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The voice of Scotland’s vibrant voluntary sector

Published by Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

TFN is published by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh, EH3 6BB. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Registration number SC003558.

Charity helping key staff to remain working

This news post is almost 4 years old
 

Flexible Childcare Services Scotland has developed software that will help key workers to access childcare

A Scottish charity is using technology to ensure key workers are available to continue working.

Flexible Childcare Services Scotland has developed a software solution that identifies childcare demand and matches that need to childcare provider availability allowing key worker parents to get back to work.

The charity is working in partnership with the Scottish Government and local authorities to ensure vulnerable children and children of key workers will be able to access crucial childcare solutions that will allow their parents to participate in the national response to Covid-19.

Alison Cumming, interim director of early learning and childcare at the Scottish Government, said: “In order to support local authorities to manage the changing need and provision of critical childcare, the Scottish Government is working with FCSS to rapidly develop a digital tool that will support this work.”

The tool will support local authorities in assessing demand for childcare and available childcare provision, as well as matching eligible parents with childcare providers and childcare providers with suitable staff. This tool is an adapted version of FCSS’s Flexible Pathway toolkit and will provide a rapid route to flexible childcare provisioning.

Susan McGhee, FCSS chief executive, said: “In Aberdeen city alone there is demand for 1,800 childcare spaces from key worker parents. Filling this gap would mean that hundreds of key workers would be able to return to work and support our nation throughout this pandemic.

“The demand for critical childcare and availability of staff is, and will continue to be, a changing picture as people across Scotland change working patterns and commitments in response to Covid-19 and undertake social isolation measures where necessary. Our software has already been developed to meet the needs of shift workers and will be ideal in supporting this ever-changing environment.”

According to FCSS, and its development team Ember, the new system, which is available at no cost, has been created so that it will complement the existing solutions developed by local authorities to combat the Covid-19 childcare challenge.

From last Friday (17 April), childcare providers were notified that they can register their setting and advertise their availability; parents can register their childcare requirements from Friday (24 April). This will provide the information and data required to match key worker parents to suitable childcare services close to their home or their place of work.