Nursery World - Care bodies criticise proposed standards

The omission of qualification requirements for staff caring for school-age children from the Scottish Executive's latest proposals for the regulation of daycare has been criticised by the Scottish Out-of-School Care Network. The network's chief executive Irene Audain said it was worrying that no mention had been made of 'at least working towards a 50 per cent qualified workforce for services for children of school age'. She said, 'Surely these services are just as important professionally as services for under fives? What we should be working towards with the standards is a fully professional workforce for all childcare, learning and play services. Every child, no matter what age, deserves a quality service that puts their needs first.'

The network's chief executive Irene Audain said it was worrying that no mention had been made of 'at least working towards a 50 per cent qualified workforce for services for children of school age'. She said, 'Surely these services are just as important professionally as services for under fives? What we should be working towards with the standards is a fully professional workforce for all childcare, learning and play services. Every child, no matter what age, deserves a quality service that puts their needs first.'

The most recent draft standards, put out for consultation on 5 December, also state that where children age three and over are in a facility providing care for a session which is less than four hours long, the adult:child ratio can be 1:10. For full daycare the ratio is 1:8 for three-year-olds and over, and 1:10 where all the children are eight or over.

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