Perceptions of the impact of childminding services on child, parent and family outcomes: research findings

5. Impact of the pandemic (on childminders and families)

Summary of main findings

Overall Impact On Childminders

• Childminders described experiencing a significant decrease in income, with many services having to close or reduce numbers in the first lockdown. Further impacts mentioned were additional work created (e.g. extra cleaning, new policies, procedures, risk assessments) and high levels of stress and concern for a range of reasons, including the health and wellbeing of their own families.
• Views among childminders on how the pandemic had affected future plans ranged from it having little impact at all, to those that were considering retirement after the stress of the last year. Others were reflecting on whether they would like to work part time or take a temporary break from childminding.
• Childminders’ decisions around whether to partner with their local authority for funded ELC were not shaped by the impact of the pandemic.

Impact On Ability To Support Children

• There was concern among childminders about the disruption to children’s continuity of care during the pandemic. They described children who had lost confidence and were nervous to come back to the setting after being at home with their parents for so long.
• Being away from their childminder was also seen as negatively affecting children’s learning and development, although there was also a view among childminders that these impacts were temporary.
• Both childminders and parents mentioned that the pandemic restricted the range of activities childminders could do out in the community (such as playgroups or soft play).
• However, childminders did make the point that the pandemic had led them to do more outdoor activities in nature with the children, for example going to the park or woods. Some said they intended to continue this once restrictions are lifted.
• Some stayed in touch with children during lockdown through phone calls or video calls. In order to continue to support children’s learning, some childminders created resource packs or even ran small events online that children could engage with at home.
• Parents being unable to enter and spend time in the childminder’s home was seen by some childminders as having a negative impact on their ability to support parents and build a close trusting relationship, particularly if they were new to the service. Parents did not tend to comment on this as much as childminders, suggesting they were still reasonably happy with the level of contact and communication.

Overall impact of the pandemic on childminders

A decrease in income as a result of the pandemic was a common experience among the childminders who took part in the study. Some childminders had seen a reduction in the number of children they cared for during the first lockdown, while others had temporarily closed. Childminders explained that there were families who made a sudden decision to keep their children at home when Scotland was in lockdown, because they were worried about money and/or the health risks of mixing with other households. There was a view that parents who were on furlough or working from home were more able to care for their children at home, which contributed to this too. At the same time as losing clients, childminders reported fewer new enquiries coming in.

“It reduced my income massively, but it's come back up now.” – Childminder for 8 years, Highland

Childminders who struggled financially due to the pandemic described finding this period stressful and difficult; even “ devastating”. One childminder explained that the financial loss she experienced meant her family had to use savings they had been planning to use to build a conservatory for additional space to cover day to day expenses.

Childminders also highlighted the difficulty of having to take on additional work in order to continue delivering their services, such as extra cleaning, having to buy more cleaning materials and sanitizer, updating policies and risk assessments, and informing parents of changes.

“It was very stressful for me – extra cleaning and extra paperwork – I made sure everyone [parents/carers] had read the COVID-19 information properly before signing”

Childminder for 18 years, South Lanarkshire

Childminders also worried about protecting the health of their own family given the service is provided in their own home.

“[Working at] a nursery, it’s all there and then you come home. But it’s in my home. Eleven families in a week. Initially it was a worry. I haven’t had my own parents here for over a year.”

Childminder for 10 years, Aberdeenshire

While the childminders interviewed did not report any negative experiences with charging retainer fees, there were parents who cited this as a cause of tension between them and their childminder. For example, one parent felt it was unfair that she was charged the full amount of childminding fees when she was furloughed and on universal credit and looking after her daughter at home.

Not all childminders in the study were affected negatively by the pandemic with some saying they felt quite lucky compared to other childminders they knew.

Childminders that were delivering ELC funded hours did not say that the pandemic had affected their ability to do so. Childminders also did not report that their decisions around whether to partner with their local authority for funded ELC had been shaped by the impact of the pandemic.

The impact on childminders’ ability to support children

When it came to childminders’ ability to support children, the lockdown presented a variety of challenges.

a) Disruption

There was concern among childminders about the disruption to children’s continuity of care during the pandemic. Childminders described children who had lost confidence and were nervous to come back to the setting after being at home with their parents for so long.

“[One child] didn’t come for a while, so coming back was a bit of a shock. […] She was teary when coming in, she’d built that bond again with Mum, made the transition a bit harder.”

Childminder for 18 years, Stirling

Being away from their childminder was also seen as negatively impacting on children’s learning and development, although there was also a view that these impacts were temporary, and that “young children can bounce back”.

However, one childminder that provided care for a boy with complex additional support needs emphasised the more severe impacts on his development of having to shield and stay at home. This was exacerbated by the fact that the pandemic meant additional support services, such as his speech and language therapy, were also disrupted or unavailable.

One childminder mentioned that the first lockdown meant some children missed out on the school transition work she had planned to support them before they started school.

Some childminders felt they had managed to mitigate the negative impacts of this disruption by staying in touch with children through phone calls or video calls. In order to continue to support children’s learning, some childminders created resource packs or even ran small events online that children could engage with at home.

“We had online reading groups so children could see each other. I brought families together.”

Childminder for 13 years, Aberdeenshire

b) Children’s mental health

Managing the emotional impact of the pandemic and of the lockdowns on children was another difficulty mentioned by childminders.

While the perceived impact of the pandemic on children’s wellbeing varied, childminders were aware that some children were picking up on anxiety at home and in the setting.

“He’s very aware that his parents are both key workers and very aware of the coronavirus and constantly washing his hands and getting anxious about dad being at work. It has a negative impact on him, and his anxiety levels needed management”

Childminder for 3 years, Midlothian

Childminders felt the introduction of new rules and routines in the pandemic could be distressing for some children, for example getting used to facemasks, extra handwashing and not being allowed to bring toys from home.

“You don’t wanna scare kids and you don’t want to be seen to be cleaning everything. I’ll wipe their hands. You don’t want to get kids to think they’ve got to constantly clean their hands because I think mentally it could become an issue later on.”

Childminder for 18 years, Stirling

c) Activities

Both childminders and parents mentioned that the pandemic restricted the range of activities childminders could do out in the community (such as playgroups or soft play), limiting children’s opportunities to learn and to socialise.

“We've not been to the village coffee morning where they'd mix with the older folks – so there's been less chance to work on social skills.”

Childminder for 18 years, Aberdeenshire

Parents’ views on this tended to be that although not ideal, they were glad their children were not at home full time during the restrictions.

Childminders did make the point that the pandemic had caused them to do more outdoor activities in nature with the children, for example going to the park or the woods, which was seen as beneficial. Some said they intended to continue with this once restrictions are lifted. One said a positive impact of the pandemic was that it sped up her plans to improve her outside facilities.

“Another benefit is that it’s forced us to slow down a little bit. We were quite busy before, we did a library club, a toddler’s club… what we’ve done in place of that is go outside throughout Autumn and Winter mostly every day. It has helped in terms of nurturing them giving them that outdoors experience and I’ve benefitted from that in a mental health capacity.”

Childminder for 5 years, Glasgow

Due to the pandemic, childminders described having to limit the toys children could play with so that they could be cleaned more easily, for example not using soft toys and rotating which toys are out on different days. This was seen as a particular disadvantage for young children or babies, who learn a lot from touching.

“You can’t use alcoholic sanitiser on a baby. You really don’t want them touching, little ones are teething as well, but they learn from touching.”

Childminder for 5 years, Renfrewshire

However, not all childminders saw fewer toys as a negative because it enabled children to play in new and different ways, and they were still very happy in the setting. One also suggested that childminders are better placed than nurseries to manage infection control because of the smaller setting and fewer toys.

The impact on childminders’ ability to support parents and families

a) Doorstop drop off and pick ups

Parents being unable to enter and spend time in the childminder’s home was seen by childminders as having a negative impact on their ability to support parents and build a close trusting relationship, particularly if they were new to the service:

“No parental visits is a huge disadvantage.”

Childminder for 20 years, Renfrewshire

“Our entire service has changed. The hardest thing is the social distancing between the adults.”

Childminder for 11 years, Aberdeenshire

Other childminders felt less strongly about this and one even said they preferred the quicker drop off in the mornings as it can get very busy. Parents did not tend to comment on this as much as childminders, suggesting they were still reasonably happy with the level of contact and communication (although many were just very grateful to have childcare after having none).

b) The need for extra support

Childminders were very aware of how the pandemic had affected the families they work with. The described a range of stressful experiences that some parents had been through including redundancy, furlough, home schooling older children, health worries, needing to isolate, and relationships with partners ending. In addition, they were aware of the general stress and anxiety caused by the lockdowns and the pandemic and saw themselves as having a role in helping parents cope – practically and emotionally. While childminders spoke of their own stress during the pandemic, they still spoke of parents’ and children’s needs sensitively and often explained what they had done to meet those needs where possible.

c) Flexibility and going the extra mile

Following on from the previous point, childminders talked about how hard they worked to support families’ new needs and routines that were a result of the pandemic. Examples given were running online reading groups, staying in touch with children via video calls, and once open again, offering different hours that suited some parents better. One parent’s account of how the pandemic affected their childcare arrangement demonstrates how much of a support their childminder was, particularly given her child had complex additional support needs:

"We started isolating a week before everybody else. We got really jumpy. We took James out of school a week early. Sarah started looking after him in her own home. Her husband started working from home early doors. So there wasn’t that risk there and we formed a bubble.

We stopped for a while when schools were closed again because James needs to be one-on-one, and Sarah can’t do that if she needs to home-school her own children. But she continued to be a source of support and help. She did grocery shopping for us, took James for a walk or read him a story in garden…”

Parent of 8 year old and 4 year old with additional support needs, Midlothian

d) Communications

As well as usual video calls to keep in touch when their services were shut, childminders made more use of apps like WhatsApp once they were able to open again. While some childminders were doing this already, some said they did it more once parents could not come inside and some found it especially helpful for new clients:

“I think the new wee one- that’s going to be a different way of managing it. I’ve said I’ll take little videos, so that she can see her wee one in the setting… There are uncertainties but I think with childminding there’s always a way to get around it."

Childminder for 20 years, Renfrewshire

The impact of the pandemic on childminders’ future plans

Even though participants spoke of how difficult things have been since March 2020, there was a sense that overall, for them, the numbers of children were getting back to normal and that many were happy to continue to work with children and families. When asked whether the pandemic had shaped their plans for the future, views ranged from it having little impact at all to those that were considering retirement after the stress of the last year.

“Don’t think it has affected me, still have the same children. Doing what I’ve always done. I love my job, love working with kids.”

Childminder for 30 years, Edinburgh

“I’m exhausted – I may cut back my hours. I’m 56 and not getting any younger.”

Childminder for 9 years, Highland

Others spoke about how the pandemic made them reflect on whether they would like to work part time or reduce the number of children they provide care for. Or considering a break, but feeling a duty to be there for their families:

“I’m busier than I’ve ever been. I might slow down a bit. I feel like I could do with a break. But they need you. That’s the bottom line.”

Childminder for 18 years, Stirling

Those that were the most concerned about transmission of the virus to them / their family said they had been either put off blended care, only wanted to do full days, or definitely no longer wanted to provide any form of blended care as it felt too risky.

The impact of the pandemic on parents’ perceptions of childminding

The pandemic made parents even more appreciative of childminders, particularly as many nurseries and out of school settings (for school age childcare) closed when Level 4 restrictions were in place (December 2020 to March 2021) when most childminders were able to continue to open.

“It made me feel a bit less guilty. Sometimes I would get that mum guilt when I had to go to work and leave him. But it made me realise how much he needs it. Mixing with other kids etc.”

Parent of 2 year old, only using childminder, Fife

One parent was especially grateful because she had been ill for months with long Covid. This meant her children missed out on time with her and had a lot of screen time. Once her daughter could go back to the childminder, she really appreciated the emotional support for her as a single mum, as well as the benefits to her child. Feelings of gratitude and satisfaction were also held by parents that had only started to use a childminding services since the first lockdown in March 2020:

“[I] just had a gut feeling it would work – because he had spent so much time in the house. Spent a lot of time at home during lockdown so I thought a home environment would be better… If had gone to a new nursery in August 2020, we would just have had to hand over and no settling in time [because of restrictions]”

Parent of 9 and 2 year olds, Falkirk

Safety concerns meant some parents used their childminder more and did not use nursery because they felt it was too risky in terms of increasing the chance of catching coronavirus.

“Since all schools are back, she helps full time. Even though restrictions are lifting we still feel he shouldn’t be in that setting [the nursery]."

Parent of 8 year old and 4 year old with additional support needs, Midlothian

Overall, parents spoke positively about their childminders in relation to how things worked during the pandemic. Whether they had started using a service before or after March 2020, parents said they planned to continue to do so.