national cares tandards early education and childcare up to the age of 16

Annex A Input standards

1 Adult:Child ratios in non-domestic premises

The ratios apply to new providers from 1 April 2002. Existing providers are expected to achieve the new ratios by 1 April 2004.

* Where children aged 3 and over attend facilities providing day care for a session which is less than a continuous period of four hours in any day the adult: child ratio may be 1:10. providing individual children do not attend more than one session per day.

Two adults to be in attendance at any one time.

Only adults in contact with children for the majority of the session should count towards the ratios.

The regulator would be able to vary the ratios up or down where warranted for example attendance of children with special needs, awkward premises and additional support staff on the premises.

2 Adult:Child ratios in domestic premises

1:6 for children under 12, of whom no more than three are not yet attending primary school and of whom no more than one is under 1.

These ratios include the childminder's own children. The Care Commission will have regard to the number of children aged 12 to 16 who are likely to be in the house regularly, and will have the discretion to vary the ratios accordingly. The Care Commission will also have discretion to vary the ratios to take account of special circumstances, such as siblings under 1, special needs, awkward premises, etc.

3 Qualified staff

The intention is to move to a position where all staff in centres providing childcare or pre-school education either hold an appropriate qualification, are seeking accreditation of skills and experience or are pursuing on-the-job training with a view to registering with the Scottish Social Services Council in due course. The Council published its qualification requirements for registration of the early years workforce in March 2004, and will begin phased registration of the workforce during 2006. Employers are advised to develop training plans in order to meet the expectations set out in Standard 12 and help their staff meet registration requirements. For further information see Annex C.

4 Space standards in non-domestic premises

The School Premises (General Requirement and Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 1967 (as amended) continue to apply to nursery schools under the management of education authorities.

For all other non-domestic childcare, the following space standards apply, although the Care Commission will have discretion to vary the standards to take account of special circumstances.