Funded early learning and childcare in private, third sector and childminding settings: delivery costs

Appendix D: Childminder Questionnaire

Childminders

Scottish Government - ELC Data Collection - Draft Data Collection Form

Who is asking for my information?

This survey is being carried out by Diffley Partnership, an independent research company, on behalf of Scottish Government and COSLA. It is intended to be completed by all private, third sector and childminding providers who deliver funded early learning and childcare (ELC).

Individual responses will be completely confidential and will not be seen by anybody outside of Diffley Partnership. Your financial information will not be shared with the local authority where you are based, only aggregate results – e.g. anonymised and non-disclosive averages at local authority level – will be provided. All your data will be securely stored by Diffley Partnership in accordance with the Data Protection Act and destroyed 6 months after the project is completed.

This survey will ensure that your local authority has a reliable and up to date understanding of the current costs to local childminding services of delivering early learning and childcare, and a clear idea of the possible future factors that may impact on costs.

Why should I take part?

This survey is your chance to ensure that your local authority takes local sustainable rate setting decisions based on as accurate and up to date information as possible.

The findings will inform discussions about the provision of funded hours in your local authority, and the essential role funded providers in the private, third and childminding sectors will play in that. The information will also support the development of new guidance, and will help to inform the Scottish Government and COSLA’s future financial planning.

We hope as many childminders and other providers as possible will take part.

What information are you asking me for?

The questionnaire includes questions about your current costs (the money you spend on things like rent and bills etc.), your income, your capacity and occupancy, and the fees you charge parents.

This survey also collects information on your view of your anticipated future costs. The actual costs collected will be used as the baseline and the indications of anticipated cost changes will allow us to consider and model a number of scenarios.

It is important that the answers are as accurate and up to date as you are able to provide – the more accurate the data is, the more useful it will be in informing the approach by your local authority to setting sustainable rates for the delivery of funded ELC.

You may find it helpful to have relevant information to hand when you complete the survey. This may be your accounts, or other records if these are more up to date.

How to complete the survey

If you need to come back into the questionnaire at a later time, this is fine – just exit and the survey will resume at the place you left it when you’re ready (you may need to leave it 10 minutes before going back in). You can also move forwards and backwards through the survey using the ‘Next’ and ‘Back’ buttons.

Section 1: Provider Information

ASK ALL

Q1. Which of the following do you operate?

• Childminding service
• Day care of children service

ASK IF SINGLE SETTING OR CHILDMINDER

Q2. What is the name of the service that you operate?

[OPEN TEXT]

ASK ALL

Q3. Please provide the Care Inspectorate Registration number(s) of your service?

[OPEN TEXT]

ASK IF SINGLE SETTING OR CHILDMINDER

Q4. What is the postcode of your service?

[OPEN TEXT]

Section 2: Capacity and Operation

ASK ALL

Q5. Please provide the following information

c) The number of weeks of the year your service is open?

d) The number of hours per week that your service is open?

[Open Text- must be numeric]

ASK ALL

Q6. What is the maximum number of places for children that your service is registered to provide?

ASK ALL

Q7. Please provide an estimate of the percentage of children who attend your service who have additional support needs (note - please cover all cases where additional support is required, and your response should not be limited to just cases where there is a formal diagnosis )

[OPEN TEXT]

ASK ALL

Q8. Which of these best describes your premises?

7. Rented from a private owner

8. Rented from council / other public sector organisation

9. Provided rent free

10. Owned with a mortgage

11. Owned outright

Section 3: Sessions and Fees

ASK ALL

Q9. Please enter the typical number of hours provided for each of the following type of sessions

c) Hours per half day session

d) Hours per full day session

e) Hours per wraparound session

ASK ALL

Q10. Please enter your standard fee structure.

If a particular fee does not apply please enter ‘£ 0 ’ in the box.

Fee	Under 3s	Over 3s
Fee per half-day session	-	-
Fee per full day	-	-
Fee per week	-	-
Fee per additional hour of childcare (eg, wraparound hours, etc)	-	-

ASK ALL

Q11. Is there any further information you would like to provide on your fee structure?

[OPEN TEXT]

Section 4: Income and Expenditure

In this section, we will be asking you for the number of hours of childcare you deliver, income and expenditure. We will also require your expenditure to be broken down into a small number of cost elements.

You can provide these costs either by month (April 2025) or by year.

[If Childminder] Please provide only costs that relate to your business. Please also think of costs related to working outside of normal hours that you may incur.

ASK ALL

Q12. How would you prefer to provide this information?

• April 2025
• Financial Year

ASK IF FINANCIAL YEAR

Q12b. For which financial year are you providing figures?

[OPEN TEXT]

ASK IF FINANCIAL YEAR

Q13. And what financial year do you use?

• April-March
• January-December
• Other [please specify]

ASK ALL

Q14. For each of the following age groups please provide either: (1) the total number of hours; or (2) the number of half-day and full-day sessions you delivered on average per week during the time period for which you are providing financial information?

Age group	Total number of hours (regardless of whether they are funded or not)	Number of half-day sessions per week	Number of full-day sessions per week
Under 2s (0-1 year olds)
2 year-olds
3-5 year olds
Over 5s (if you deliver services for school age children)

ASK ALL

Q15. Has the number of funded hours you have been commissioned to provide increased, decreased or stayed the same over the last year?

1. Increased

2. Stayed the same

3. Decreased

Income and Expenditure

ASK IF SINGLE SETTING PROVIDER OR CHILDMINDER

Q16. Please provide the following information?

Income and Expenditure	Amount
Total annual/monthly business income (before expenses)	[Open Text- Must be Numeric]
Total annual/monthly expenditure	[Open Text- Must be Numeric]

ASK IF CHILDMINDER

Q17. Do you employ any other paid staff for your childminding service other than yourself?

• Yes
• No

ASK IF HAVE STAFF

Q18. Can you please break your expenditure down by the following ( £ )?

• Own salary
• Staff Salaries
• National Insurance Contributions
• Taxes other than NI contributions
• Pension Contributions (including personal pension contributions)
• Mortgage/rent
• Other non-staff running costs (excluding mortgage/rent)

[Total must equal answer to Q17]

ASK IF NO STAFF

Q19. Can you please break your expenditure down by the following ( £ )?

• Own salary
• National Insurance Contributions
• Taxes other than NI contributions
• Pension Contributions (including personal pension contributions)
• Mortgage/rent
• Other non-staff running costs (excluding mortgage/rent)

[Total must equal answer to Q17]

ASK ALL

Q20. What is the average level (percentage) of net surplus/profit/return on investment that your setting needs to return to remain sustainable?

1. 0-5%

2. 6-10%

3. 11-15%

4. 16-20%

5. 21-25%

6. 26-30%

7. 30%+

ASK ALL

Q21. Would you be willing to provide a more detailed breakdown of your income. Note, this is optional and will be used to better understand the income and expenditure of settings providing funded ELC. This information is optional.

1. Yes

2. No

ASK IF Q21 = YES

Q22. Thinking about this income, what percentage of your total income came from the following? If a particular income source does not apply please enter ‘ 0 ’ in the box.

• Funded ELC Payments: _______________(%)
• Private Fees from Parents: _______________(%)
• Other Government Funding: _______________(%)
• Non-Government Grants: _______________(%)
• Donations and Fundraising: _______________(%)
• Universal Credit: _______________(%)
• Community/Supported Childminding/Social Work: _______________(£)
• Other (please specify): _______________(%)

Section 5: Cost of Delivering ELC

ASK ALL

Q23. What is the average estimated cost to your setting per hour of delivery regardless of whether funded or not?

Age group	Cost per hour of delivery
2 year-olds	-
3-5 year olds	-

Q23a. What accounts for any differences in costs across 2 year olds and 3-5 year olds?

[OPEN TEXT]

Section 6: Meals

ASK ALL

Q24. Do you provide meals in your setting?

• Yes
• No

IF MEALS = YES

Q25. How are meals provided by your setting?

Select all that apply

• Prepared by own setting
• Provided by local authority
• Provided by contracting an external caterer
• Combination of own setting and provided by local authority or external caterer

IF MEALS = YES

Q26. What is the estimated full cost of providing the free meal commitment per meal for each child ( £ ): _______________

Section 7: Staff Costs

ASK ALL

Q27. In the table below please provide the average number of hours per week that you work which are: (1) paid hours; and (2) unpaid hours.

(1) Average paid hours per week	(2) Average unpaid hours per week

ASK ALL

Q28. Do you currently contribute towards a pension scheme for yourself?

1. Yes

2. No

ASK ALL

Q29. What is the average percentage contribution that you make towards a pension scheme for yourself?

[OPEN TEXT]

ASK ALL OTHER THAN CHILDMINDER WITH NO STAFF

Q30. What is the average percentage contribution that you make towards a pension scheme for employees?

[OPEN TEXT]

ASK ALL OTHER THAN CHILDMINDER WITH NO STAFF

Q31. Do you currently claim the Employment Allowance for reducing employer National Insurance Contribution costs?

1. Yes

2. No

ASK ALL

Q32. Do you currently pay yourself at least the Real Living Wage?

• Yes
• No

ASK ALL OTHER THAN CHILDMINDER WITH NO STAFF

Q33. Do you currently pay at least the Real Living Wage to staff in your service? [note – in line with the requirements for Living Wage accreditation, and as set out in Section 2 of the Funding Follows the Child Operating Guidance, apprentices do not have to receive the real Living Wage. If apprentices in your setting are paid below the real Living Wage, but all other staff, or all other staff delivering funded ELC, are paid at least the real Living Wage then please select Yes for one of the options below] (Select one):

• Yes – all staff
• Yes – only staff delivering funded Early Learning and Childcare
• No

ASK ALL CHILDMINDERS

Q34. Do volunteers or unpaid assistants currently carry out any roles to support the running of your setting (e.g. administrative tasks or school pick up/drop offs)?

ASK ALL OTHER THAN CHILDMINDER WITH NO STAFF

Q35. Would you be willing to provide the hourly pay of staff in your setting across a range of roles? This information is optional.

1. Yes

2. No

ASK IF YES AT Q35

Q36. For each of these:

Please give the average gross hourly pay (before tax, national insurance and other deductions) of each of the following jobs within your business?

Staff Type	Average hourly pay
Assistant [Childminder only]	-

ASK IF YES AT Q35

Q37. Please use the box below to set out average gross hourly pay for any other staff you employ in your setting. This could include specialist staff who provide dedicated support for children with profound and multiple learning disabilities; and/or sectorial, maintenance, catering, or domestic staff.

[OPEN TEXT]

ASK ALL

Q38. Would you be willing to provide information on the average hourly rate that you pay yourself?

1. Yes

2.No

ASK ALL

Q39. What is the average hourly rate that you pay yourself?

[OPEN TEXT]

Section 8: Anticipated Future Costs

ASK ALL

Q40. Please use the box below to set out your current expectations with regards to cost pressures for your setting over the coming year. For example, you may wish to highlight specific costs that you anticipate will rise by substantial amounts or above inflation?

[OPEN TEXT]

Section 9: Additional Comments

ASK ALL

Q41. Are there any comments you would like to make on delivering funded ELC sustainably?

[OPEN TEXT]