The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) today published the Movement of Day Care of Children Staff Report 2023.

This work was undertaken to improve our understanding of the movement of staff employed in day care of children services. In particular to better understand how staff move between services run by different types of employers. We also look at movement between registration categories and the locations of employments. The data from the register and the workforce collections do not include qualitative information (eg the views of registrants). The analysis is based solely on quantitative data, the numbers leaving employment and the characteristics of employments (the type of employer running the service, its location and the registrants’ category of registration).

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We set out below some of key findings identified within the report.

• The workforce has increased in recent years to meet the demands from expansion to support the implementation of funded early learning and childcare.

• Most DCC provision is delivered by nurseries which have seen a slight increase in overall numbers since 2016.

• All other types of DCC services decreased in number, with the biggest reductions seen in creches and playgroups.

• The DCC services that different types of employer (private, public, voluntary) deliver vary between the employer types.

• Over 7 out of 10 DCC services are nurseries. The public sector runs 62% and the voluntary sector 8%.

• The public sector is the biggest employer of the DCC workforce (at almost 60%) followed by private providers.

• The public sector has the lowest turnover of staff and the highest retention rates at almost 90%.

• Of those who do move from a public sector role to another DCC service over 90% move to another public sector service.

• Retention is lowest in the private sector with around 75% of staff remaining in the same service one year on.

• The voluntary sector retain just over 80% of staff in the same service.

• Of those moving from the private sector, the majority (over 80%) move to a post in the public sector.

• The age profile of the workforce varies between the three types of employers. The median ages of staff are, 28 in the private sector, 40 in the public and 36 in the voluntary