Childcare - early adopter communities: easy read

What we found out about Early Adopter Communities

About this document

This is an Easy Read document.

It is a report.

It will tell you what we found out about a project that has started.

About Early Adopter Communities

In October 2022 four new Early Adopter Communities started in Scotland.

Early Adopter Communities are local areas which took part in a project to have good childcare, especially for families who do not have much money.

Childcare means the people and places that can look after children.

In this project the childcare was for children who are old enough to be at school.

The childcare was things like:

• before and after school clubs
• holiday clubs
• childminders

The Early Adopter Communities are in:

• Clackmannanshire
• Dundee
• Glasgow
• Inverclyde

About the project

The Scottish Government asked Ipsos Scotland to find out how the Early Adopter Communities project has gone so far.

Ipsos Scotland is an organisation which finds out more information about different things in Scotland.

Ipsos Scotland asked these people about how the project was going so far:

• the project leaders
• 17 people from the organisations in the project
• 22 parents
• 27 children

Ipsos Scotland then wrote a report to tell us what they found out.

What we found out

We found out that the Early Adopter Communities have started well.

All the Early Adopter Communities were able to offer childcare for their school age children.

These are the things that we found were true for all the Early Adopter Communities.

All the Early Adopter Communities were in local communities where there is deprivation.

Deprivation means that many of the people there have more difficulties in different parts of their life.

For example many of the people who live there do not have:

• enough money
• choices and chances
• resources – there might not be as many public services

All the Early Adopter Communities offered free child spaces at:

• breakfast clubs – before school
• after school clubs
• holiday clubs – in the school holidays

All the Early Adopter Communities worked with lots of different organisations, like:

• schools
• childcare organisations
• local councils

These are the things that some Early Adopter Communities did differently.

Some Early Adopter Communities made brand new services but some used the services they already had.

Most of the Early Adopter Communities made the childcare totally free.

But Glasgow area charged a fee for families with more money, and made it free for families with less money.

This meant that the Glasgow area could support more families.

Some Early Adopter Communities offered services that were specially for children with additional support needs.

Additional support needs is the support given to any learner that needs it for any reason.

Some Early Adopter Communities offered support to the whole family but some gave information about where to get the support instead.

Some Early Adopter Communities had family support workers to help reach families.

A family support worker is someone who helps families and children with things like:

• parenting
• home life
• appointments

Who the project was for

The project was aimed at families with children who are most at risk of living in poverty.

Poverty means not having a lot of money for your family to live on.

Sometimes people in poverty find it hard to pay for basic needs like food, clothes or heating.

The families included:

• families with 1 parent

• families with a disabled adult or a disabled child

• big families – with 3 children or more

• minority ethnic families

A minority ethnic group is different from the main population because it may have a different:

• language
• or culture
• or religion
• or skin colour

• families with a baby who is less than 1 year old

• families with a mother who is 24 years old or younger

The Early Adopter Communities have done a good job of reaching these types of family.

Children came along to the childcare sessions and did not miss too many.

But some families who had free spaces did not use all their free sessions.

The best way for families to know about these sessions was by hearing from someone they trust – like school staff.

Everyone who answered questions about how this project has started said that signing up was accessible.

In this document, accessible means that the information and way to sign up was offered in ways that most people could use.

Did the families get what they needed?

The Early Adopter Communities had designed their childcare to suit the needs of the families in their areas.

Staff in the project said they thought working with families to design the childcare had made it better.

But the families often could not remember helping to design the childcare.

Most families were very happy with the childcare they got.

They said it happened at the right times of day and in the right places.

Children said they liked the activities and liked being with their friends.

Staff said it was sometimes hard to plan activities that younger and older children all liked.

But they said it was very important that the children had choices and a wide range of activities to choose from.

Many families were offered free childcare spaces.

But some families would have liked more free sessions than they were offered.

Parents said that it was very important that the childcare staff were friendly and had the right skills.

Childcare organisations said they found it hard to find staff and keep staff.

They also found it hard to find staff who could support children with additional support needs.

Families with children with additional support needs said their children’s needs were being met.

Changing the way things happen

The Early Adopter Communities took time to build good relationships with other organisations in their areas.

Staff said that it takes time to build trust.

The project was well led and there were good partnerships happening.

What we have learned about the whole project

Childcare services are mostly happening as we want them to.

Families said the childcare is:

• easy to reach
• cheap enough or free
• good quality

The organisations who took part said that the same project could work in other areas too.

As long as money is given to make this happen.