School age childcare services - regulation review: feasibility study – final options appraisal

13. Policy Landscape

It is important to recognise that work to change the regulation of school age childcare is not operating in isolation, and there are other developments which will need to be taken into account as we carry out further scoping work of the options.

13.1 Independent Review of Inspection, Scrutiny and Regulation (IRISR)

The Scottish Government announced the Independent Review of Inspection Scrutiny and Regulation of Social Care in Scotland (IRISR) on 23 September 2022. The aim of the IRISR was to ensure inspection, scrutiny and regulation continue to meet the requirements of an evolving social care landscape and the changing skills required of the social care workforce. On completion, the Review made a series of recommendations to Ministers, all of which were accepted. For the purposes of the feasibility study, recommendation 15 is of particular interest:

“The list of care service types and set of corresponding definitions as set out in Schedule 12 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, are assessed for fitness for purpose.”

Since adopting Model A would also involve a change to one of the care service type definitions, the SACC division is working closely with the IRISR Steering Group to ensure alignment with the wider IRISR project. Currently, timescales for the two projects are broadly similar and there would be an opportunity to explore how aligning these two policy areas further could make best use of resources in both the Scottish Government and the Regulators, especially in terms of managing consultation, analysis and legal work.

13.2 Quality improvement framework for the early learning and childcare sectors

The new Quality Improvement Framework was released online on January 14 2025 ahead of its formal launch for use from September 2025. The intervening period will allow settings to become familiar with the content and structure of the new framework before it starts to be used formally. Feedback is also being gathered from the sector to inform the refinement of the framework. The development process for the framework has included separating out the quality indicators for SACC settings from ELC and childminding settings. We expect this to go some way to providing more clarity about expectations on SACC settings, as requested by the Sector.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage with the Care Inspectorate and the Sector throughout this period and will ensure that any further feedback and learning is incorporated into the next phase of work on the draft models.