had a disproportionate eect on childminders as predominantly sole workers. This has included a layering on of standards and frameworks and duplicative systems of national and local quality assurance resulting in childminders undergoing inspection by the Care Inspectorate and up to three forms of self-evaluation for three dierent statutory organisations on their singular practice.
Our recent survey found that many childminders are now working an additional half to full day every week, unpaid, in their own time and are having to reduce their practice and income to support this paperwork. 53% do not believe they will still be delivering funded ELC in two-three years’ time if this doesn’t significantly reduce. The Scottish Parliament’s Finance & Public Administration Committee also recently called for urgent action.
Childminding is a unique, flexible, and high-quality form of childcare for children from 0-12/16 years which is consistently rated higher, through independent inspection, than nursery. This skills loss has major implications for families, parental choice and Programme for Government commitments for one year-olds and school-aged childcare.
The SCMA ELC Audit 2022 will be published shortly, including even more deeply troubling data. Urgent action is required from the Scottish Government.