Track and compare childcare performance in Scotland

Every parent wants the best for their child, but picking a childcare option may not be a simple decision.

To ensure parents can easily access data about services in their area we have analysed Care Inspectorate data.

The regulatory body monitors the standards of care across thousands of Scottish services, including those specialised in childcare.

This includes childcare agencies, day care of children and childminding.
The Care Inspectorate classifies any care provided for children from infancy to school-age in a centre-based facility. Nurseries, playgroups and afterschool clubs are all listed under that category.

Meanwhile, childminding is childcare provided from the worker’s home.

Childcare agencies offer child carers, such as nannies or babysitters, to look after children in the home of the family.

Following each investigation, the Care Inspectorate publishes a report. However, the information is also collated in a document covering all services registered with the inspectorate.

The charts below show the performance of individual services and analysis on a local authority level.

Compare childcare in your local authority

A new framework for grading early learning and childcare services was introduced in June 2022.

It now consists of four key questions for determining the performance of childcare services in Scotland.

The Care Inspectorate states the “primary use” of the framework is as a self-evaluation tool for services to use.

Key questions applying to them focus on the setting, care, play, learning, leadership and staffing if it applies.

Each of the relevant questions is graded on a scale from one to six, with one being unsatisfactory and six being awarded for excellent services.

We have created a custom tool that allows you to view the performance of childcare services such as nurseries, day care and childminders.

Use our Care Calibre to select a local authority a local authority before using the key question dropdown to see how individual services were graded by the care inspectorate.

When viewing key questions the services will also be coloured to show any recently upheld complaints since 2022/23.

If a services has no upheld complaints it will appear blue.

If you are interested in a specific service use the highlight filter to make it stand out across the grade view.

Use the below chart to view childminders.

How many childcare services are there?

Since 2017, the number of childcare services has declined across Scotland.

We will continue to monitor the changing number of registered services with the Care Inspectorate each month.

The below chart shows how the overall totals are changing across the country.

We have also analysed the total numbers by local authorities.

This chart shows the number of childcare services in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Highlands, Moray, Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles.

Why is it important to track the number of childcare services in Scotland?

The Scottish Childminding Association is trying to reverse those trends for childminders.

Its chief executive Graeme McAlister warned a lack of action could lead to decline “there wouldn’t be any recovering from”.

Graeme McAlister said projections of childminding losses expected if no action is taken were “alarming”. Supplied by SCMA

He said: “From 2016 onwards you can see our workforce has declined.

“[Our last audit] found that the childminding workforce has declined by 41% since 2016. In real terms that is a loss of 2273 childminding businesses or if you look at the impact on families what that did was take out 13,000 childminding spaces for families throughout Scotland.

“For the first time we actually projected ahead. We took that dataset and said look this is what is going to happen in future years if we don’t act.

“That was quite alarming because what the projection showed is that our workforce would decline by 64% by 2026.”

He added: “There wouldn’t be any recovering from that it would be too significant of a loss. ”

How are care homes graded on a council level?

On average, Scotland’s childcare services tend to rank over four showing an overall good performance.

We tracked the average monthly performance of services by local authority since November 2022.

The Care Inspectorate introduced a new grading system earlier that year but the data was more sporadic as the Inspectors first began to apply it.

However, are there key question that services across the north and north-east shine in compared to other council areas?

The below chart shows the averages across all childcare services for the latest available data.

What about complaints and enforcements?

The goal of the grades is to show services areas which could be improved, but the organisation has other ways of enforcing change.

The watchdog must also investigate the public’s complaints about services.

From the standards of care to the conduct of staff, any expression of dissatisfaction with the care of a registered service must be investigated by the Care Inspectorate unless it falls under the remit of another organisation, such as the police.

If the complaint is upheld, a service may be given change requirements they have to meet.

Where a service is not complying with the legal standards, the Care Inspectorate is able to take formal enforcement action.

This can take shape in form of two different notices.

An improvement notice may be served when there are sufficient concerns about the care service.

If the set improvements do not happen within a given timescale, the organisation may cancel the service altogether. A care service cannot operate if it is not registered.

Meanwhile, the second notice issued by the Care Inspectorate is to change the conditions of registration of a service.

However, if the watchdog believes there is a serious risk to life, health or wellbeing, it may apply to the Sherriff Court for an emergency cancellation of a service’s registration.

Find your childcare service

Are you interested in a particular nursery or childminder? The table below shows all the registered services listed as childminding, day care of children and childcare agencies.

The table will be automatically updated with the data for the last available date on the Care Inspectorate website.