Wraparound care at school cancelled

Wraparound care, free breakfast club, free hours of childcare, free dentistry-there is a pattern here! The government (of whichever colour) tells people they’re entitled to some stuff and some of it is free for them or their children but doesn’t fund it properly and expects the school/childminder/nursery/dentist to pay the extra. When they don’t/can’t and the service isn’t provided, people are cross at the school/childminder!

So many nurseries closed near us when the ‘free’ hours were introduced that the ones remaining are so oversubscribed, they don’t offer the free hours at all-they don’t need to. Parents need the service (and need the place not to fold) so will pay full whack. If people need to see a dentist and can’t find an nhs one taking on new people, they will pay private prices.

Op I’m sorry this is happening to you. Is there anyone else you can escalate to - local education council team? Your MP? The diocese education board? Send an email with all of them on cc(Apols if you have already done this) it’s not just up to you to find a solution. And this will impact future enrolments.

childcare options are essential for our society and economy. We’ve already got a productivity issue. You sound like a lovely family with both parents working and juggling and contributing to family life and the economy. Wishing you all the best.

Can you club together with another family to pay one of the staff to look after the kids?

That's great if it works. Here the only sixty formers offering this type of service are the ones in a childcare course doing it as work experience. And then it will only be for a term and not every day, usually 1-2 days a week. The college day finishes at 3.50, some kids might have a study period last lesson but kids use that to study and again it's not every day.

Wraparound care is often very difficult to staff especially in more affluent areas. At our school teaching staff are often forced to 'volunteer' to plug gaps. In fact i was critcised at my performance review for flat out refusing to work for free!
I don't think schools should be subsidising clubs for a small number of parents.

@Citytocountry1 and in the real world places are closing.

Im sorry things are shit @Citytocountry1

Ok but something as important as childcare shouldn’t be paying a pittance. It doesn’t foster quality and people simply won’t be able to afford to do it.

That isn’t labour ideology.

That must be your experience - it’s not mine. My SIL uses a A level student from her local FE college for her childcare. My DC1 is in Y13 and some of her peers have schedules that would enable this too - not 5 days a week, but I think OP will have to cobble together several different options.

They have raised minimum wage, it is too costly to employ people. People can work less and get Universal Credit and diesel and petrol prices are too high but no public transport so everything costs more. You can argue that these things don’t matter but they do. The support they give childcare providers is insufficient to keep them going.

Why labour policies?

This is a really silly thing to say, things change year on year. You could move somewhere with your 3 year old that has loads of options and everything's different by the end of year 1.
When my eldest started primary it was a busy, popular 2 form entry school with before and after school clubs and several childminders - by the time my youngest started (after covid and a falling birth rate) there were 18 kids in her year, a couple of childminders had stopped and the after school club cancelled due to lack of demand.

Yeah, people often overestimate the value of planning ahead for these things. By all means have a look around, and sure you'll likely have more options in the middle of a dense city than in a hamlet. But things close.

sounds a nightmare. Can you not ask the parent who runs it if she will be your nanny / yes you will need to pay her / be an employer etc but a possible option

have you put a post up on childcare co uk site - or do a search in your area /5 miles for a cm or after school nanny but yes you will pay a premium

what happens in school holidays ? Who has your kids

Things have changed. When I moved to my village, there was an after school club and several childminders. The government were promising wraparound care in every school.

Now, the local authority have closed all their wraparound care run by schools, and charge so much for school hall rental to make private clubs few and far between. There are also no childminders left - most stopped during covid.

I can see how this isn’t financially viable. That’s a huge number of staff for a tiny number of children and all the insurance and logistics on top. The after school club at my school (contracted out) has around 50 kids each day with maybe 6 staff. And they still operate on a shoestring.

I think the obvious solution here is to ask the after school staff. If you were paying £8x3 a day you could offer to bump it up a bit and have one of them bring the kids home and hang out for a couple of hours.

Did you ask the wraparound staff if they're available for babysitting? The one with her own 2 kids, could she look after yours as well and it can be like a big playdate?

Op has 3 kids so it's probably too hard to do that - most people don't have a big enough car to pick up an extra 3 kids in addition to their own. Plus unless they have 3 kids too, it might feel unbalanced.

In rural areas often services are quite fragile and everything is more expensive because of travel time & fuel. It is something for people to think about. When the OP moved, there was a service. Labour policies have made this service unfeasible now.

Don’t want to sound harsh but why didn’t you make sure there were childcare options before having moving there?Relying on one option and nothing else is a bit foolish. Schools are there to educate, their responsibility doesn’t lie with childcare.

Most students dont finish untill 3.50 often later. They are there for full time education themselves. It always makes he laugh when people suggest this

The staff loosing their extra work. Could they not be babysitters for those of you losing out. Just plain old boring regular baby sitters.

Obviously that wouldn’t help every family if there are only 4 staff but it could help at least four families.

Also on the days other parents are or are not working again. Baby sitting. Swapping. So if you don’t work Tuesday you can watch little susie but in exchange they watch yours on Thursday.

Sorry to hear that you haven't found a solution. It would be worth the parents affected writing to the head of governors asking for the governing board to review the school's consideration of all options. Their email address will be on the school website.

how far is your local FE college? I think I would try getting an ad placed there for a student who can drive & do after school care.

Hi OP sounds like we live in very similar areas. Our after school dropped 1 day a week and stopped breakfast club 2 days a week.

have you advertised for an after school nanny type person? I know two women who do this - one for another family at school, and one older woman who does it alongside cleaning jobs & being a piano teacher.

Or can you get together with other parents impacted and make some sort of a rotation?