Parents - childminders need your help! Pledge your support today.

Save Our Services: #SOSChildminding is a brand-new pledge website from SCMA, who is looking for parents across Scotland to make a pledge to help save childminding.

#SOSChildminding follows the success of the SCMA Mandate for Change which was massively supported within the childminding sector. The aim is to further boost the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) Childminding campaign by gathering the voices of parents, childminders and other key supporters.

Unbelievably, 98% of childminders are not commissioned to deliver funded ELC. This is a worrying trend, as we now appear to be losing a vital childcare workforce, alongside the quality services they provide to children and their families.

Your actions now can help save childminding services in Scotland and there are a few ways to get involved:

• Pledge your support; upload your pledge message and a photo to the SCMA Pledge Wall. Choose to use a pre-prepared pledge or get creative and support childminding in your own words!
• Ask everyone you know to get involved – the organisation especially want to hear the voices of parents. Support from families is particularly important to dispel the myth that "parents don't want to use childminders for their ELC". Please encourage parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, Health Visitors - anyone who is willing to support childminders to sign The Pledge and support childminding in Scotland.
• Share the message far and wide on social media using #SOSChildminding. The more Pledges which are gathered the better so share on Facebook and retweet on Twitter.