While this recent headline is based on data captured in England so the exact date projection cannot be applied to Scotland, SCMA has been reporting on the declining number of childminders in Scotland for a number of years and our own projections (in 2022) indicated that we could lose up to two thirds of our workforce by July 2026 if no action was taken.
In response to this, SCMA has been working closely and constructively with Scottish Government, the Care Inspectorate, local authorities and others to bring our workforce back into growth and we are already seeing an upturn in the workforce as the number of childminders joining the workforce is starting to increase, while there has been a steady decrease to the rate at which childminders have been leaving the workforce over the last two years.
What is being done to grow the childminding workforce in Scotland?
In May 2021, SCMA launched the first phase of an ambitious ten-year strategy – ‘Changing the Narrative’ – and one of our commitments within this was to start addressing the decline in our workforce. With funding from Scottish Government and a number of participating local authorities and agencies, we started to test innovate recruitment measures in targeted rural and island areas of Scotland, followed by urban areas where there was a shortage of local childcare, while also leading on work to support the existing childminding workforce, tackle the issues which had been causing childminders to leave and to improve retention.
We are now in phase two of our strategy, focusing on providing vital solutions for childminding in Scotland, through supporting and expanding our current workforce, working in partnership with families and communities, and using evidence to build consensus for creating impetus for change.
Building on the learning from these initial pilots, the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future was launched in June 2024.
Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future (PSCF)
PSCF is a three-year programme, funded by Scottish Government and currently supported by 23 participating local authorities, which aims to grow the childminding workforce by 1000 through piloting a series of innovative measures to improve retention (including three different models of Funded Time off The Floor – the first of their kind in the UK- and a Mentoring scheme) while scaling up SCMA’s successful childminder recruitment model to enable any local authority area to partner with us. Discussions are also underway with more local authorities to get involved in Year Two.
Progress so far
Since first publishing our workforce projections in 2022 we have continued to track progress in addressing the decline in the childminding workforce and we are encouraged to see an upturn in new childminder registrations for the second successive year – and with 338 fewer childminders lost than projected, due to our taking action.
We are fully committed to continuing to drive our retention and recruitment work at scale and pace in order to grow and strengthen the childminding workforce in Scotland, providing a rewarding and sustainable career for childminders and enabling more families to benefit from the local, high-quality childcare and support they can provide.