We are heading into the final two weeks available to respond to the Scottish Government's Out of School Care (OSC) Draft Framework Consultation - all responses must be submitted by Friday 6th December. We would strongly encourage all out of school care services as well as parents/ carers to respond to some, if not all, of the 18 questions.

It is responses to the consultation questions which will inform the future framework and ultimately out of school care as a whole: the more times an idea or theme is identified, the greater the importance that will be placed upon it as something to be addressed. Once a consultation closes, the opportunity to shape change greatly reduces.

The last national framework for out of school care developed by Scottish Government was 'School's Out', published in 2003- we need to embrace the government's focus on OSC for the first time in 15 years.

Since School's Out's publication there have been many changes and developments in the political, financial, professional and registration landscapes; most of these were made not specifically with out of school care in mind but included as part of the wider development of 'daycare of children'. Whilst many of these changes have been beneficial, others may have been less so, especially in terms of the realistic and practical delivery of services.

Having recently completed a series of six consultation events around the country in partnership with the government's OSC team, we have seen that for some topics there is a general consensus but for others there is a wide spectrum of thoughts. Not everyone's lived experience is the same.

It will not be possible to develop a Framework which everyone agrees with in its entirety but there should be sufficient content for it to be meaningful to individual workers, services, parents/carers and of course, children. One thing is for sure, without a Framework the sector cannot move forward- we must use this opportunity to seek solutions to ensure a strong and vibrant OSC sector, and ultimately guarantee the future wellbeing of all of Scotland's children through quality play, care and learning opportunities.

SOSCN shall be publishing our response to the consultation next week - we shall publicise this through all the usual communication channels when ready.

Out of School Care in Scotland - a draft framework for consultation

School's Out: Framework for the Development of Out-of-school-care