Who is asking for my information?
This survey is being carried out by Diffley Partnership, an independent research company, on behalf of Scottish Government and COSLA. It is intended to be completed by all private, third sector and childminding childcare providers who deliver funded early learning and childcare (ELC). Where possible the survey should be completed by the owner of the setting.
Individual responses will be completely confidential and will not be seen by anybody outside of Diffley Partnership. Your financial information will not be shared with the local authority where you are based, only aggregate results – e.g. anonymised and non-disclosive averages at local authority level – will be provided. All your data will be securely stored by Diffley Partnership in accordance with the Data Protection Act and destroyed 6 months after the project is completed.
This survey will ensure that your local authority has a reliable and up to date understanding of the current costs to local private and third sector providers of delivering ELC and a clear idea of the possible future factors that may impact on costs.
Why should I take part?
This survey is your chance to ensure that your local authority takes local sustainable rate setting decisions based on as accurate and up to date information as possible. The information from the survey will inform the future sustainable rates set by your local authority, support the development of new guidance, and will help to inform the Scottish Government’s future financial planning. We hope as many providers as possible will take part, to ensure that our long-term investment to support the setting of sustainable rates is informed by a robust and reliable evidence base.
What information are you asking me for?
The questionnaire includes questions about your current costs (the money you spend on things like staff, rent, bills etc.), your income, your capacity and occupancy, and the fees you charge parents.
This survey also collects information on your views regarding any anticipated future cost pressures for your setting. The actual costs collected will be used as the baseline and indications of anticipated cost changes will allow us to consider and model a number of scenarios.
It is important that the answers are as accurate and up to date as you are able to provide – the more accurate the data is, the more useful it will be in informing the approach by your local authority to setting sustainable rates for the delivery of funded ELC.
You may find it helpful to have relevant information to hand when you complete the survey. This may be your accounts, or other records if these are more up to date.
How to complete the survey
If you need another person to complete parts of the survey or you need to come back into the questionnaire at a later time, this is fine – just exit and the survey will resume at the place you left it when you’re ready (you may need to leave it 10 minutes before going back in). You can also move forwards and backwards through the survey using the ‘Next’ and ‘+Back’ buttons.