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

8. Model B – Extend regulation to cover holiday activity provision

8.1 Proposal

Model B proposes that The Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (Excepted Services) Regulations 2012 should be amended to extend the regulation of daycare of children services to include certain types of organised children’s activities which operate during holiday periods.

8.2 Key Elements

This model could enable:

• Independent oversight and assurance of some organised children’s activities linked to the length of time children may engage with these services in holiday periods
• A degree of parity between SACC and some organised children’s activities
• Parents to use UK government childcare tax relief or benefits support for some organised children’s activities

This model would not address:

• Review of qualification requirements for the SACC workforce
• Review of job roles in SACC services
• Promotion of specific SACC sector identity
• Clarity about purpose of SACC

8.3 Discussion

We know that school holidays can create significant challenges for families, not just in relation to childcare but also related to access to food and activities to support their children during this period. This is summarised in the following extract from page 18 of the Draft Out of School Care in Scotland Framework published in 2019:

“For low income families, school holidays can increase financial pressure and may lead to food insecurity and missing out on opportunities that are available to children in higher income families. The cost of childcare during school holidays may also put pressure on family budgets or make sustaining work difficult, particularly for lone parents. There is some research that suggests that circumstances experienced during the school holidays – including poor nutrition, social isolation and stress within the family – can negatively impact on children’s school readiness, cognitive functioning, health and wellbeing.”

It is possible that adopting a model which increases the number and range of regulated school age childcare options during school holidays could help to mitigate some of these challenges. In cases where the available organised holiday activity provision is currently unaffordable for some families, an increase in the types of services eligible for UK government childcare tax relief and benefits support could give parents and carers greater scope to access provision which better suits their family circumstances. This could make it easier for them to continue to work during school holidays and maintain more stable employment.

Holiday activity sessions and camps are common across Scotland, whether run by local sports or activity clubs, local authority leisure trusts or voluntary groups. Because many of these camps run for weeks at a time, children could potentially spend as much time in these services during a week as they would at school during a week in term-time. As has been noted previously, these services are currently excluded from being classed as a “day care of children” service as their primary purpose is not care. However, given the number of hours children may spend at these services, it is reasonable to assume that there is a degree of “care” happening, such as supporting children with food choices or medication. It may be worth considering whether some of these services could be included in the scope of “day care of children” and the common standards associated with that.

Increasing the range of services which would fall within childcare regulation has the potential to offer more opportunities for young people to access different types of activities. We know from the Children’s Charter that children and young people are looking for more choice in the types of activities that they can participate in as part of school age childcare. For children in low income families in particular, some sporting or leisure activities they would like to participate in may be unaffordable. But if there was an opportunity to use government childcare support to help pay for these activities, this may open up access to more children and give them the same opportunities as children from higher income families.

8.4 Conclusion

Including certain types of organised children’s activities that operate during holiday periods within childcare regulation could provide enhanced assurances around safety, quality and equity for children and young people in respect of the care aspects of the service, by putting in place a consistent level of both quality and oversight across a wide-ranging sector. This would provide an opportunity for high performing services to gain recognition and for less well performing services to be supported to improve. It may also make it easier for parents and carers to continue to work during the school holidays, as they might be better able to access the childcare they need.

However there would have to be extensive consultation to agree the parameters determining exactly which services would be included in any new amendment, and the likely numbers of services which would then be brought into the scope of regulation. If the number of services was large, this would have a considerable resource cost for the regulators in terms of registration and inspection. It would then be necessary to carefully weigh up the costs and benefits to decide whether this would be the most effective option or whether an alternative approach would be more appropriate.

There would also need to be consideration of how best to carry out appropriate scrutiny of services which are interim in nature. SSSC already publish guidance on different registration requirements for certain staff working in seasonal childcare settings and this may offer a starting point for more bespoke consideration of this type of service, but more work would need to be carried out.

It is also important to recognise that there is a significant risk that organised holiday services could stop operating altogether due to new costs and requirements which are associated with regulation, especially around staffing. This could lead to fewer services being available for families instead of more, and assurances for parents around safety and quality not being achieved as a result. Balancing these outcomes would require careful planning, stakeholder engagement and consideration of the specific needs of families and communities.

Adopting this model on its own would require a change to secondary legislation and would not affect the existing definition of SACC. However, it may be more helpful to consider this as an option to be taken forward in parallel with Model A.

8.5 Next Steps required to develop this model

• Consult on the parameters for the types of service to be covered under the amended legislation.
• Carry out a scoping exercise to determine numbers of additional services that would need to be registered as a result of the exemption regulations being amended.
• Explore workforce requirements for activity based services being registered under this model (this would involve Scottish Government and SSSC).
• Work with CI to consider what standards and level of scrutiny would be required of holiday services.
• Scope out the additional resources required and costs expected to be incurred (for services and the regulators).
• Establish expected timescale for taking forward the legislation.