Nursery World - Scottish childminders call for major reform to inspections that are 'geared' towards nurseries

New research suggests that the current quality assurance and inspection system in Scotland is not working for childminders and requires major reform.

Findings from the survey of childminders highlighted how increased paperwork is impacting upon their practice, contributing to the decline of the workforce, PHOTO SCMA

The Scottish Childminding Association’s (SCMA) survey of 1,263 childcare professionals, looking at the future of inspection of early learning and childcare settings, finds that the current Care Inspectorate inspection system is not working for many Scottish childminders. It has been very inconsistent and a ‘significant’ increase in paperwork is contributing ‘heavily’ to the continued decline of the workforce.

According to the SCMA, the level of bureaucracy and paperwork childminders have to complete has ‘increased significantly’ due to the expansion of early learning and childcare, including the introduction of the 1,140 hours funded places. It says that the childminding workforce has declined by 30 per cent in the last five years, mainly due to bureaucracy.

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