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 providers who deliver funded early learning and childcare (ELC).
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 childminding services of delivering early learning and childcare, 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 findings will inform discussions about the provision of funded hours in your local authority, and the essential role funded providers in the private, third and childminding sectors will play in that. The information will also support the development of new guidance, and will help to inform the Scottish Government and COSLA’s future financial planning.
We hope as many childminders and other providers as possible will take part.
What information are you asking me for?
The questionnaire includes questions about your current costs (the money you spend on things like rent and bills etc.), your income, your capacity and occupancy, and the fees you charge parents.
This survey also collects information on your view of your anticipated future costs. The actual costs collected will be used as the baseline and the 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 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.