National Childcare Providers Forum minutes: June 2023

Attendees and apologies

• Scottish Government Officials
• Thrive 
• Childminders
• Unite Childminding 
• COSLA 
• Wellside Kindergarten 
• Kirktonholme Childcare 
• Colinton Nurseries 
• Almond Park 
• Little Flyers 
• Indigo Childcare Group 
• Scottish Private Nursery Association
• Peerie Foxes 
• The Saturday Café 
• The Croft 
• KLAS Care 
• Childminder 
• Lesley Manson, Clarkston After School Service
• FCSS 
• Kindercroft Early Learning Centre 
• Busy Bees 
• Stepping Stones for Families  

Apologies 

• Les Enfants     
• Cairngorm Early Learning Centre
• Little Angels 
• Tarbert After School Care
• Possibilities for Each and Every Kid

Items and actions

Welcome  

The Chair welcomed the group and noted apologies. 

Actions and minutes from previous meetings 

Members agreed to the Terms of Reference following the amendments noted at the last meeting.  

Care Inspectorate Improvement Programme 

The Improvement Support Programme Team from the Care Inspectorate shared a presentation which provided an overview of the programme. They were joined by an Improvement Programme participant who highlighted the importance of including stakeholders in the process.  

The programme works with settings which are not meeting or are at risk of not meeting the National Standard, this includes settings who are viewed to be improvement ready.  

The Team also emphasised the importance of taking small steps to make improvements rather than taking on large projects as this will allow settings to understand systems as a whole and make the change manageable.  

Scottish Government updates 

National Standard update

Scottish Government (SG) officials noted they are drafting updated operating guidance, using the same principles of Funding Follows the Child and the National Standard incorporating more recent resources. There are no significant changes to the content of the National Standard.    

Publication is expected later in 2023 with implementation from early 2024.  SG are not proposing a specific future review point at this time but would suggest that is something that can be considered. 

Rates review and health check updates 

There was a discussion about rural areas and ASN providers. Officials noted that they are not currently analysing findings at this level of data but they can explore in further detail following the national level trends.  

There was a discussion on how currently, rates are a root cause of sustainability issues within the sector, and on the importance of how Local Authorities use funding. 

Strategic Framework for Scotland’s Childcare and Childminding Profession update 

SG have been working with partners and practitioners to develop a Strategic Framework for Scotland’s Early Learning and Childcare, School Age Childcare and Childminding Profession. 

The Framework sets out the priorities for the sector now and in the coming years along with high level actions which, along with delivery partners, they will take to support a sustainable, diverse and thriving profession.  

The priorities and actions are set out under five themes. Those are:  

• planning for the future
• supporting Effective Recruitment of a Diverse Workforce
• enhancing the attractiveness and fulfilment of careers in childcare to support retention 
• ensuring qualifications meet the needs of all parts of the sector 
• ensuring Professional Learning resources are accessible and support career development

School Age Childcare update 

On 3 April 2023, the First Minister announced an investment of £15 million for 2023–2024 to support the Scottish Government’s commitment to design and build a new system of school age childcare, supporting parents – particularly on low incomes – to have secure and stable employment. 

This funding builds on the investment made between 2020-23 for the nine Access to Childcare Fund projects. It also sustains funding for the community-level projects which are phasing in a system of school age childcare. 

A key focus of the approach is to test change. In doing so, SG are learning more about what works to deliver childcare solutions for school age children and their families. A network across the local authorities involved in the early adopter communities' projects has also been developed to provide an agile learning and development platform. 

As this develops, SG will seek opportunities to maximise learning and understand the challenges of the early adopter communities to expand into new areas (including remote and rural communities). 

SG also launched the £4.5 million Inspiring School Age Childcare Spaces (ISACS) fund in May 2023. The fund will deliver improvements to the learning estate that will support the provision of school age childcare. SG are working with the Scottish Futures Trust to award funding to successful applicants. 

Working with partners, SG are also considering the range of workforce challenges that childcare providers and their communities are facing and how SG can best support them to continue to deliver high quality childcare to Scotland’s children and families.  

Members noted a concern within the regulated sector of the negative impact of non-registered services being used within the expansion of School Age Childcare. It was suggested that there have been instances of not using registered care providers and instead using Local Authority Hubs.  Officials would look into this concern further. 

Shared Inspection Framework update 

In March 2023 SG published a formal response to the consultation on ELC inspection reform.  A core part of the response included a joint statement by the Inspectorates (His Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) and the Care Inspectorate), who confirmed their commitment to working together to develop a shared inspection framework. 

Their intention in developing a shared framework is to continue to enhance the approaches to inspection and support improvements in experiences and outcomes for children in ELC and school age childcare, as well as improve the experience of inspection for practitioners. 

Engagement between SG and the Inspectorates continues and at the last Ministerial meeting on 1 June 2023, the Inspectorates provided an update of the work being undertaken on the development of the shared inspection framework which includes: 

• a series of engagement events and an online survey have been undertaken by both Inspectorates with the sector to inform the framework development
• governance arrangements and oversight for the project has been established
• the Inspectorates plan to provide an update on the work to develop a shared framework over the course of the summer

They are on track to have a draft version of the framework circulated by the end of 2023, with a view to going live April 24 (CI) and August 24 (ES)

Forward look - items for discussion at next meeting  

An item was submitted  asking for further information on timescales for further expansion of ELC: 

In the 2022 Programme for Government SG committed to use 2022/23 for research and insights to build the robust evidence base needed to inform the development of a new offer. 

SG understand the importance of lived experience in policy development and recognise that, as this is a new policy, it will take time to build the evidence base, work with families and the sector to identify what is required to build our offer.   

As SG progress the workstreams we are keen to engage with partners across the sector.  SG recognise and value the unique insights and experience that professionals in the public, private, third and childminding sectors can bring, many of whom already care for younger children, as well as what SG can learn from local authorities who currently offer targeted support. 

SG will carefully consider the overall financial implications of the UK Government's Budget announcements, including on childcare, but as the First Minister has outlined to Parliament, we do not expect significant additional funding to flow to the Scottish Government, particularly in the short term. 

Actions 

• to further analyse the results of the Financial Sustainability Health Check to measure the impact on rural settings and those which provide ASN support
• School Age Childcare colleagues to look into the use of Local Authority Hubs and staff