Childminders, home based day care and young children's transitions

In the changing political context of early learning and childcare in Scotland it is important to gather knowledge in order to understand the work of childminders and to make it more visible. The small scale scoping study presented here seeks to explore the role played, in Scotland, by childminders as they welcome and care for young children. In Scotland there are currently 6,102 people registered as childminders to provide day care in their own homes: they provide for 34,600 children (Care Inspectorate, 2015). Many of these childminders (about 80%) are members of the Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA). Their work is equivalent to that of day-carers and home-based carers in other countries. Typically, the children who benefit from their services have working parents who often choose this form of home-based care as the next-best choice to having their children at home.