Flexible Childcare Scotland has approval to deliver a new SQA Accredited Unit: Delivering Flexibility within Childcare Settings.
Post COVID and with an increase of home and hybrid working the need for more flexible early learning and childcare has never been more prevalent than it is now.
Even prior to COVID, local and national government cited flexible childcare as a means of improving parental employment and tackling poverty.
Indeed, The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 introduced a requirement on local authorities to offer more flexibility and choice over how funded hours are offered. The Blueprint for 2020; The Expansion of Early Learning and Childcare in Scotland, says that flexibility within settings should offer ‘support for parents and carers in work, training or study and a commitment to offer patterns or provision better aligned with working patterns. Unfortunately, despite numerous research studies and reports, flexible childcare is still the exception and not the norm.
Will this new unit, Delivering Flexibility within Childcare Settings, provide a means of accelerating the flexible childcare model?
According to Fiona Ednie, Head of HR and Health and Safety at FCSS,
“We’ve been delivering a fully flexible early learning and childcare environment for more than 3 years and we know the benefits it has on families; increased working hours, more opportunities to study or participate in training courses are just a few of the benefits. This Unit supports the workforce to fully understand how they contribute to the delivery of high quality, flexible services with positive outcomes for children and young people. With more practitioners completing the unit and understanding the benefits that flexibility provides we have high hopes for greater provision of flexible childcare.”
According to FCSS, completion of this award will ensure that childcare practitioners have a sound understanding of contemporary theories about attachment, transitions, supporting and documenting children’s care, learning & development, and working with others within a flexible service, and that whole-staff teams have a cohesive approach to delivering a high quality, flexible service.
Any Training Centre or College can apply to SQA to deliver this course but at the moment only FCSS have approval to deliver it.
