My childminding experience
Expansion of early learning and childcare
For some young children, provision of early learning and childcare through a childminder may be the best option to meet their particular needs, regardless of where they live. The Care Inspectorate recognises the unique benefits of home-based care, particularly in providing continuity and promoting attachment for young children.
Only a small number of childminding services are currently in partnership to provide funded places. There could be an increased use of childminders to better deliver funded early learning and childcare, not least in remote and rural areas where other demand is insufficient or the pattern of local needs make group settings unfeasible.
There are some models where childminders not only provide early learning and childcare as a sole provider but also offer blended provision with an establishment-based setting. It is important that local authorities understand the potential of childminders in developing local commissioning approaches, recognising that childminders are registered, regulated and inspected in order to ensure the quality of their setting is high and the childminder's commitment to continuous improvement.
You can find out more about the expansion of early learning and childcare in National Policy and Legislation.
Other Documents:
Care Inspectorate Review of Scotland's Early Learning and Childcare Expansion
A Blueprint for 2020: The Expansion of Early Learning and Childcare in Scotland: Quality Action Plan
Building the Ambition: National Practice Guidance on Early Learning and Childcare
An essential library of resources for new and current childminders is available in the Childminding Library section below.
Childminding library
Caring for other people’s children is a big responsibility and there are various requirements that your childminding service must meet before you can begin. This booklet tells you what these requirements are, so you can make sure you meet them before we register your service and for the whole time you are running your service.
Childminders must, by law, register with the Care Inspectorate. We give information and advice to people who provide care services, or who are considering becoming care service providers. Find out more about the process.
A short guide to Care Inspectorate inspections, including information on what we inspect and how we grade. The document also includes a section on 'mythbusting'.
This publication explains which records must be held by childminders, on the people who use the service, staff records, environment and safety, complaints, medication, finance and staffing levels. Information on notification reporting responsibilities is also included.
Creative play helps children flourish as confident, resilient and happy individuals and it is vital for child development. Creativity is a key ingredient for children to learn how to follow their curiosity, solve problems and make sense of the world. Our Creative Journey is aimed at promoting good practice in all types of early learning and childcare (ELC) settings, to help all services aspire to be the best they can be and have the greatest impact on children's lives.
This is a good practice resource which shares inspiring stories from services showing how much children are benefiting from outdoor play. Mainstream as well as outdoor-based services are featured and it aims to encourage all early learning and childcare services to make the most of the natural environment. This resource is as much for urban as rural services and is for all age ranges of children and different service types.
This resource is good practice guidance intended to help employers, especially those in social care, early education and childcare and social work to meet existing legislative and regulatory requirements in relation to the safer recruitment and selection of people who work with individuals who receive support and care from social services in Scotland.
Scottish Government in partnership with the Care Inspectorate and Scottish Futures Trust guidance designed to maximise positive experiences for children and improve the quality of care and learning by helping to make early learning and childcare and out of school care services the best they can be in terms of design.
Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) is Scotland’s long standing, national commitment to provide all children, young people and their families with the right support at the right time, so that every child and young person can reach their full potential.
GIRFEC is both an approach and framework used by services across Scotland to improve and uphold the wellbeing of children and their families.
Building the Ambition "sets the context for high quality Early Learning and Childcare as set out in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014" and aims to support practitioners by looking at the "key areas which make a difference to a child's early learning and childcare experiences and the important role that practitioners play".
The new Health and Social Care Standards set out what we should expect when using health, social care or social work services in Scotland. They seek to provide better outcomes for everyone; to ensure that individuals are treated with respect and dignity, and that the basic human rights we are all entitled to are upheld.