Raising the Quality of Care
Introduction
We want to ensure that all childcare is of good quality, so that it meets the needs of children and parents, and parents can have confidence in it. We aim to increase very substantially the number of skilled, qualified people working in childcare.
To achieve this, we are:
- improving regulation, including work on developing a better system for day care and early education inspection.
- encouraging the adoption of quality assurance arrangements, including integrating childcare and learning where appropriate.
- establishing an Early Excellence in Practice initiative to demonstrate the highest standards in early education and childcare provision and disseminating good practice.
- boosting the recruitment and supply of competent people to work with children, in particular by raising the standards, status and attractiveness of childcare and playwork as an occupation
- setting standards in the training, skills and qualifications of childcare and playwork staff and establishing a clear, comprehensive qualifications and careers structure
The importance of quality
2.1. We are committed to good quality in childcare. The strategy is not just about providing safe places for children to wait until their parents come to collect them. Children, especially the youngest ones, need the emotional security of warm, loving carers who take a close and consistent interest in their happiness and well-being. Good quality childcare must promote children’s development by offering them a range of worthwhile activities, including ample opportunities for creative and sporting activities and play. There is evidence that good quality day care in the earliest years has long term benefits for children’s social and intellectual development. For children from disadvantaged backgrounds, the benefits are particularly strong. For school age children, facilities must offer the same degree of support for learning - for example, quiet places for homework - as parents would themselves want to offer at home. And for the older children, supervised activities must be more attractive than an empty home or the street corner. If it is not, they will vote with their feet and stay away.
2.2. Quality matters to parents too. Parents who prefer to look after their own children for most of the time still want them to have access to a good range of additional development opportunities, for example in playgroups, family centres or out of school study arrangements. And those parents who want to work or train will leave their children only if they are satisfied that they will be well cared for by others. Deciding who should look after their children is a major and very personal decision for parents. They are likely to look first for someone who is kind and trustworthy, but they also want to be reassured that the carer is competent.
Regulation and inspection
2.3. Quality assurance of formal childcare is at present focused on regulation (registration, inspection, investigation and enforcement) under the Children Act 1989, of childcare places for children under the age of eight. As young children are particularly vulnerable, it is essential that they should be protected by a rigorous system which assures certain minimum standards in terms of the fitness of carers, their qualifications, adult:child ratios and the physical environment in which care takes place. Our intention is to reaffirm that protection.
2.4. The concern for protecting children’s welfare does not, of course, stop when they reach the age of eight. In practice many older children are indirectly protected by the Children Act requirements because they use childcare which is registered and inspected for younger children. Whatever the age of their child and the type of care used, parents have responsibilities to ask questions about the childcare provider and satisfy themselves that the care is of good quality.
2.5. We believe that a more integrated and consistent system of regulation for early education and day care would bring benefits, especially in those settings where the same provider offers both services. As set out in the earlier consultation paper Education in Early Childhood: the Pre-school Years the Department has already undertaken some technical work in comparing the standards laid upon childcare providers under the Schools Code 1956 and the Children Act 1989. That consultation paper sought preliminary views on whether a more integrated and harmonised system of standards and regulation would be desirable. We are now taking stock of the detailed responses and hope to issue a further consultation paper on this later in the year.
2.6. The introduction of our childcare strategy will lead to a large increase in the number of childcare places and it is imperative that in this process the safety of children is assured. We recognise that this has implications for the volume of regulation and inspection activity which will be needed. We do not want regulations to be any more burdensome than is genuinely necessary, but we cannot take risks with the safety of children.
Quality Assurance
2.7. Improvements in the quality of childcare are supported in a range of ways. Childcare should be stimulating, varied and meet the needs of the child. Some local authorities offer extensive support to childcare providers including training, advice and libraries of resources. A number of bodies, such as the Scottish Independent Nurseries Association, the Scottish Pre-school Play Association and the Scottish Out of School Care Network, have or are developing quality assurance systems for their members to use.
2.8. We want to ensure that childcare in all settings offers a good quality experience for the children attending, including: opportunities for free play; co-operation and good communication with parents, schools and other relevant services; close attention to children’s individual needs and development; and an emphasis on continual quality improvement. For children with special educational needs or disabilities, there should be opportunities to participate in activities with their peers. Good quality childcare offers children a variety of well-planned activities which are appropriate for the ages and abilities of the children. We will encourage proper arrangements for quality assurance in different settings and encourage new provision to build this in from day one.
Scottish Independent Nurseries Association
The Scottish Independent Nurseries Association has developed a very comprehensive quality assurance scheme for its members. It covers the whole range of key areas important to running a nursery such as the learning environment and social experience offered to children, management, staffing and accommodation. Particular emphasis is placed on partnership with parents, the local authority and others.
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Childcare and Learning
2.9. Scottish Office guidance under the Children Act 1989 advises on standards necessary to provide safe and good quality day care services for children under eight. The main standards relate to staffing and accommodation but the guidance also describes the quality of experience which children should receive in registered day care. For pre-school education, there are educational input and output standards, the latter expressed through HM Inspectors’ Performance Indicators and Self-Evaluation for Pre-School Centres, published in 1995, and also the Curriculum Framework for Children in their Pre-School Year, published after wide consultation in September 1997. Centres are encouraged to evaluate their own performance through these output quality standards which are also tested and publicly reported on through HM Inspectors’ inspections of pre-school centres. There is now a need to explore in more detail the output quality standards for day care and early education, to reflect the interdependence of these services for young children. We need to do so in a way that will help the pre-school centres benchmark their own performance, and help practitioners recognise and promote characteristics of quality provision. Many of the responses to the recent consultation on pre-school education called for such a guide. As a priority therefore we intend to develop, in consultation with providers, a guide to quality standards at the pre-school stage, which will follow the approach taken in the HM Inspectors’ publication How Good is Our School? The proposed guide will cover both the day care and educational aspects of services within pre-school centres catering for all children, including children in need. It will also help to set a clearer context both for the alignment of standards and for reviewing training and qualifications.
2.10. As part of our drive to improve standards of education for all pupils, we are considering how to improve support for parents of children with special educational needs. Our Discussion Paper, Special Educational Needs in Scotland, confirmed our view that parents should be treated as partners in the educational process.
2.11. We also want to ensure that our wider programme of out of school learning activities is available to children using childcare facilities. Close links between providers of study support and childcare can enhance the quality of both and ensure that those who go to childcare after school have the opportunity to take in study support. In some cases, schools and childcare providers work together to provide an integrated scheme offering both study support for all pupils and childcare for those who need it.
2.12. We will make funding available from the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) between 1999 and 2003 specifically for the development of integrated out of school childcare and study support schemes in Scotland.
2.13. We have already:
- issued HM Inspectors’ Performance Indicators and Self-Evaluation for Pre-School Centres and A Curriculum Framework for Children in their Pre-School Year.
2.14. We will:
- ask the New Opportunities Fund to ensure that all childcare projects supported through Lottery funding meet minimum quality standards;
- ask local childcare partnerships to include a strategy for quality enhancement and support for childcare providers, including informal carers, in their plans;
- develop in consultation with providers a guide to quality standards at the pre-school stage which will follow the approach taken in HM Inspectors’ publication How Good is our School?
Early Excellence in Practice
2.15. Our consultation paper Education in Early Childhood: the Pre-school Years raised the issue of how best to promote excellence in the provision and, particularly, integration of early years services. The possibility of an excellence in practice intiative was considered and this has provoked a very favourable response from a range of consultees. We will therefore consider further how best to take this forward.
Disseminating Good Practice
2.16. The opportunity to share experience and learn from others has an important role in helping to raise quality. We want to ensure that a strategy for promoting good practice is included as we develop new policy approaches. This will be a key feature of our Early Excellence in Practice Initiative.
2.17. We will
- ensure that a strategy for disseminating good practice is included in new policy initiatives.
Setting standards for those who work with children: why action on skills and qualifications is important
2.18. People who work with children need a range of skills: to keep children safe and healthy; to provide stimulating activities matched to the children’s needs and capacities; to maintain good relationships with parents; and to run their own business successfully. Training and support, both for those intending to work with children and for those already doing so, helps to ensure the necessary competences, and achieving qualifications gives individuals recognition for their skills and knowledge and demonstrates to employers and parents their competence to look after children.
2.19. A comprehensive and flexible framework of training and qualifications, recognised by employers, would enable workers in the sector to add to their skills, progress in their careers or to work with children of different ages, and to move freely from one employer to another. Such a framework is not yet in place for early education, childcare or playwork and there are other barriers to overcome in helping people to access training and development and progress their careers.
Boosting supply and recruitment of suitable staff
2.20. We want to improve the overall image of the childcare and playwork sector as an attractive occupation and career: the sector has much to offer to the right people. An early task under the childcare strategy will be to provide better information to a wider range of people on what it is like to work with children and to draw attention to the many positive points as well as the more demanding and routine aspects.
2.21. We are already supporting recruitment and training by:
- providing up to 5,000 opportunities in Scotland to train to work with children for suitable unemployed young people through the New Deal. The Scottish Office has issued guidance on this and is liaising with relevant bodies;
- providing funding to Further Education Colleges to run a wide range of childcare courses to meet the needs of childcare workers;
- funding childcare training through the Urban Programme.
2.22. Parents are a key potential source of childcare and play workers. Parents should be encouraged to recognise that the parenting skills which are acquired as they bring up their own children can stand them in good stead to take up training for childcare workers. The childcare strategy will provide parents with access to advice, guidance and support to help them care successfully for their own children and help them to build on their parenting skills so, if appropriate, they can take up employment looking after other children.
2.23. Many parents first become involved in childcare as volunteers in activities with their own children, perhaps helping with the local playgroup and then moving on to help in school or with after-school clubs as their children get older. After a period of training, supervised experience and confidence building, this can lead to employment opportunities, full or part time, in childcare. Under the strategy, we want to see this route into work in the childcare sector encouraged and developed. This can be particularly appropriate for groups of lone parents wishing to enter the labour market, through sharing childcare responsibilities amongst themselves and increasing opportunities to take up part time work.
2.24. Through the childcare strategy, we will ensure that there is more accessible information for parents on the opportunities available to them to work in childcare, including experience, training and qualifications to get them on the first rung of the career ladder.
2.25. Working with children tends to be seen as a predominantly female occupation. Yet male carers have much to offer, including acting as positive role models for boys - especially from families where there is no father present. The strategy will also encourage the recruitment of care workers from ethnic minorities, to reflect to all children the nature of our society. Provision should reflect the cultural and language backgrounds of all children.
2.26. Recruiting the right people to work with children also involves making sure employers have sound recruitment and employment practices, as well as good supervision procedures. Police checks have an important part to play in assessing the suitability of employees to work with children and must be carried out within reasonable timescales. Under the strategy, more information will be available to parents on the standards required of those working in formal childcare. Consideration will be given to whether there should be registration arrangements for agencies providing live-in nannies and other nanny services.
2.27. The introduction of the minimum wage should help to improve pay rates in the childcare sector. It will also, together with the measures taken by the Government on affordability more generally, put more parents in a position to pay for childcare. Better pay and a better defined progression route for childcare workers, in conjunction with greater information for parents on the skills possessed by childcare workers, will taken together help to raise the standards, status and attractiveness of childcare as an occupation.
2.28. We will work with the Scottish Qualifications Authority, the National Training Organisations, local authorities and others to improve the following:
- careers advice and information on training and qualifications for those wanting to work in the sector and those wanting to progress within it;
- information for parents on what to expect of a childcarer, the selection and training they will have gone through and the nature of qualifications they hold;
- opportunities for parents to develop their own parenting skills and move into work in the childcare sector;
- information for employers of childcare workers so they understand the qualifications structure, refer to it when selecting staff, and appreciate more generally the business benefits of having staff trained in childcare.
A qualifications and careers structure
2.29. Deciding which training and qualifications are suitable for different jobs and career paths in the sector can be confusing. The sector is fragmented with different types of work (early years, playwork, and other related areas such as social care and youthwork) and many training courses and qualifications. There seems to be little consistency among childcare employers on the qualifications they require or recognise for childcare workers doing similar types of work which can be particularly problematic for childcare workers moving to a new area. There are only a few higher level qualifications in the profession, which include a professional development award offered by a consortium led by Aberdeen College, which is certified by the Scottish Qualifications Authority and can be thought of as broadly equivalent to an SVQ Level 4. In addition, Northern College and Strathclyde University have launched BA degrees in Early Childhood Studies. Similarly, developing a career by working with children of different ages at present often requires several qualifications.
2.30. Childcare workers may also want to develop a career by moving into other related areas of work, such as assisting in the classroom, teaching or nursing and find that recognised routes to the relevant professional qualifications are needed. Others choose to establish their own childcare businesses, and look for management and business skills training.
2.31. Our consultation paper Education in Early Childhood: the Pre-school Years pointed to the plethora of qualifications available in the early years sector. We wish to establish a clear, comprehensive framework of qualifications across the whole early years and childcare sector, agreed and accepted by employers and childcare workers. The framework will map out the equivalences between the various forms of training, qualifications and progression routes. Within the framework there will need to be training on entry to the profession, ongoing skills training, support for working towards qualifications, and continuous development to keep skills updated and to enable progression to higher levels and into different areas of work. Training should also be available for those working with children who have special needs. We will develop a “climbing frame” to help people enter, move within and progress up the sector, as well as to move to other related occupations.
2.32. Some young people enter the sector through full time training at college, or gain work experience and an SVQ Level 2 through the Skillseekers programme and can progress to a Level 3 Skillseekers Modern Apprenticeship in Childcare and Education. They can also complete a two year nursery nurse’s training at Higher National Certificate Level.
2.33. Most workers enter when they are older, with valuable experience of looking after their own children. But they can miss out on training and support to work towards qualifications if they are ineligible for main Government training programmes or cannot access other training funded by Local Enterprise Companies, voluntary sector organisations and local authorities.
2.34. When parents work towards SVQ qualifications, there is scope to assess their experience of parenting and related skills towards the accreditation of their competence. We will ask the Scottish Qualifications Authority to examine how this might best be done for childcare and playwork qualifications.
2.35. There are a growing number of courses offered by organisations, such as the Scottish Pre-School Play Association, which provide the first steps to gaining vocationally oriented qualifications. These can be delivered in flexible ways to fit in around the needs of parents, volunteers and workers, for example through open learning materials, holding courses in the evening or at weekends and in convenient places such as village halls, and giving local tutor support.
The Scottish Childminding Association
The Scottish Childminding Association has developed an Open Learning Preparation Training Pack. It is specially designed for prospective childminders to give them an insight into, and basic knowledge of, the role, responsibilities and skills of a childminder. It helps participants to embark successfully on a childminding career or, indeed, to help them decide` that such a career is not for them after all.
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2.36. Our Lifelong Learning Paper will underpin our strategy for further developments. We are looking at how individual learning accounts can offer support for people wanting to train in childcare or playwork. We will also explore how they can help fund childcare costs while in training. The Learning Direct helpline will offer information on what training and childcare is available.
2.37. We will:
- support the Scottish Qualifications Authority and the emerging network of National Training Organisations in developing the “climbing frame” of training and qualifications. They will map existing training, qualifications and the various childcare-related occupations, and prepare a draft training, qualification and occupation framework by September 1998 for consultation across the sector by January 1999. This will be followed by an information campaign to establish the “climbing frame” and raise the profile of the profession;
- ask the new local childcare partnerships to audit training needs and provision in their area and to ensure that there is access to the training which is needed;
- work up in detail how childcare training needs can be met through individual learning accounts.
Support for parents and informal carers
2.38. Support for good parenting ought to start early, by example from parents who are the first teachers of parenting for their children, and through effective education in school and elsewhere on the implications of parenthood. For adults, parenting education can be effective in improving parenting skills and helping to build strong families. There are many good parenting classes, but they are not always accessible or attractive for some of the parents who are in greatest need of help. We are currently undertaking research to gauge the extent of provision for developing parenting skills in Scotland.
2.39. Parents, informal carers and children can also benefit greatly from the opportunity to come together to share experience. Parent and toddler groups, playgroups, one o’clock clubs and toy libraries, for example, provide valuable developmental opportunities for children and the chance for parents and carers to develop their own capabilities and resources.
2.40. As part of our drive to improve standards of education for all pupils, we are considering how to improve support for parents of children with Special Educational Needs. Our Discussion Paper, Special Educational Needs in Scotland, set out our view that parents should be treated as partners in the educational process.
2.41. We have already allocated funding to support the activities in Scotland of Home-Start UK, a charitable trust which provides training, information, guidance and support to local Home-Start schemes. Home-Start volunteers offer support, friendship and practical help to young families under stress in their own homes, helping to prevent family crisis and breakdown.
Consultation point 1
Should there be a single national recognition scheme for childcare arrangements which meet certain specified standards?
Consultation point 2
Has this Chapter covered all the main ways in which the supply and recruitment of childcare workers can be increased?
Consultation point 3
What action is needed to gain acceptance and use of a coherent training and qualifications structure?
Consultation point 4
How can we assist in strengthening the quality of care provided through the informal sector?
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