The Scottish Childminding Association’s (SCMA) Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future is entering its second year. It has created more than 1,000 new places for children across Scotland in 2024 by recruiting and retaining childminders.
The Scottish Government added an extra £1.6 million in funding for the second year, bringing total government investment to more than £3m since 2024.
SCMA efforts have previously targeted specific rural and urban communities in Scotland to address acute childcare shortages. At launch, the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future partnered with 17 local authorities, which has now grown to 27.
However, SCMA Chief Executive Graeme McAlister said that the increased participation from local authorities represents a shift in the type of needs around the country.
“The local authorities have been very much prioritising some geographical areas in need of childcare. But to be honest, as we got further into this work, the demand for childcare is now high in all areas.
“We find now that there is less targeting involved and much more widespread demand.”
Local authorities can pay £325 per childminder recruited through Parental Employability Funding (PEF). However, Mr McAlister said that he recognises the serious budget constraints that councils face.
“The challenge is that local authorities have so much pressure on their budgets, even finding that money has been challenging for some.”
The additional recruitment and retention of childminders isn’t a “magic bullet,” Mr McAlister said. Most childminders are registered to care for up to six children at a time, and 82% are sole practitioners.
Although the number of families helped may be greater because they will not always look after the same children every day of the week, one or two additional childminders cannot always fully address the lack of choice or care available to parents in underserved areas.
However, Mr McAlister said that childminders can provide communities with a different type of care compared to public and private nurseries. Employing flexible hours and caring for school-aged children allows childminders to support the children of working parents and also to care for their own children.
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Jacqueline Madeley, a new childminder recruited through the programme in Dumfries and Galloway, said that she can provide all-day care for eight children by offering times before and after school during the week.
“Childminding is so worthwhile. I love that I can plan our days around what the children are interested in and that I can choose the hours I work.”
New childminders onboarded through the SCMA’s programme receive a £750 startup grant, funded training, and one-to-one support with registering with the Care Inspectorate.
The programme was rolled out in 2024 following a pilot that helped to establish 100 new childminding businesses in targeted rural, island and urban areas.
Another component of the SCMA’s programme is increasing retention of existing childminders, focusing on providing increased mentoring support, learning and funded time off the floor for carers.
The funded time off the floor trials give carers time to complete paperwork for their business, pursue professional development, and work towards qualifications without sacrificing pay. The trials provide funding for carers who need to complete these tasks on their own time and allow some to reduce their hours slightly during the week.
Mr McAlister said that the SCMA is also working on a new trial to provide practitioner cover, which could have broader implications for the availability and flexibility of childminders.
“We’re continuing to evolve our model for how we do things so we can apply learning as we go for the benefit of other communities.
“This very much started with very high-profile communities that local authorities wanted us to target. But unfortunately, because of the pressures we are experiencing in childcare generally over the last few years, it has now meant that most areas have an urgent need for childcare, so that accentuates the need for this programme.”
