Rise in costs hits Scottish childminders' post-pandemic recovery

The Scottish Childminding Association has found the rise to energy bills and the cost-of-living increasingly risks childminders' business recovery post-Covid.

More than 60 per cent of respondents said they would have to reduce the heating in their settings and may also have to switch off the heating in their family home outside working hours in order to keep their settings heated when children are attending.

The #TellSCMA Childminding & You survey aimed to understand the extent that childminding businesses have recovered from the pandemic, and their current financial pressures.

The report collected responses from 1,263 Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA) members from 31 local authority areas between the 14 September and 9 October 2022.

The survey conveyed the significant impact of financial pressures, following the pandemic on childminders’ businesses, with 83 per cent of respondents believing that the cost of living increases are the greatest risk to their business sustainability.

Main findings:

• 35 per cent of childminders who responded are ‘concerned’ or ‘very concerned’ about their business sustainability
• 46 per cent of all respondents reported that they currently have vacancies in their settings
• Just 33 per cent of respondents are able to pay themselves a real living wage (RLW)

Childminders are also facing an increased demand for their services. The survey found that 16 per cent of respondents reported a ‘significant increase’ in demand for their services within the last year and 31 per cent reported an increase in demand.

This increase in demand indicated a change in the nature of the work being required of childminders, with many having to take on extra hours; over 80 per cent of childminders who responded work three- to four extra unpaid hours a week and half of that group work an additional seven-to eight extra unpaid hours a week.

In was also reported that childminders feel unable to compete with the cost-of-living pressures by increasing their rates, as those that have chosen to do this have already been overtaken by further increases in living costs.

Business owners who have chosen not to increase their rates fear that by doing so, their business sustainability will be impacted as parents will not be able to afford their services.

The survey also considered the responsibility of local authorities to consider the business sustainability of childminders when allocating placements. Just seven out of 32 local authorities confirmed that they take into account whether the number of hours allocated to providers within blended placements are enough to support their business sustainability.

Alongside the report, the SCMA also published a series of recommendations for the Scottish government to help support childminders recover their business. Some of these include:

• The government should establish an interim Childminding Cost- of-living Support Fund to provide financial support to childminders with their energy, fuel and food costs.
• Take specific short, medium and long term measures to reduce the level of bureaucracy, paperwork and duplicative quality assurance.
• Implement temporary childminding-specific flexibilities to the National Standard for ELC in response to the acute declining trends in the childminding workforce – on the Real Living Wage (RLW) and the mandatory benchmark qualification for later career stage childminders
• Explore the potential to provide a financial subsidy to childminders to enable them to pay themselves and their assistants the RLW and participate equitably in providing current and future statutory childcare entitlements which are important to business sustainability

The SCMA also recommended that the Scottish government work closely with SCMA to develop a national partnership to scale up the recruitment of more childminders as well as create a national marketing campaign to support this.

The full report can be read here.