Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government’s Delivery Support Plan for Providers, published on 19 December 2018, set out how we will ensure providers, including childminders, are supported through the transition to 2020. This includes the following measures which aim to support private and third sector providers with recruitment and retention:

• Funding COSLA to open up the myjobscotland public sector recruitment site for private and third sector ELC providers to post jobs on in the period up to 2020
• Confirmation that the funding agreement with COSLA will enable all childcare workers delivering the funded entitlement to be paid at least the real Living Wage from 2020
• The provision of targeted advice and support to providers to help them to implement Fair Work practices and to deliver the real Living Wage commitment

We are also implementing a number of measures to support the recruitment and training of the additional staff required to deliver the 1140 hours expansion overall, including: 

• Continuing our national recruitment campaign targeting school leavers and older career changers
• Working with the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland to create additional capacity in the college and work-based learning sectors to train the additional staff required for 2020
• Funding CEMVO to disseminate our national campaign messaging to ethnic minority communities, to broaden out the talent pool and diversify the sector.

In relation to retention issues in the partner provider sector: we would expect local authorities to consider the impact of recruitment exercises on their funded partners and recruit appropriately, and we know local authorities are considering the potential disruption to funded private and third sector providers when recruiting additional staff for the expansion of ELC. Indeed, many are recruiting from other areas, such as other Council services, to minimise their impact on private/third sector providers.