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To ensure high quality care and better outcomes for your child, national standards must be met by all childcare providers in Scotland before they can provide their services. They are regulated by the Care Inspectorate (CI), the national regulator for care services. Childcare providers must meet the 5 care Standards in Scotland known as the Scotland Health and Social Care Standards.
Day nurseries, pre-schools, playgroups, afterschool clubs and childminders should meet the Health and Social Care Standards (the Standards) to achieve high quality care. The CI uses these Standards during their inspections to ensure childcare services offer what you should expect.
Additionally, a set of national standards for early learning and childcare providers are in place to support Scotland’s increased funded ELC entitlement to 1,140 hours per year.
All early years settings that want to deliver the funded entitlement must meet the National Standards for childcare in Scotland.
What are the 5 care Standards in Scotland?
There are five Health and Social Care standards, underpinned by five principles.
The standards are:
- I experience high quality care and support that is right for me
- I am fully involved in all decisions about my care and support
- I have confidence in the people who support and care for me
- I have confidence in the organisation providing my care and support
- I experience a high quality environment if the organisation provides the premises
The principles are:
- Dignity and respect
- Compassion
- Be included
- Responsive care
- Support and wellbeing
These standards and principles set out what outcomes your child and you as a parent/guardian should expect from your childcare provider.
The National Standard for childcare in Scotland
The Scottish government has made childcare more accessible through its implementation of the increased ELC entitlement. This gives children aged three and four (and eligible two-year-olds) access to 1,140 hours of free childcare per year.
To ensure each childcare provider delivers a high quality and flexible service which is both accessible and affordable, the Scottish government has developed a National Standard.
The National Standard is a set of quality criteria that each provider must meet. If you put your child in a Scottish nursery or use any other type of childcare, the below standards are the minimum you should expect.
Below is a summary of each ELC criteria.
1. Staffing, leadership and management
All settings must have a good or better Care Inspectorate evaluation on themes that relate to quality of staffing, management and leadership (grade 4).
Managers and lead practitioners must hold the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) level 9 benchmark qualification. If they don’t, they must secure this within their first period of registration.
For practitioners, the benchmark is SCQF level 7 and for support workers it is SCQF level 6. The period of registration is five years and staff should either maintain or achieve their qualification within this timeframe.
These criteria only apply to those who are included in the adult:child ratios.
Scottish early learning and childcare staff ratios
For two-year-olds:
- One adult per five children
For three-year-olds and over:
- One adult per eight children where they attend more than four hours a day, and one adult per 10 children if they attend for less than four hours per day.
In some instances, extra staff may be required to ensure children are adequately supervised, such as if they have additional support needs.
For childminders, the required ratio is one adult per six children under 12 years of age of whom three are under school age. Only one child is under one year old.
2. Development of children’s cognitive skills, health and wellbeing
This criterion should underpin all aspects of practice in ELC. The standards require settings to be evaluated good or better by the Care Inspectorate on quality of care and support.
All early years settings must have a framework which supports your child’s development and learning. It is informed by national guidance and be based on active learning through play.
The experiences and opportunities should take full account of children’s needs, personalities, interests and stage of development in their personal plan.
All children should have the opportunity to experience high quality play both indoors and outdoors.
3. Physical environment
The physical environment of early years settings must be appropriate in terms of capacity, for stimulating care and learning. ELC settings must have a good or better grade on the theme relating to quality of environment from the Care Inspectorate.
The environment should offer children choices and provide resources which capture their interests and offer opportunities to play.
Children should have daily access to outdoor play, Children should regularly experience natural environments (e.g. gardens, woodlands, forests, public parks) and be encouraged to do so.
4. Self-evaluation and improvement
ELC settings must strive for improvement and self-evaluation plays a crucial part in achieving this.
Settings should use the Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland’s national self-evaluation frameworks and regularly ask themselves three questions:
- How are we doing?
- How do we know?
- What are we going to do now?
This ensures a setting can systematically identify strengths and areas of improvement for the benefit of children and families. It should be completed in collaboration with children, parents, carers and staff.
There should be clear evidence of how decisions about change have been made and what the setting plans to do to achieve this change.
5. Parent and carer engagement and involvement in life of the setting
Each ELC provider should ensure there is open and regular communication with parents and carers about the work of the setting. Families should be meaningfully involved in influencing change.
You as a parent/carer should be supported in your role as the primary influence on children’s development and outcomes, promoting engagement and involvement.
To achieve this, settings should create a welcoming, loving and supportive culture where everyone is accepted, valued and treated with respect and dignity.
Information and advice should be developed and be easily accessible to parents and carers.
6. Inclusion
All ELC settings must comply with the duties under the Equality Act 2010. ELC provision must be delivered in a way that ensures equality of access for, and accounts for the varying needs, of all children.
Settings must ensure that children with additional support needs receive the appropriate support, including making reasonable changes to the care and learning environment.
7. Business sustainability
Each ELC provider must be able to demonstrate that they are financially viable providers. This is key for children’s development as sustainable finances ensures consistency and continuity of care.
Consistency in setting and staff provides stability and allows practitioners to build strong relationships with children in a familiar and safe environment.
8. Fair work practices, including payment of the Living Wage
A high quality workforce has been identified as the most important driver of the quality of a child’s ELC experience.
Promoting fair work practices is key in supporting a high quality workforce. Staff who are treated fairly, well-rewarded, well-motivated, well-led, have access to training and skills development and are part of a diverse workforce are likely to deliver a higher quality service.
All settings, excluding childminders who do not employ staff, must at minimum pay the real Living Wage to all childcare workers.
The real Living Wage is a voluntary wage rate of pay. It is estimated at a level that ensures staff may enjoy an acceptable standard of living. It is not to be confused with the National Minimum Wage, which is the legal minimum an employer must pay an employee.
There must be a fair and equal pay policy across the setting and security of employment and hours of work. Avoid unfair zero-hour contracts or maternity and maternity discrimination.
9. Payment processes
The funded ELC hours must be free to families at the point of access. This is regardless of which setting the hours are being delivered in.
This gives parents and guardians choice regarding where they will use the funded hours. This means that they will not be restricted by upfront payments, deposits, top-up fees or any requirements to purchase additional hours beyond the funded hours to access their entitlement.
Payment for the funded hours is provided by local authorities to childcare providers.
Additional charges to parents and guardians should be optional and limited to things like snacks, costs of outings or extracurricular activities.
10. Food
Each setting must have a clear and comprehensive policy for the provision of health meals and snacks and must ensure that individual cultural and dietary needs are met.
To achieve this, parents and guardians should be asked about their child’s dietary preferences and how they may be accommodated.
Food and drink provided should be consistent with what is included in the Setting the Table guidance.
How does the Care Inspectorate inspect childcare services?
Using the national standards, the CI visits childcare providers and their premises to inspect them, either announced or unannounced.
They assess four quality themes:
- Care and support
- Environment
- Staffing
- Management and leadership
Following the inspection, the service is given a grade from 1 to 6 (Unsatisfactory to Excellent) and in the inspection report, the CI will give recommendations and requirements to help the service improve.
In certain cases where the CI finds that the children need to be protected, they have legal powers to force the service to improve or cancel their registration, meaning the service can no longer operate.
To learn more about the Care Inspectorate’s inspections.
Always check inspection reports
Before you fully commit to a nursery or other type of early learning and childcare provider, it is vital that you check their Care Inspectorate inspection report. In this way you can check that they meet the standards you expect.
Check out this Finding a nursery guide for tips and advice on how to choose the setting that is right for your child, including what questions to ask when you visit.
