Working with children and young people in Scotland's social services

Childminders work from their own home to provide a flexible, high quality childcare service in a family setting. They give children the opportunity to learn and develop skills through real-life experiences like going to the shops, family meal-times and visits to the park.

It's a rewarding career that provides an opportunity to contribute to children’s development, learning and wellbeing while providing a valuable, professional childcare service for your community. It may suit you if you’d like to work from home, or spend time with your own young children while building a career.

Childminders register their service with the Care Inspectorate. They do not also require to register with the SSSC however they have equal access to our learning resources and events to support their development. While many childminders hold qualifications, there is no minimum requirement for this role.

Support workers provide high quality care and learning experiences to children in day care settings like nurseries and school age childcare. They get to know each child, playing, caring for them, and making sure they are learning and developing. Some support workers work with individual children who require help to participate.

Support workers don’t work alone with children. They are guided by practitioners and lead practitioners. It’s therefore a good career choice if you’re just starting out because you’ll get plenty of help to develop your confidence, knowledge and skills.

In this role you’ll register with the SSSC as a support worker in a day care of children service. Your minimum qualification requirement will be SCQF level 6 and you can learn of the different career routes in our childcare qualification pathways which include college and apprenticeships. If you start work first, without a qualification, you will still register with the SSSC and you’ll get time to work towards it.

Practitioners use their enhanced knowledge and experience to identify and meet the care, support and learning needs of children. In partnership with the service manager and other professionals they provide high quality support to children and families and contribute to the range of interactions, experiences and spaces for children to help them learn and grow through play.

Practitioners may be responsible for overseeing a particular room or group of children. In some settings, practitioners will supervise and mentor support workers and students.

In this role you’ll register with the SSSC as a practitioner in a day care of children service. Your minimum qualification requirement will be SCQF level 7 and you can learn of the different career routes in our childcare qualification pathways which include college and apprenticeships. If you start work first, without a qualification, you can still register with the SSSC and you’ll get time to work towards it.

Career Stories

Outdoor development and gardening makes a great difference to children regarding their confidence. It helps them open up and trust me which is so rewarding.

Sarahjane Whyte Early Years Practitioner

Alex McBain

Deputy lead practitioner

Lead practitioners and managers hold overall responsibility for the development, management and quality of the childcare service. They lead practice in the service, with an overview of the interactions, experiences and spaces which support play and opportunities for the children. They also support staff members in their professional development which can include delivering or arranging training.

As well as being experienced childcare professionals, managers have a number of responsibilities relating to the operation of the childcare service. For example, they might be responsible for budgets, sourcing funding, self-evaluation and quality improvement. They may also take the lead on partnership work with parents, carers, families, communities other professionals and agencies.

In this role you’ll register with the SSSC as a manager or lead practitioner in a day care of children service. Your minimum qualification requirement will be a childhood practice award at SCQF level 9 and a practice award at SCQF 7. You can learn of the different career routes in our childcare qualification pathways which include the BA degree or Professional Development Award. Usually, managers will already hold a qualification at practitioner level (SCQF level 7), and the credits from this can count towards their childhood practice award which they can gain in work.

Career Stories

My role is empowering and encourages me to think outside the box to improve the lives of children.

Gemma Paterson Head of Centre

Dyan's career in early learning and childcare

The role of equity and excellence lead is primarily focused on leading support for the most disadvantaged children to close the attainment gap.

This involves working directly with children and does not focus on managerial responsibilities e.g. administration and payroll.

Another key role is to lead and support pedagogy in a setting, upskilling fellow practitioners.

Leads are not tied to the settings' adult-child ratios like other staff and therefore have greater flexibility and reflection time for this purpose. Local authorities have been given freedom to utilise leads depending on their local needs and the leads experience, therefore the roles focus may differ across settings.

Career Stories

I started working with children when I was 20 years old as a live in nanny, and I have worked with young children ever since.

Silvia Beadle Equity and excellence lead

Due to having a wide and varied career, this has helped me draw from a variety of life and career experiences to be better able to engage and help the families I work with.

Tessa Winters Equity and excellence lead

Becoming a personal assistant (PA) means taking on a unique role where you assist someone to live the life that they choose.

PAs are employed by a wide variety of people including older people, disabled people, people with mental health problems, people with learning disabilities and parents or carers of children. All will have been assessed as needing assistance to enable them to achieve life outcomes.

There are no formal training requirements for entry and employed PAs have the same rights, responsibilities and benefits of any other employee. The relationship between employer and employee is valued highly and often a PA brings their own experience to the role which can be valued by the employer. It is such a varied role, distinct to every employer, key skills tend to be around communication and flexibility

Find out more about becoming a personal assistant from the PA Handbook

Career Stories

Every day is different and what we do depends on how he feels, what he wants to do, what happened at school or at home. It’s very personalised, flexible, responsive and creative.

Donna Murray Personal assistant

SVQ assessors help and assess people who are working towards Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs). They have to meet the occupational competence requirements of the qualification that they are assessing and they will work for a Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) assessment centre.

Lecturers in social care produce learning, teaching and assessment materials, and deliver teaching within the specialist subject area of health and social care.

They also develop new approaches to teaching, making use of learning technologies.