Childcare Sector Working Group minutes: May 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Care Inspectorate (CI)
• Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
• Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA)
• Early Years Scotland (EYS)
• National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) 
• Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES)
• Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC)
• Scottish Out of School Care Network (SOSCN)
• The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) 
• Unison
• Association of Headteachers and Deputes in Scotland (AHDS) 
• Scottish Government (SG), Chair

Items and actions

1. Welcome, apologies, minutes and actions

The Chair opened the meeting and welcomed the group.

Minutes from the previous meeting have now been published online. 

The Chair updated on actions from the previous meeting – 

• action 1 - Update circulated to the sector about new UKG HMRC guidance on employer allowance for childcare providers
• action 2 - Analysis paper on Care Inspectorate data to be shared by SG later this month regarding trends in respect of numbers of settings/capacity
• action 3 – ‘Time off the floor’ to be covered in Workforce deep-dive item
• action 4 – Care Inspectorate update on their nappy changing guidance review, which has been circulated
• action 5 – SG officials considering internal lessons learned from storm Eowyn. Dates for discussion to be circulated.
• action 6 – Update on the sustainable rates guidance and approach to ENICs circulated as part of rates guidance in February
• action 7 – Detail on the National Standard update to be covered in SG updates item.
• action 8 – First meeting of the support for children with Additional Support Needs (ASN) short life working group took place in April
• action 9 - Clarity on legal position on payment of real Living Wage (rLW) covered in today’s rLW update

2. Workforce Deep-Dive

SSSC ‘Have Your Say’ and ‘Leavers’ surveys

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) presented slides that were circulated to the group in advance.

Some key points from the Leavers’ Survey include:
• the Children and Young People workforce had a register share of 24.4% but comprised 29% of all leavers in that period
• retirement was the top reason for leaving accounting for 18% overall
• almost half of respondents said they were moving to the health or education sectors

The SSSC plans to repeat the survey annually. 

Key points from the ‘Have your Say’ survey:
• questions were asked about wellbeing, pay, terms and conditions, support, access to training and qualifications and people’s experience of working in social services
• the survey was open to everyone who has worked in the social services sector, including non-registered roles. 96% of the 6,581 responses were from registered workers. Around a third of responses came from the Children and Young People workforce
• just over a fifth (23%) of respondents said they were quite or very likely to leave in the next 12 months, and 45% within the next five years
• 60% of CYP staff who said they were likely to leave the sector mentioned overwork as a reason

The next steps are for the SSSC to break down the findings of ‘Have your Say’ survey by register part, including analysis by employer and service type, and to organise focused webinars for the different groups of registered workers in the early autumn. Moving forward, the SSSC plans to refine the questions for the next survey and use survey findings to inform and target workforce development activity.

Members asked if there was information available on whether any of those who left the sector due to retirement did so early. SSSC confirmed that further refinement of the questionnaire will take place, including to gather information on this point.

SSSC agreed they were content for slides to be shared outwith the group. 

Workforce challenges

SG presented slides which had been circulated to the group in advance.
SG highlighted the following actions are being taken to address workforce challenges:

• providing funding for payment of the real Living Wage (rLW) to staff delivering funded early learning and childcare in 2025 - 2026 and developing an approach to monitoring payment of the rLW so that this is in place before the end of 2025
• taking forward engagement with the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES) on workforce planning, to create a sustainable workforce for delivery of the 1140 expansion. Reviewing the landscape of qualifications and professional learning (including funding), working closely with SSSC on the review of the National Occupational Standards
• working with Skills Development Scotland to trial how a childcare-focused ‘Skills for Growth’ programme might support PVI providers to enable their staff to take paid time off the floor for their professional learning
• streamlining and simplifying access to Continuous Professional Learning (CPL) resources and guidance through further development of SSSC’s CPL Portal

Real Living Wage monitoring arrangements

The SG outlined that they have developed an approach to monitoring payment of the real Living Wage (rLW) to those delivering funded ELC, with colleagues in local authorities (LAs) and CoSLA. This seeks to supplement rather than replace LA arrangements and is focused on gathering data through the Care Inspectorate Annual Return, providing an escalation route for individuals, sharing of good monitoring practice by the Improvement Service and the CSWG being the forum for reviewing issues relating to monitoring payment of the rLW and Fair Work issues in ELC. 

Action:
• the proposal for monitoring payment of the rLW was agreed by the CSWG
• SG to issue comms on rLW monitoring ahead of Care Inspectorate Annual Return in December

Reflections and discussion on workforce challenges and SSSC surveys

The following issues were raised in discussion:
• there has been a significant erosion of nursery teachers working in ELC. The voice of nursery teachers should be heard, including through the Curriculum Improvement Cycle
• the increasing number of children with ASN in ELC settings is creating a challenge for those working in ELC
• the high turnover of staff has a significant impact on teams in settings
• the loss of experienced staff means that newer staff are unable to benefit from the mentorship of others. This in turn affects the quality of care provided to children
• there is a wider issue around society undervaluing the work undertaken by women
• pay is critical, and payment of the rLW is not sufficient to recruit and retain staff
• it is important to value the early years sector and the people who work in it, given the critical importance of the early years
• links need to be made between early learning and childcare and other strands of policy development, including employability and rural development
• the issues around recruitment and retention are complex and connected

Action:
• SG to ensure that appropriate links are made between early learning and childcare policy and the Curriculum Improvement Cycle
• members to send any further feedback to the secretariat. 
• should members wish to participate in the review of the National Occupational Standards, they are invited to contact: nosreview2025@sssc.uk.com
• should members wish to participate in the review of SVQ qualifications and apprenticeships, they are invited to contact: SVQandapprenticereview@sssc.uk.com

3. Updates from the Scottish Government

The Chair noted her imminent change of role and that arrangements for her replacement will be confirmed to members in due course.

Programme for Government

The 2025 Programme for Government was announced on 6 May, setting out the action the Scottish Government will take over the next year to eradicate child poverty, build a stronger economy, renew the NHS, reduce pressure on family finances and take effective climate action.

In terms of childcare, this included recommitting to the rLW and Sustainable Rates Review. 

This also included a new commitment to publish an Early Years Speech and Language action plan by autumn 2025, building on the National Early Language and Communication Team’s work.

In addition, we are committing within the PfG to provide an additional £1m to help support holiday playschemes and activities provision for children with a disability. This funding will be distributed across all 32 LAs and can be used locally to support provision of specialist holiday services.

A full written update was circulated to members in advance of the meeting. 

National Standard Update

Updated National Standard operating guidance will be published ahead of the Quality Improvement Framework (QIF) implementation in September.

This is a technical update to ensure compatibility with the shared QIF. SG has been working closely with the inspectorates, Local Government and all relevant stakeholders.

The updated guidance will be communicated to CSWG members before the summer.

Action:
• SG to circulate updated National Standard to CSWG members in summer ahead of publication

Cost collection

The Diffley Partnership is in the final stages of preparing the funded provider cost collection survey to launch at the end of the month for around four weeks.

The SG is hugely grateful to all the funded providers and representative bodies who have supported the development of the survey.

The SG would appreciate representative bodies’ continued support in promoting the survey to their members.

Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future

Backed by a further £1.6 million in Scottish Government funding in 2025 to 2026, the SG outlined that delivery partners at the Scottish Childminding Association have expanded the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future with 28 LAs now participating in recruitment and/or retention activity. 

4. Feedback from the sector on current issues

Concerns were raised around some LAs’ procurement procedures for funded partners, including an authority halting commissioning of new services and no longer supporting cross boundary placements, and another only looking to private providers for ‘overflow’ places. There is a feeling of LAs not acting in the spirit of Funding Follows the Child or following joint SG/CoSLA guidance. There were particular concerns that further authorities might follow suit in these actions. 

CoSLA reflected that these issues regularly come up in discussions between the Minister and Cllr Buchanan. These have been local issues so not for CoSLA to enforce, but CoSLA is aware of members’ concerns and will continue to pick these up with SG. 

Action:
• members to share further details of the ‘overflow’ issue with SG
 
Members are still very concerned about the sustainability of their settings. It seems from their members’ feedback that many LAs are only offering the minimum uplift to sustainable rates. Given the Employer National Insurance Contributions (eNICs) uplift for PVI, and ongoing rising costs, this continues to be a worry for members. 

Ministers have been very clear in their representations to the UK Government that the cost of eNICS should be subsidised in full. 

5. Forward look to agenda for next meeting and AOB 

Next meeting 

The date of the next meeting is to be confirmed and will be shared with members in due course. 

Action:
• secretariat to identify new date for next meeting