Childminders in Scotland are already individually registered and regulated by the Care Commission, and the decision not to register them with the SSSC was made following concerns about over-regulation.
A letter sent jointly from Carole Wilkinson, chief executive of the SSSC and Val Cox, head of early education and childcare at the Scottish Executive, went out to all childminders. It said, 'We recognise the continuing need to ensure high-quality childcare provision in Scotland, and the importance of ensuring that all early education and childcare workers are on an equal footing. Scottish ministers and the SSC have decided to address the issue of training and qualifications for childminders.'
Ways it proposes to do this include:
* The Scottish Executive is to consider issuing more specific guidance to local authorities on workforce development funding.
* The Executive and the Scottish Childminding Association are to work together to develop training for qualifications specifically tailored for childminders.
* The Executive is to 'consider whether and how, through registration with the Care Commission, to require childminders to be qualified or working towards a qualification,' to bring them in line with requirements for other early education and childcare workers.
* The Learning and Development Department of the SSSC will work with the Scottish Qualifications Authority, training providers and others 'to ensure that qualifications for childminders are fit for the purpose and located appropriately within the framework of qualifications for early education and childcare'.
The SSSC and the Scottish Executive said these developments would 'ensure that all early education and childcare workers have equal status, but avoid the problems which would be caused by dual registration with both the SSSC and the Care Commission, such as increased regulatory costs for childminders and the risks of situations where a childminder could be registered with one body, but could become, for whatever reason, deregistered with the other.
Maggie Simpson, national development officer for the Scottish Childminding Association, said, 'There was an obvious problem because, unlike any other service, childminders are the only individuals registered with the Care Commission.'
She said she would be working with the Scottish Executive on a consultation in the autumn on how to include a requirement in the Care Commission regulations for childminders to work towards a qualification. The SCMA would be recommending that its Scheme of Excellence be accredited as one.
