From Hours to Outcomes - Unlocking the True Value of Childcare

“Childcare is often seen as a cost. In reality, it is infrastructure, as fundamental to Scotland’s economy as transport or housing.”

At Clyde Gateway, we are working with the community and partners in Calton, an area facing significant social and economic challenges, to test new approaches to tackling child poverty. Families here face multiple barriers, from language and childcare to health and caring responsibilities that restrict their ability to move into work. Our Demonstration of Change, part of Glasgow City Council’s Child Poverty Programme, is showing that childcare, when treated as economic infrastructure, can unlock opportunity and act as a genuine poverty exit strategy.

Scotland invests close to £1 billion a year in childcare. It is one of our most significant social entitlements, designed to give children the best start in life and to reduce stigma through universality. It is also one of the most important commitments we have made to families. Entitlement is essential, but on its own it cannot reduce poverty.

Right now, we can report how many funded childcare hours are delivered and how many children are enrolled. What we cannot say with confidence is how many parents, once given that space, are able to move into work, training or higher income. The economic outcomes, the things that truly lift families out of poverty, are not yet being systematically measured.

This is not about questioning entitlement, it’s about unlocking its full potential. 

Childcare is often seen as a cost. In reality, it is infrastructure, as fundamental to Scotland’s economy as transport or housing. Without it, parents can’t take shifts, sustain jobs, or retrain. With it, they absolutely can.

When childcare is aligned with employment pathways, financial inclusion and training opportunities, it becomes a poverty exit strategy. And when it is measured properly, tracking who uses it, what they do with the time, and what happens to their income, we can prove that it is one of the most powerful anti-poverty levers Scotland has.

One example is the afterschool childcare project at Baltic Street Adventure Playground in Dalmarnock. It started small at just two hours, twice a week. It began with 11 children, rising quickly to 21, with a waiting list. A simple but vital ‘walking bus’ collected children from school, making the service accessible for parents in work or training.

The impact was immediate. Parents reported taking on extra shifts, completing college placements, and managing caring responsibilities with greater stability. Parents of children with additional needs described the pilot as vital to staying in work. 

Just five months into the Calton Demonstration of Change, we are seeing results beyond childcare alone. Six local parents have secured Civil Service jobs through Scotland’s first locally ring-fenced recruitment process, secure roles with accredited training and progression. This breakthrough was only possible because childcare and language barriers were addressed first.

At St Mungo’s Academy, young people are training as community interpreters, turning lived experience into SCQF-accredited qualifications. By Christmas, the first cohort will be qualified interpreters, building employability for themselves while supporting their families’ engagement with work and services.

Each of these outcomes illustrates a bigger point: poverty cannot be solved by single interventions. It requires aligning multiple enablers; childcare, skills, jobs, and community voice, so families can remain or move into secure work and sustain it.

Scotland has made bold commitments to reduce child poverty. But we will only achieve them if we connect childcare to employment and income outcomes. That means moving from counting funded hours to also tracking the difference those hours make for families.

From leading this work in Calton, the lesson is clear: childcare only realises its full value when it is measured against economic outcomes. That is when it becomes more than a service, it becomes a genuine poverty exit strategy.

If Scotland is serious about eradicating child poverty, childcare must sit at the centre of the solution. The investment is already there. Families are ready. The next step is to prove it changes lives.

Natalie Phillips is Sustainable Communities Development Manager at Clyde Gateway