A petition has been lodged in the Scottish Parliament which SCMA has signed, as we believe that things are not working as they should for many providers involved in delivering funded ELC, and which members might also be interested in signing up to personally.
The petition proposes that parents should be provided with an online account by the Scottish Government to manage their ELC payments and to choose and pay their childcare provider directly, at a standardised rate of funding for delivering funded ELC, rather than this process being managed by local authorities.
This petition has been lodged by the Scottish Private Nursery Association in response to concern that some local authorities have been prioritising their own nursery provision when making offers to parents from within ELC budgets provided to them by the Scottish Government and that this has adversely affected the sustainable rates paid to Private, Voluntary & Independent childcare providers and their ability to keep pace with local authority nurseries and pay their staff the Real Living Wage. The National Day Nurseries’ Association has also proposed a similar ‘payment passport’ for parents.
In parallel, SCMA’s ELC Audits have repeatedly reported that while some local authorities have been supportive of childminding and have offered childminders’ meaningful levels of hours within their ELC offers, a number of local authorities have unfortunately continued to prioritise their own nursery provision under ELC expansion. As such, we believe that the principle of ‘Provider Neutrality’ in which local authorities are supposed to treat all providers equitably, is not working as it was intended and needs to change or be implemented more robustly.
Given the problems that many of our members continue to experience, after five years of national and local implementation activity to support the delivery of ‘1140 by 2020’,
SCMA has signed this petition not so much as we believe this proposal would necessarily be the best solution, but that there is a need for a discussion at a national level about if a different system is now required and to consider different options including direct payment given the current system is not working for many.
In relation to the current proposal we believe detail would need to be worked out to provide safeguards and reassurances to childminders to ensure that:
- payments in parents’ ELC accounts would take the form of credits or vouchers which could only be used for purchasing ELC;
- this does not result in any increase in paperwork for childminders who have experienced a significant increase in bureaucracy under ELC expansion and have been disproportionately affected by this;
- this would be based on agreed sustainable rates which are of a high enough level to support childminders’ business sustainability;
- contractual commitments are received from parents which would support childminders’ ability to undertake business planning and forecast their income levels;
- childminders are paid promptly.
Graeme McAlister, Chief Executive, SCMA, said: "S
CMA has signed this petition, as it is clear that things aren’t working as they should for many providers involved in ELC delivery, that something needs to change and that different options need to be considered nationally. However, the method of how providers are chosen and paid for delivering funded ELC is almost secondary.
"There are recurring problems experienced by different providers, and particularly childminders, in being involved equitably by some local authorities in ELC delivery. A simpler and quicker alternative would be addressing how the underlying principle of Provider Neutrality is implemented by local authorities. If all local authorities were required to include different providers in ELC delivery equitably, the hours received supported their business sustainability and sustainable rates enabled all providers (and not just local authority nurseries) to pay themselves the Real Living Wage, the method of payment becomes secondary.
“There is some good practice out there as well as poor practice and it has been shown that the current system can work where local authorities act equitably, recognise the value of other providers, provide sufficient hours and rates to support their business sustainability and payment is made promptly. However, this shouldn’t just be a choice or option to do this – it should be required and adopted as standardised practice by all local authorities. And if some local authorities aren’t prepared to be more equitable there is a need to consider other models including parents choosing and paying their preferred provider for ELC directly."
If members would like to sign up to this petition individually details can be found
HERE.
Please note that this petition closes on 19 October 2022, after which the Scottish Parliament’s Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee will consider the petition and decide if they wish to take evidence on this subject.