Access to flexible, affordable, and reliable childcare is a persistent challenge for families in Scotland’s rural and island communities, acting as a significant barrier to reducing child poverty in these areas. Evidence from Local Child Poverty Action Reports (LCPAR) has repeatedly evidenced the role played by childcare in shaping parents’ ability to access and sustain good employment.
In response, the Improvement Service (IS), through the Remote and Rural Child Poverty Network, supported and facilitated the Childcare Challenge. This is a collaborative, design-based process involving local authority child poverty and childcare leads, third sector partners. NHS boards and other national partners which set out to explore the challenges created by limited access to flexible, affordable, high-quality childcare in remote, rural and island communities and how these challenges impact local action on tackling child poverty.
The work began with a Kickstart Paper, which set out the scale of the challenge and helped frame discussions on the structural barriers impacting the provision and delivery of rural childcare.
The process uncovered several shared challenges across our rural and island communities. These include:
- Recruiting and retaining a sustainable childcare workforce
- Financial viability of provision in low-density and seasonal economies
- Inflexibility of current childcare models
- Regulatory and policy constraints
- Geography, distance, and transport
- Affordability
The final report, Understanding the Challenges of Childcare in Remote, Rural and Island Settings, brings together learning from this work and sets out common themes and considerations for local and national partners. Together, the papers outline both the scale of the challenge and potential ways forward.
The IS will continue to work with the Remote and Rural Child Poverty Network to refine and implement the proposed solutions locally. For more information, please contact James Taylor.