Becoming a partner provider with your local authority and providing funded ELC can help make a difference to childminders, in terms of both your income and sustainability, and being able to improve outcomes for children.  

Childminders in Scotland who are partner providers have seen a substantial increase in relation to the number of ELC hours they are being funded to deliver.  For some, this has resulted in excess of 80-100 funded hours per week and over 75% of their expected income.

Others are working in partnership with the local authority to provide the full 1140 hours.  This means that for some, they can have full-time places fully funded via ELC, which helps to contribute greatly towards a financially stable business model. For childminders involved in delivering funded hours, this is now very much part of core business and not an ‘add-on’.

Read Karina’s Story to hear about why she recommends all childminders get involved and become a partner provider to deliver funded ELC.

In order to deliver funded ELC, childminders must become a partner provider with their local authority. In the first instance, please contact your local authority early years team to find out about what is available in your area, and how to apply.

To be considered as a partner provider, you will need to meet the National Standard, which is a set of mandatory quality criteria from the Scottish Government.

Full requirements for the National Standard can be found HERE, and includes the following for childminders:

• Have achieved or be working towards the benchmark qualification (SCQF Level 7 qualification with 68 credits) to be completed within five years. This could be an HNC Childhood Practice or SVQ Social Services (Children and Young People). Further information can be found HERE.
• Allocate 12 hours per year to Continuous Professional Learning (CPL)
• Meet the recommended adult-to-child ratios, which depend on age groups
• Care Inspectorate quality evaluations (sometimes referred to as grades) of ‘good’ or higher across all themes
• New childminders (registered within the last year) need to have completed the appropriate induction programme, e.g. SCMA’s Complete Childminding Induction Support Programme.

To be considered as a funded ELC partner provider, you will need to meet the National Standard - a set of mandatory quality criteria set by the Scottish Government which includes the following:

• childminders delivering the funded hours must have obtained the benchmark qualification for ELC practitioners – which is an SVQ III in Social Services (Children and Young People).

or

• if you are still within your first five years of delivering funded hours, you must be working towards achieving this qualification.

The introduction of a minimum qualification requirement for childminders delivering the funded hours will provide reassurance, in respect of quality of provision, for parents and carers when they are making their choice of ELC provider as they will hold (or be working towards the same qualification level as a practitioner working in any other ELC setting.

If a childminder is unable to obtain a place on a qualification course and is, therefore, unable to start working towards their benchmark qualification, they must provide evidence of application and response from the training provider.

Read more HERE to find out more about the qualification you will need to hold or be working towards.

No. If you are registered with the Care Inspectorate, and meet the National Standard criteria, your service should be suitable to become a ELC partner provider with your local council.

Currently inspections will remain the same, whether you are a childminder delivering funded ELC or not. The Care Inspectorate will continue to be responsible for visiting your home and evaluating your service.

Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate are currently developing a shared inspection framework for the future, and we will keep members updated on this. 

We have a range of support tools and templates that may help members, and you can access these from the Membership Dashboard.  

If you're looking for more tailored one-to-one support, please call the SCMA Helpline on 01786 449063 (Monday to Friday, 10am - 4pm) or email information@childminding.org - where we can put you in touch with a team member who will be best suited to help. 

This webpage lists our most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to help answer your queries, and it is also worth exploring our other ELC webpages. 

ParentClub also has lots of information that you may also find useful.

Each local authority sets the hourly rates for their partner providers, delivering funded ELC. Find out the current hourly rate for your local authority HERE. 

In September 2023, the Scottish Government and COSLA published its Guidance for setting sustainable rates for the delivery of funded early learning and childcare (ELC) in 2024-25.

Childminders will not be paid £12 per hour, per child for the hours spent delivering funded ELC – however, from 1 April 2024 they will receive a minimum 7.6% increase to the hourly rate per funded child. The current hourly rate for your local authority can be found HERE. 

We will continue to liaise with, and feed back to Scottish Government, regarding the impact of this approach for childminders, but we are assured that this is very much a first step. It is recognised that more work is needed around exploring childminder costs and ensuring the commitment to “all funded providers receiving £12 per hour for the hours spent delivering funded ELC” is applied in a fair and sustainable way for childminders.

We will keep members updated on this.

Childminders are unable to accept funded ELC payments when providing care for a child who is a relative, due to the legislation regarding ELC which follows the definition of a childminder, in line with the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.

In line with the Act, the definition of a registered childminder is a care service that is “looking after at least one child, for more than two hours a day on domestic premises for reward where the childminder is not a relative, a foster parent, a kinship carer or someone with parental responsibilities and where the child is not looked after in a parents’ home.”

Therefore, a childminder cannot include a child who is a relative as being in receipt of their funded ELC provision. 

The ‘Funding Follows the Child’ approach of the Scottish Government’s ELC programme means that parents have freedom of choice and flexibility, in terms of how families access their funded entitlement. 

This means that parents and carers have the right to choose the type of childcare that best suits their family’s needs based on a provider neutral model. One provider type should not be promoted over another. 

In addition, you may find that a blended childcare model would suit your needs and circumstances, and this should be made available for you. You may also want to consider how the funded hours are arranged throughout the year, and whether you require all-year-round or term-time only. 

However, we are aware that each local authority arranges and administers funded ELC differently. Some may have parameters and models that need to be followed, but it is possible for parents to enquire and ask for arrangement to be adjusted or split to accommodate their needs. 

If parents feel that the offer from their local authority is not meeting their needs, we recommend initially that they contact the local council to raise the issue. The local authority has the responsibility for leading this work and commissioning funded ELC places. Find your local ELC Contacts

If the local council has already been contacted, and families have not received a satisfactory response, the next step for them is to contact their local MSP or councillor to ask them to pose the questions on their behalf.

A blended model of ELC means that a child would spend part of the day with a childminder and part of the day with another childcare provider, e.g. a nursery, with a clear focus on what is best for the child.

This will vary depending on your local authority – please contact them  directly if they haven’t already been in touch with you.

To find your local authority contact, visit the ‘what’s your child entitled to’ page on the Parent Club website HERE and select your local authority from the drop-down menu. 

For full details on eligibility for two year olds accessing funded ELC, please visit the Scottish Government website HERE. 

Yes, an amendment has been made to the 2014 Order to ensure that from 1 August 2023, all children who defer are automatically entitled to funded ELC in their deferred year.

Find out more about HERE