Question regarding the availability of before and after school childcare

[sitdownpleasegeorge]

I was having a tidy up recently and found an old leaflet produced by the government in 2006 which clearly states that..........

"Schools will open from 8am to 6pm".

Immediately following this statement it goes on to state that.....

"by 2010 you will have access to an out-of-school childcare place for children aged 3-14. This will be available between 8am and 6pm every weekday, all year round. Each school will offer slightly different options, based on local parents' needs, but you can expect your child's school to offer: childcare, activities, support for parents, access to information and specialised services for children."

This seems at odds with several recent postings on here about the availability of "wrap around care".

Are schools paying lip service to these guidelines? How big is the problem of lack of wrap around care for you ?

I personally don't have acess to a breakfast club for my primary school aged child but I don't need it at the moment as I can do drop offs myself. I do however use the afterschool club facility.

[MamaG]

They don't have a breakfast club at our school and the only afterschool club is run by the local soft play centre which sends a minibus for the children who need it.

We don't even have a nursery attached to our school!

[TigerFeet]

DD's school offers an Early Bird Club but the children need to have had breakfast before they go. I arranged my working day so that I could drop dd off every day as I didn't fancy trying to get dd to eat at 6.30am so I could get her to school.

There is an after school club locally but it is run independently from the school. I didn't consider it for dd as I had found a childminder we both liked but from what others have said it seems to be geared up for older primary school children. If there was one at the school itself I would have considered it.

Fortunately dd goes to a childminder who only does school wraparound care and doesn't charge for holidays. I'm on ML atm so not really an issue for the next few months.

No nursery either.

[mrz]

The message changed
Schools only needed to provide such a service if there was enough demand and it wasn't being provided for within the community. So in MammaG's case the service is available from the local soft play so the government would not expect the school to provide it.
Childminders, Children's Centres Day nurseries other schools are all recognised as the "wrap around care" provision available.

[mankyscotslass]

We have a breakfast club from 08.00, and an after school club til 17.30.

There is no holiday club at the school, although for the first time ever they ran a weeks worth of sports and crafts sessions the first week of the hoolidcay, as an experiment. We will get feedback this term on how successful it was.

[mankyscotslass]

Holiday.

[OtterInaSkoda]

We have a breakfast club, after-school club and holiday club run by a private company. It's not cheap but it's good value and the dc love it.

[katiestar]

We have absoutely zero out of school care.Before or After.Not even any CMs locally who will pick up from the school.Many parents have to reduce their hours when their DC start school

[primarymum]

As a school we have explored the possibility of offering before and after school childcare. Admittedly we are not a large school but only THREE families expressed interest!. The government has also told us that the clubs have to be self financing, including hire costs for the school! We would neeed to charge at least £15 per hour, which in our area is simply not on!

[clam]

My DC's school set up a wrap-around care system. It ran for just under a year, I think, before closing due to lack of takeup.
Depends where you are therefore.

[sitdownpleasegeorge]

primarymum

only three !

How small is your school ?

mrz

I was vaguely aware from responses from headteachers when we looked round our various local primary schools that as long as the school had liaised to ensure there was some sort of provision available they didn't have to provide the care themselves.

A friend however was told by the headteacher when they looked round their local village school that their village had more than enough childminders to cover the need for wrap around care for the school's pupils. She wasn't quick enough to secure a childminder place however and has had to go part time until a place comes up, severely impacting on the family's finances. She is considering moving her child to another school nearer her work that does have sufficient afterschool care.

[mrz]

primarymum like many things the government has planned the "extended schools" provision round a "London model" not taking into account that those of us who live in rural areas may find it more difficult to travel a "few" miles for such services.
I was a member of the Extended Schools team for my area (think it was 2006) involving primary and secondary schools from 6 villages, private daycare providers, childminders, health visitors, social services, sure start, school nurses etc. The feedback we were given was that as long as there was provision in a village then that was all that was necessary.
[shakes head]

[primarymum]

sitdownpleasegeorge
We have less than 50 families attending school, living in a rural area, means there are fewer opportunities for employment so many of our mums ( sorry, not being sexist, just realistic!) stay at home through necessity. Those that do work tend to have family nearby and not one family I know uses a childminder! We would like to offer some provision,to provide our parents with at least the option, but we cannot financially make it work. Mrz is quite correct, the realities are that the provision is a "one scheme, fits all" that doesn't!

[1dilemma]

Interesting big problem in rural areas I can see.

I'm in London we have an after school which is fine, absolutely no before school which is a massive problem and the holiday club stopped at least 2 weeks before schools go back.

Wondering what happens if there are not enough spaces like sit downs friend, neither the school or the council will provide any indication as to which childminders drop off/pick up at the school and we have the additional complication of attending a school where we used to live (can't get places where we do live) which makes timings a nightmare

[IOnlyReadtheDailyMailinCafes]

we have before and after school care from 8-6pm. Dp still needs to be at home to take dd to school though because as a teacher I can't stroll into school at half eight and as we live in the middle of nowhere if dp were to work outside of the home he would also need to leave before 8am.

[IOnlyReadtheDailyMailinCafes]

We have a holiday club as well, very well attended.

[MissSunny]

Message withdrawn

[Portofino]

I'm abroad but we have that provision as standard. School is open from 7.30 - 6pm. Cost 2 euros per day. All holidays (barring a few days) are covered by a playscheme run by the LEA, cost 6 euros per day. Inset days are covered by a "club" at the school which is available to all children whose parents both work. All this is also tax-deductible.

My employer also provides "sick child" care, whereby a trained person would come and look after dcs. (Don't like the idea of this much though and have never used it.)

I left the UK before I had to deal with all this, and reading posts here I'm quite glad! They need to get their bloody act together. How the hell do they expect to get more people into work without making suitable childcare provision?

[tiredemma]

we have a 'wraparound club'

8am till beginning of school & End of school until 6pm.

£7 a day for ds1 and £3.50 for ds2

[1dilemma]

wow Porto where are you if you don't mind me asking?

big city, rural area, poor, wealthy etc etc

[hatesponge]

We are in the London suburbs. There is nothing linked to our primary at all. We were lucky to get a place with a local CM when DS1 started school, even luckier to then find a 2nd and now a 3rd one when CM1 decided DSs were too much for her and CM2 emigrated, especially as there are only 6-7 CMs locally who pick up and collect from the school. But for the CMs we would have been screwed.

The issue of wraparound care has been raised with the Head - her response was that there wasn't any demand for it, as at 'her' school most parents rightly (her words not mine) only work part time so don't need out of school care. So I don't expect anything to happen anytime soon, until the Head mad old bag retires

[sitdownpleasegeorge]

hatesponge, can you not contact the governors and ask for a questionaire to be sent to all parents or offer to carry out a survey yourself. It does seem a blatant ddisregard for the guidelines for the head to personally decide if she feels there is the need or in her case whether there should be a need.

We don't have a breakfast club atm but we are surveyed at least annually to see if there is sufficient demand for one. I have replied to 3 surveys about it now so I know they are monitoring the situation rather than relying on the head teachers' personal point of view.

We are actually fairly lucky atm re holiday clubs and used three different ones for a bit of variety during the summer hols plus taking 2 weeks off work ourselves.

[prettybird]

In Glasgow all schools have a free breakfast club. Not sure if they all start at the same time, but at our primary school it starts at 8.15.

After School clubs are run separately - but most receive a subsidy from the council. Our local one serves 3 primary schools (located in one and they pick up from the other 2 schools and walk them to the Out of School service). It runs up to 5.45 and the school holidays from 8am to 5.45.

It costs £45 for 3-5 days/week use, rising to £55/week in the schol holidays (which includes outings but not packed lunch). Individual sessions are £15 during term time and (I think) £30/day in the holidays.

[ruddynorah]

ours is pretty good. wraps 7.30 to 6pm for £45 a week full time, or £3.75 each morning, £6 each evening. basically £2 an hour.

in holidays it's again 7.30 to 6pm at £75 full week, or £16 a day, £9 half a day (5 hours).

i think that's pretty good value.

[1dilemma]

you're full week costs are pretty good norah.

funnily enough I tend to find most peoples breakfast clubs expensive (but totally sympathise wiht staffing issues )

There are 2 very highly thought of schools near me and rumour is that they don't do any before or after school care precisely to avoid those pesky working Mothers! (presumably those earning enough to pay for a nanny are OK)