Warning of crisis in Scottish childminding sector
- Published
Graeme McAlister said the shortage of childminders was "impacting on parental choice"
The childminding sector in Scotland is in crisis with more than a third of carers leaving the profession in the past six years, it has been warned.
The Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA) said 34% of childminders had quit since funding was increased for early education and childcare in 2016.
By 2026 this figure is expected to have risen to 64%.
The Scottish government said it was working with the SCMA to address the decline in the childminding workforce.
The SCMA said more than 1,900 childminding businesses and 11,000 places had also been lost in the past six years.
Chief executive Graeme McAlister said the losses "cannot be sustained".
"Two years ago, SCMA also warned that we had the makings of a workforce crisis. That crisis is now here," he said. "Shortages of childminders are being experienced all around Scotland.
"We have reached a critical crossroad and time period within which to act. The clock is ticking."
'Not sustainable'
He told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme there had been a "phenomenal growth" in paperwork and bureaucracy.
"This affects all providers but it affects childminders more because they are predominantly sole workers," he said.
"So the result is that childminders are now regularly having to work up to a day, in their own time, unpaid, in the evenings and weekends, just to keep on top of the paperwork and that's not sustainable."
He said childminders leaving the profession meant that was reducing choice for parents who may only have the option of nursery which may not suit them.
He added that the benefits of having a childminder were that they were more flexible, they catered for babies to 12-year-olds and older children with special needs.
The benefits of having a childminder are said to include their flexibility and the age ranges of children they can look after
Caroline Edwards, 47, from Gourock in Inverclyde, has been a childminder since leaving her banking job five years ago.
She looks after a total of eight children at different times, ranging in age from two to nine. She provides blended childcare where children split their time between her and a nursery.
But she has now had to drop one of her days caring for children to deal with all the administration.
"I've always had a passion for working with children but the challenge at the moment has been the increase in paperwork," she told BBC Scotland.
"We have to provide evidence of quality of care and service improvement plans to the local authority and the Care Inspectorate but it's not joined up so there is a lot of duplication and different formats.
"There are just not enough hours to fit it all in so although I'm doing a job I love, I'm having to take a day out to do the paperwork so it doesn't impact on my family at the weekends.
"It's happening right across Scotland - we've got childminders either stepping away as a whole because of the paperwork or stepping away from the ELC (early learning and childcare) side of it."
Less choice
She added that the fact so many childminders were now leaving meant parents had less choice.
The SCMA's Early Learning and Childcare Audit, external warns of the impact the expansion of the funded hours policy has had on the childminding workforce in Scotland, and lists a number of recommendations the organisation said could support childminder recruitment.
It said 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.
As part of the audit, 82% of childminders who responded said there had been a "very significant" or "significant" increase in paperwork, with many doing an extra five hours of form-filling every week.
The research, commissioned by the Scottish government, found that most local authorities had not carried out an impact assessment of early learning expansion plans on local childminding businesses.
Rural areas
Mr McAlister said the shortage of childminders would impede Scottish government commitments for one-year-olds and school-aged childcare.
He said: "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."
He added that his organisation had "piloted a supported model of childminder recruitment in remote and rural areas, which is successfully recruiting childminders in areas others have not been able to", adding that it now needed to be scaled up.
Scotland's Children's Minister Clare Haughey said childminders were a "valued" part of the 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," she added.
"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."
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