In line with Childminder Services Guidance from the Scottish Government, children and young people aged 18 years and under with mild symptoms such as a runny nose, sore throat, or slight cough, who are otherwise well, do not need to stay at home and can continue to attend education settings, including childminding settings.

Children are only required to stay at home if they are unwell and have a high temperature. They can go back to school, college or childcare, and resume normal activities when they no longer have a fever, and they feel well enough to attend.

The Scottish Government is keen to reinforce that this guidance reflects the fact that children and young people generally have a higher likelihood than adults of regular instances of respiratory symptoms from non-COVID-19 illnesses. 

We recognise that members are individual business owners, therefore we cannot tell you what to do and our role is to offer advice, guidance, support and to promote good practice. 

However, following guidance from the Scottish Government and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), we are recommending the following for childminders in Scotland:

• follow the CMA advice of reaching a voluntary* agreement with parents/carers on low level fees to be charged when settings are open, but children do not attend due to self-isolating.
• in individual circumstances where families want to continue to voluntarily pay more than low-level fees to childminders, by reaching separate agreement fairly and in which no form of pressure has been applied, they are not prevented from doing so.

Read more about charging fees HERE. 

*For clarity by a “voluntary” agreement, the CMA guidance means that this could relate to a contractual or other agreement in which no pressure, coercion or threat has been applied and a parent/carer has voluntarily agreed to it on that basis.

If you have symptoms of COVID-19, and have a high temperature or do not feel well enough to carry out your normal activities, you should stay at home and avoid contact with other people, until your symptoms are gone, and you no longer feel unwell.

This means that if you - as a childminder - have symptoms of COVID-19 you will be required to close your childminding setting until your symptoms have gone, and you feel well enough to re-open. 

The Scottish Government has confirmed that as a result of progress in vaccination and suppressing the virus and as there is no longer specific advice to isolate and to not have visitors in the home, this means that childminders can now continue to operate in this instance, with mitigations in place. 

If a member of your household has symptoms of a respiratory infection, such as COVID-19, and a high temperature or does not feel well enough to carry out their normal activities, they should stay at home, and avoid contact with other people, until their symptoms have gone, and they no longer feel unwell. In this situation, provided that you – as the childminder – feel well, your setting can remain open with mitigations in place (see below).

People who live in the same household as someone with coronavirus are at the highest risk of becoming infected because they're most likely to have prolonged close contact. However, taking the following actions would further help to reduce the risks of transmission, when you have someone in your household who has symptoms:

• The childminder should be vigilant for their own symptoms and try to stay away from the person who is unwell as far as is possible.
• The unwell person should try to stay away from other people in the household, particularly those who are visiting i.e., your minded children, to prevent spread outside the household.
• The unwell person should wear a face covering when using common areas such as the kitchen, halls or bathroom.
• Keep the common areas well ventilated by opening windows and doors to the outside.
• The childminder should try to increase cleaning and hygiene practices of these common areas.
• The childminder should notify the children’s parents or carers that somebody in their household is currently unwell and advise of the actions they are taking to reduce the risk of transmission, so that they can make an informed choice if they wish their child to stay away or take additional precautions.
• The childminder should try to reinforce the importance of hand, sneeze and cough hygiene for all children and adults.  

SCMA has been advocating for this position on behalf of childminders and we believe this is a positive development.

Based on the current Childminder Services Guidance from the Scottish Government, children and young people aged 18 and under with mild symptoms such as a runny nose, sore throat, or slight cough, who are otherwise well, do not need to stay at home and can continue to attend education and childcare settings.

Children and young people should only stay at home if they are unwell and have a high temperature. If this occurs in your childminding setting, you should arrange for the child to go home and ensure they are in a well-ventilated area, away from the other children, whilst being appropriately supervised until they are picked up. 

The child should then stay at home and avoid contact with others, until their symptoms are gone and they no longer feel unwell. At this point, the can return to school, college or childcare, and resume their normal activities. 

Please refer to the current Childminder Services Guidance from the Scottish Government for the latest guidance on how to manage a suspected case and deal with a potential outbreak. 

Please ensure that you also inform the Care Inspectorate of any confirmed or suspected outbreak of an infectious disease via Care Inspectorate eForms.  

Childminders are not enforcers; however, it’s important to remember that you do have a duty of care for all the children and families using your service, as well as yourself and your own family. In the first instance, we would recommend that you speak with parents to highlight the guidance and what their responsibilities are, as well as your own duties and responsibilities.

You may find it useful to share the Childminding Services Guidance with parents, as a way of introducing and engaging a conversation. Hopefully, this will urge a change in behaviour, as well as a wider awareness of their actions and how it could impact on their childcare arrangements.

We understand that it can be tricky for childminders to balance this, as you will want to maintain a close, positive relationship with families; however, knowledge of potential non-compliance with the guidance can be unsettling. 

In the cases of a private childminding arrangement, ultimately you can make a decision to give notice in line with your contract to cease childcare provision – although this should be a last resort, in order to try and maintain continuity of care for the child.

If you have a funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) arrangement with a family - it’s slightly different - as you have entered into a contract with the local authority, and you don’t want to be penalised for breaching it without a valid reason. In this case, you should first approach the local authority to tell them that you are considering this, and to highlight your concerns. The local authority (as the statutory funder of the provision) will need the opportunity to engage with the parent(s) and yourself to see if there is scope for resolution and/or to consider how to secure a robust alternative placement. 

Parents and carers have the right to choose the type of childcare that best suits their needs based on a provider neutral model.  This means that one provider type should not be promoted over another.

If childminding is not given as an option by your local authority, we would suggest the parent/carer raises this with the local council and MSP. To assist with this, SCMA has developed a template letter and a list of MSPs can be found here.

The COVID-19 crisis may have had a significant effect on the mental health and wellbeing of children of all ages.  Childminders continue to provide vital support to children and families – and can play a key role in offering positive support, engagement and activities to help children and young people feel safe, secure and as stable as possible during these unsettling times.  

We’ve collated weblinks to some useful resources and tools you can access to benefit children’s mental health and wellbeing within your childminding setting:

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CAMHS Resources is a great place to start when you’re thinking about mental health and wellbeing – for both you minded children and yourself. CAMHS is able to signpost you to a range of resources designed to help you and young people cope with such stress and uncertainty at this time. 

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The Natural Health Award was launched a few years ago for childminders in the Forth Valley area to encourage and recognise the health benefits of getting outside into nature at an early age, and the importance of being active and leading healthier lives. 

A new COVID-19 version of the Natural Health Award has been developed by NHS Forth Valley for all childminders and families across Scotland to use and focuses on good health and mental wellbeing in the great outdoors where at all possible.  

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Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Woodland Trust has been sharing ideas to help families keep children engaged and entertained while at home, including 'Nature Detectives' which has activities for nature-loving kids.

It's a fantastic way to discover the wildlife that's right on your doorstep too and includes a range of simple, nature-based activities that you can enjoy together at home, in your garden, or in your local wood. Read more about Nature Detectives from the Woodland Trust

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The Virtual Nature School is a service offered by the non-profit organisation called ‘Living Classrooms’ and they became virtual as a direct response to the needs of families when schools and nurseries were closed due to COVID-19. 

The aim of the Virtual Nature School is to equip early years practitioners with skills to work outdoors with young children through nature-based, inquiry-led learning – whilst providing children with fun, engaging daily activities and interaction with their peers from home. 

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The Parent Club website is a really useful resource from the Scottish Government and is also worth sharing with the parents and carers that use your childminding service. During COVID-19 they have developed a range of resources and tools to support children and you people’s mental health. 

Parent Club has also developed a new content hub on their website (parentclub.scot/startback) which includes information about the new guidelines, a wide range of Q&As and how to support children. 

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Children in Scotland has produced a new resource for teachers and practitioners to support children and young people’s understanding of their wellbeing. Their free resource ‘Improving Children and Young People’s Understanding of their Wellbeing’ aims to provide a hub for information on wellbeing, promote easy and open access to practical tools and information and complement other, existing resources and approaches.

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Salvesen Mindroom Centre has developed a ‘Back to School’ toolkit to support children and young people with learning difficulties as they transition to school.  

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Lucy's Blue Day is a resource that was highlighted to us by some of our members, which is a story about Lucy with magical hair that changes colour with her emotions. At lucysblueday.com you can access a range of videos, free resource and tips - plus a free e-book version of 'Lucy's Blue Day', which is designed to help children realise they’re not alone in the current conditions with COVID-19.

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The Mental Health Foundation has a quick guide that aims to outline the scale of the challenge that pupils and schools are facing, whilst providing practical advice and support for parents, teachers and other practitioners supporting pupils as they prepare to return to school in August. The website also contains other useful publications such as Tips for Parents and Caregivers. 

Childminders will already be familiar with the on-going self-evaluation procedure with the Care Inspectorate; already having systems and paperwork in place as part of previous self-assessments and updating these regularly. This new question ‘Key Question 5’ is purely an extra element that is specific to COVID-19. 

This additional question is asking you to evaluate how you have been supporting children and families during COVID-19, by gathering information and evidence to support how you have implemented the national guidance for COVID-19, whilst ensuring positive outcomes for children and keeping them safe during this time.

The Care Inspectorate has developed a step-by-step guide to help you with this, and it is very easy to follow, where you will be able to identify and recognise your strengths and possible areas for improvement. The guide also provides a selection of ‘very good’ and ‘weak’ examples to help you when you are reflecting on your own setting and practice. 

Read the Care Inspectorate’s guide to self-evaluation during COVID-19

We would encourage childminders to read the above guide carefully, and then complete the Care Inspectorate’s Key Question 5 Self-Evaluation Tool as soon as possible. This will form part of your on-going and continual self-evaluation.

Download the Key Question 5 Self-Evaluation Tool from the Care Inspectorate

Completed self-evaluations that are requested by the Care Inspectorate will be used to assess how well the setting is managing the COVID-19 situation. Consideration will be made as to whether further scrutiny is required and support on-going improvement.  

Need more support?
The Care Inspectorate has a series of online bitesize resources on the Hub, which will support services to complete their Key Question 5 self-evaluation.  

The sessions share some pointers and reminders which will help raise knowledge on the information and detail required to ensure settings facilitate self-evaluation. Read more and access the bitesize resources  

Do I need to complete the new Key Question 5 if my setting is closed?
If your setting is closed, you don’t need to conduct self-evaluation. However, if and when you re-open your service, you will need to ensure you are assessing your setting on an on-going basis.

More information is available from the Care Inspectorate, and if you have any specific queries about this, please email information@childminding.org.

SCMA members may be aware that the union, UNITE, has established a childminding branch in Scotland. For clarity, the UNITE branch is not connected with SCMA – both are separate, independent organisations.  

Individuals can choose to join as many membership organisations as they wish and are eligible to, and where they believe there is value in doing so. Membership of SCMA or UNITE does not affect membership of the other in any way, nor does SCMA need to know if our members are also members of any other organisation. 

SCMA works constructively with a wide range of stakeholders. We received contact from UNITE and offered to meet with them; however, the organisation decided it would prefer not to meet at this time. Our offer to meet to discuss childminding remains open.   

SCMA is the only national organisation in Scotland dedicated to, and specialising in, providing childminding-specific support to childminders in all areas of childminding practice and representing the views and experiences of childminders. We will continue to do so.

The Scottish Funding Council, who provide guidance for Childcare Payments for colleges, has stated that payments to childcare providers should continue as usual, providing the childcare provider is open and available, and the student is attending and participating with their college programme.

If you are having issues with a college regarding Childcare Payments, we would encourage you to get in touch with them, to clarify the position for childminders and highlight the information from the Scottish Funding Council, which states that payments should be made. You can access the relevant information from the Scottish Funding Council here. 
    
To help you with this, SCMA has produced an email template, which you can use to contact the college and support your claim. Download the email template here

No – childminding settings are not required to have a CO2 monitor. Detail and guidance on ventilation has been provided by the Scottish Government for school and larger group settings, but this will not apply to most childminders. 

The list of mitigations, provided with the Care Inspectorate Provider Update email, states that where settings have CO2 monitors, they should use them to assess their setting.  However, there is no requirement for childminders to have CO2 monitors in their setting. 

Using outdoor spaces, opening windows whilst you are indoors and keeping as much fresh air moving through your setting is ideal to help reduce the risk of COVID-19 indoors. This is something that we have all become familiar with, and this will be continuing to be encouraged for all settings.