Summer 2022

This is a quick update and recap newsletter before you all either start your full and long days of holiday care, or stop for a well-earned rest for the summer. As ever, we all appreciate how well you all do providing children and families with your much needed support and opportunities for fun and friendship. We wish you all a lovely summer and hope (fingers crossed) the great Scottish weather is on our side.

We love to feature your summer holiday stories, photos, wee films on our website, so please remember us when you have gathered such materials and send in to finlay@soscn.org.

SOSCN Surveys

A reminder that both our surveys are still open, and they do not take long to complete. Thanks to everyone who already submitted responses, but there is still time for those who have not done so yet. The first survey is looking at services’ recruitment and retention experiences, capacity and uptake of places, and financial sustainability. The second survey seeks to gather a picture of how local authorities are including (or not) registered school-age childcare services to deliver holiday programmes to low-income families. Closing date for both surveys is 8th July.

SOSCN Service Membership Survey 2022:

https://freeonlinesurveys.com/s/ZaJgQYyX

Summer 2022 Holiday Funding:

https://freeonlinesurveys.com/s/SsMiaXb3

SOSCN Events Presentations

SOSCN has held some very informative events so far this year, and thanks to all of you who have attended these. We are extremely grateful for the contributions of our partner organisations and colleagues who gave up their time to present at these events and make available their resources and expertise. The presentations below have been shared with those in attendance, so some of you may have these already, however in case you missed these events, please find links below for some invaluable resources from:

Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland - getting help with childcare costs:

https://soscn.org/downloads/news/cpag-help-to-pay-for-childcare.pdf

Skills Development Scotland - the apprenticeship suite and wider SDS support:

https://soscn.org/downloads/news/sds-the-apprenticeship-suite.pdf

The Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities - Exploring the barriers and facilitators to early learning and childcare for children with learning disabilities in Scotland:

https://soscn.org/downloads/news/scld-building-blocks.pdf

Early Learning and Childcare: update no. 23 - June 2022

Download the latest update from the Scottish Government here:

https://soscn.org/downloads/news/elc-covid-19-update-june-2022.pdf

Quality Framework for Daycare of Children, Childminding and School-age Childcare

https://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/inspections/quality-framework-for-elc-services

The Care Inspectorate published their quality framework in March 2022 and from 1st June 2022 it is the framework being used in inspections.

The framework focuses on children's wellbeing and sets out the elements that will help Care Inspectors answer key questions about the impact care and learning is making to outcomes for children. The primary use of the framework is as a tool for self-evaluation to assist settings self-evaluate their own performance in delivering good care and learning for children. This framework should support settings to showcase their strengths and identify improvement, where required.

If you are going to use this framework to assess your holiday care, or for example, inducting new staff for start of next term, then the Care Inspectorate are looking for some case studies of how the framework works in real practice situations. If you are interested in taking part as a case study, please contact us to discuss it further: irene@soscn.org Thank you.

School uniforms in Scotland - Consultation

https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-uniform-guidance-consultation/

The Scottish Government has committed to introduce statutory guidance in Scotland which aims to address equalities issues around uniform policy and reduce the cost of school uniform, as this can be a significant barrier to participation in learning.

It is not intended that the school uniform items will be mandated at national levels, and it is not intended that there will be a national school uniform policy which is applied in all schools. Instead, it is intended that the national guidance will inform local authorities and schools policies.

This consultation is open to anyone with an interest in school uniform policy, but especially pupils, parents and carers, education authorities and education authority schools, and those who provide school uniform items. Closing date for responses is 14th October.

To find out more and for how to respond, please see this link:

https://consult.gov.scot/learning-directorate/school-uniforms-statutory-guidance-scotland/