National Childcare Providers Forum minutes: November 2023

Attendees and apologies

• Scottish Government Officials
•  Clarkston After School Service
• Scottish Government 
• Thrive 
• Unite Childminding 
• Wellside Kindergarten 
• Colinton Nurseries 
• Kirktonholme Childcare 
• Little Flyers 
• Almond Park 
• Scottish Private Nursery Association
• The Saturday Café 
• Kindercroft Early Learning Centre 
• KLASCare 
• Stepping Stones for Families  

Apologies 

• Les Enfants     
• Cairngorm Early Learning Centre
• Little Angels 
• Childminder 
• Indigo Childcare Group 
• Busy Bees 
• Flexible Childcare Services Scotland
• Childminder 
• Tarbert After School Care
• Possibilities for Each and Every Kid

Items and actions

Welcome  

The Chair thanked everyone for making time to join the meeting and noted apologies. 

Actions and minutes from previous meetings 

Members agreed the minutes of the last meeting. The Chair highlighted an update on actions from last meeting. 

Members asked for clarity regarding ensuring qualifications meet the needs of all parts of the sector, specifically relating to scoping a new direct entry degree level qualification for those working with younger children. The Chair agreed to look into this and update the group. 

Scottish Government updates  

The Chair provided an overview of the five new childcare commitments made in this year’s Programme for Government (PfG) in September.   

The Chair highlighted that the Real Living Wage had now reached £12 per hour for 2024-25, equalling the new commitment to pay ELC staff delivering the funded hours in PVI settings £12 per hour. The Chair updated that Ministers would be considering this carefully but noted that the financial position was extremely challenging.   

Plans to extend the scope of the early adopter work to two additional local authorities were summarised. The six early adopters are moving from a focus on school age childcare to consider models that provide childcare from 9 months to the end of primary.  Work will also commence around scoping a new digital service. The Chair reinforced the commitment of Ministers to expand the two year olds programme. The team will be engaging with key stakeholders and learning lessons from 1140. 

Finally, the Chair summarised the work that Scottish Government (SG) will be undertaking with the Scottish Childminding Association to start to reverse the decline in the childminding workforce by recruiting an additional 1,000 childminders. Initial pilots have supported 100 businesses to be set up.  

Rates update 

The Chair acknowledged the expectation around improvements because of the Rates Review. The Chair confirmed that SG expect the Review to be published w/c 4 December.  A link will be shared with members.  

The Chair reported that officials are also gathering data to monitor sustainable rates for 2023-24. The survey asks for more evidence on how local authorities are supporting partner providers to deliver childcare for children with additional support needs, an action SG agreed with COSLA during the Rates Review and a point that was highlighted at the last meeting of this forum. SG officials will be engaging with the UK Government to learn from the approach to rate-setting being adopted as part of their expansion.  

The Chair reported that officials are in discussion with COSLA on the delivery of funding to providers to enable payment of the new Real Living Wage of £12 per hour from 1 April 2024. This funding will be delivered via the sustainable rate setting process. 

Members highlighted an issue in the rates guidance, resulting in 32 different approaches across the country. The Chair reassured that Ministers have heard these messages and are open to considering further options if improvements are not delivered as a result of the Review’s findings.  

Members reflected that the workforce is exhausted, and everyone wants to pay more to their teams but no one is talking about the uplift we need to give seniors and managers. The Chair stated that we expect sufficient funding to be made available through the Budget to support some progression in pay as well as raising the minimum payment.   

Findings from 0-3 ELC Literature Review and Audit  

SG officials provided an update on early insights work on the provision of childcare for younger children. The Chair stressed the importance of having a robust evidence base that could be shared with Ministers. 

Members commented that the findings were familiar and asked if part of the next phase of work would include engagement with PVI providers, with members concerned their expertise is not taken into consideration.  Members also asked if SG were going to learn the lessons from the 1140 mapping exercises as they had concerns that some the assumptions made by LAs were not accurate. Officials agreed that SG will learn from that experience and emphasised the importance of involving PVI providers and childminders in the development of the new programme of work for two year olds and the Early Adopter Communities. Officials are keen to work with members after the 2024-25 Budget. Officials also agreed to come back to members to seek views and provide any updates. 

Shared Inspection Framework Consultation launch and supporting quality improvement 

Officials updated members that the Inspectorates have published a draft Shared Inspection Framework for consultation. Officials updated that the intention remained to publish the final shared inspection framework in January 2024. The Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland will test out the shared framework in settings from January 2024.  

Officials asked for members’ views about the quality improvement offer across the sector with a focus on whether the workforce knows how to access improvement support when needed. Just over half agreed, with 16% feeling neutral and a further 16% disagreeing with the statement. 8% reported that they were unsure. It was noted that those attending were likely to have a much higher degree of awareness than others in the sector.  

The Chair signalled that this was the start of a conversation on quality improvement and hoped that this would be a topic to discuss again at the forum. 

Care Inspectorate presentation – Space to Grow 

The Care Inspectorate gave a presentation the refreshing of the Space to Grow guidance, it was noted that a public survey on the guidance had been extended and had a good response rate. The Care Inspectorate reassured the group that children would be consulted as part of the review process. 

Any other business and items for discussion at next meeting  

There was no other business for the meeting. 

The Chair thanked everyone for their time and the constructive conversation and reminded members to send any further comments or reflections via email. 

Actions

• officials to double check Fair Work guidance in relation to apprentices
• officials to share the feedback from the CYPIC conference about Speech and Language provision with Education Scotland