Warning over staff leaving childminding Scottish sector

This has seen 1,926 childminding businesses forced to close and the loss of 11,363 childminding places over the six years. 

An Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) Audit carried out by the organisation highlights the impact the expansion of the funded hours policy has had on the workforce and warned shortages could worsen further. 

By 2026, the number of childminders to have left the industry since 2016 is expected to soar to 64%. 

Chief executive of the SCMA Graeme McAlister said the organisation issued the warning over the loss of staff two years ago. 

He said: "Two years ago, SCMA also warned that we had the makings of a workforce crisis.

"That crisis is now here.

"Shortages of childminders are being experienced all around Scotland.

"This is impacting on parental choice and will impede the Scottish Government’s ability to deliver its Programme for Government commitments for one-year-olds and school-aged childcare – both areas in which childminders are heavily involved and have much experience in supporting families.

"It is clear from our new workforce projections that without intervention, the childminding workforce and loss of childminding businesses and places for families could almost double again by July 2026."

Mr McAlister warned that the implementation of ELC policy has been "problematic". 

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The Scottish Government offers up to 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare a year for three and four-year-old children, and some two-year-olds in eligible families. 

However, the survey revealed the number of childminders delivering this funded ELC through local authorities has decreased.

The SCMA attributed this to increasing and "unsustainable levels of bureaucracy, duplicative quality assurance and paperwork". 

While the decrease is marginal, the organisation warns progress in increasing the number of childminders delivering funded ELC is being overtaken by those ceasing to do so.

The additional paperwork has seen a large proportion of childminding staff taking on hours of unpaid work to complete it.

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A total of 82% of childminders who responded to the survey reported a ‘very significant’ or ‘significant’ increase in paperwork. 

Almost half of the staff who responded (48%) claim they have taken on an additional five hours weekly of unpaid work in their own time due to the paperwork. 

Of the childminders delivering funded ELC, 66% were taking on the additional five hours. 

Mr McAlister said: "We are supportive of ELC policy, and in particular the aims to close the attainment gap and to support families with funded childcare.

"However, the implementation of ELC policy at a national and local level has been problematic and we have previously reported the devastating effect this has had on the childminding workforce in Scotland.

"The last three annual audits have reported a 14.5%, a 26% and now a 34.9% decline in the childminding workforce during ELC expansion with the loss of over 1900 childminding businesses and over 11,000 childminding places for children and families.

"The findings have been met with limited response and these losses cannot be sustained."

The audit warned that the Scotland-wide drive to recruit 12,000 additional staff into nurseries to support the expansion has had a destabilising effect on the childminding sector.

The research, commissioned by the Scottish government, also found that six years into the ELC expansion the majority of local authorities had not conducted an impact assessment on local childminding businesses. 

Only four of 32 councils carried this out, the audit added. 

The chief executive warned that the industry had reached a "critical crossroad".

"Urgent intervention is key," he said. 

“We have reached a critical crossroad and time period within which to act – to allow childminding to become less and less available, and potentially disappear altogether as a form of childcare in Scotland, or to act decisively and intervene before it is too late to safeguard childminding for children and families around Scotland. The clock is ticking."

The SCMA has piloted a supported model of childminder recruitment in rural areas of the country and is calling for this to be expanded across the country after experiencing success. 

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The model is "successfully recruiting childminders in areas others have not been able to", Mr McAlister explained. 

"With shortages of childminders all around Scotland, demand outstrips supply and there is a need and opportunity to establish many more childminding businesses which can provide a rewarding, flexible career.

"This needs to be scaled-up and extended nationally in urban, rural and mixed local authority areas.

"We have also undertaken extensive work to identify the issues affecting retention which must be addressed, most notably the significant increase in paperwork and duplicative quality assurance which has developed under ELC expansion.

"This needs to be tackled urgently and SCMA will be happy to participate in this process."

Children’s minister Clare Haughey said: “Childminders are a valued part of our Early Learning and Childcare workforce.

“We want to encourage more people into childminding and we are working with the Scottish Childminding Association and other partners to address the decline in the childminding workforce – a trend that is mirrored elsewhere in the UK.

“We also want to see new childminding services developing in areas with limited access to this unique form of Early Learning and Childcare. That is why we are supporting a recruitment pilot being led by the SCMA and partners, aiming to recruit and train 100 new childminders in remote and rural areas.”