When did wraparound care become commonplace?

[daysonmybicycle]

I was born in 1980 and don’t think there was anything like that in place when I was at school. I think my granny used to collect me from school until I was about eight and then I let myself home. Not sure what others did or in school holidays. I think childminders were a ‘thing’ but not very well regulated or checked.

I’m in my late 30s and while I don’t think my infant school had it, my junior school definitely did both before and after school.

i was born in 1973 and we had a pensioner from the top of the road babysit while Mum went to work before Dad came home.
Then we went to the home of one of DBs friends in the later stages of primary school

The Government taxed and monetised babysitting

I believe that formal wraparound care (e.g. breakfast clubs, after school clubs etc) came in after Tony Blair's Labour government were elected. Before then wraparound care provision was much more patchy and it wasn't regulated. I went to a childminder myself after school but although childminders existed they weren't regulated. It was a very big thing when childminders were expected to register with ofsted and to follow the (at the time) new Early Years Curriculum.

It’s why mine ended up at a fee paying school. None of the local primaries had any form of wrap around care, so totally incompatible with 2 working parents, whereas at the fee paying school you could drop them from 7:45 am and free after school care/ clubs ( though they did introduce a nominal charge some years in) ran until 6pm. This was the late 1980s.

I was born in the early 70's, and my mum always worked - at infant school I was in the same school so I just 'made myself useful' before and after school there. At junior school I walked to and from school by myself but after school I went to an elderly neighbours house where I walked her dog and she provided the forbidden delights of watching 'The Young Doctors' and 'Take the High Road'.
Neither school had wrap around care (and I know the infant school set up until 2000 when mum stopped working there, and it still didn't), but there was a summer play scheme

My children are aged between 26 and 20 I was one of those bang out a kid every two years mummies and wraparound care at primary school was in place by the time the youngest started reception, so at least 15 years ago.

Probably as we became more clued up around safeguarding, and realised it probably wasn’t a great idea for kids to be getting themselves home and letting themselves in until someone else got home.

”latchkey kids” if you remember.

my mum was a sahm but I would walk to the bus stop, and get the bus to school, then home again right from reception. I think mum may have watched me cross the road from the door, and there was a big group of kids all waiting so we got on the bus together.

at some point the bus stopped coming into our estate and I’d walk on my own from the main road, again this would be primary age.

my folks laugh about it now but it would be neglect if I saw it at school!!

I went to a holiday playscheme in the 1980s. But yes, lots of it was more informal, neighbour or local teen doing it for a bit of extra cash.

I was born in 80's and as the oldest of 6, so had siblings in primary school up until end of 90's there was no breakfast or afterschool. I don't know any schools in the area that had one. I was picked up either by grandparent or my parents and dropped off by parents. The need has arisen due to 2 parents working out of the home.

I went to an ASC in the 90s. I used to go to a childminder in the holidays. London. My mother worked part time in the Civil Service until I was 9 then went back to full time. I used to be dropped off in the school office at 8am. I was the oldest of 6 or 7 kids so I was "in charge" of the little ones. (Had to take them to the toilet etc.
I was born in 1986.

I was born in 1984 and my mum was a registered childminder. Our house was always full of kids.
I remember begging to be allowed to go to the schools summer holiday club to get away from all the kids in my house 😅.
My mum got fed up with it in the early to mid 90's and got a job in an office. She sent my younger sister to a childminder and school breakfast club.

Well, up until the 1970s, women often had to give up work as soon as they got married, so there wouldn't have been a lot of demand for it. I imagine even when the marriage bar lifted, it took a long time for there to be enough women in work to make wrap around care worthwhile.

It's still not available in all small schools IME so it probably depends if you are.talking urban/rural and large/small.
I went to a small rural school and there was no breakfast club or after school care. It was older siblings in charge or going to a friend's to be picked up later if both parents worked after school hours.

I’m 50 and I went to an ‘aunty’ for a few years after school, loathed it, her husband was a creep.
Parents were teachers so holidays not an issue.
Most mums were at home. My friends mum did work for a council in another town and I cannot remember what she did after school, she must have gone somewhere.
school did not wraparound and rarely any clubs or activities.

I was at primary in the 90s, there were childminders but no in school provision.

Small, working class town

I think it's a myth that working mothers are a new phenomenon. Out of hours childcare care was just more casual. In the late 80's as a teenager I worked in an afterschool club set up by a school, collected two 8 year olds on my way home from school and stayed with them in their house until a parent got home and looked after various children all day during school holidays. Most of my friends did similar. I agree it was the Children's Act in 1989 that changed all this so it was really the 90's that all the formal clubs started up.

My eldest two went to primary school in the 90s. I'd drop them at the school gates at 8.30am to hang around until school started whilst I drove into work for 9am. After school they walked home with all the other children and let themselves in til I got home. School holidays would be a mix of signing them up for playschemes, going to Nanas and asking a neighbour to keep an eye out. By the time my youngest started school in 2005 wrap around care had been established at the same school so I used that.

I'm 35 and my mum was a childminder and would have some kids after school. This was in ireland in the 90s and it would have still been somewhat common to have a parent or nanny at home. A couple of friends went to grandparents.

Now people often need to move further afield for work ( at least in my field) so no family support. We both need to work or we couldn't afford our home / to live so they go to wrap around. Most families need 2 working families to survive so they need wraparound and so of course businesses plugged the gap.

I am 40 and don’t remember there being a breakfast/after school club at school. There were childminders, we went to them part time before we started school. Mum worked part time and we had a succession of teenagers recruited from the local college who would pick us up from school & take us home.

I was born in the late 60s. No child minders, before or after school clubs, most of the mums picked up and dropped their kids off, as far as I know they didn’t work much. There was a factory within 5 minutes walk of the school and I do know that a few mums worked school hours there and went into work after dropping kids and picked them up on their way home. My mum was always at home, she worked at home part time, and I walked to and fro school on my own from age 6. Though just one road and a lollipop lady to cross us over. I was playing early evenings / holidays with zero supervision a long way away from home with a group of friends from age 7/8.

People have children later so grandparents are sometimes too old to be able to care for grandchildren.
When people realised unregulated childcare was probably be avoided.
I was a latchkey kid occasionally from the age of 9.

I was born in 88 and went to a series of childminders and wrap-around care was totally the norm too.

I was in school 8-6 most days.

I was born in 1981, and went to primary school in three different areas of the country. None had wraparound care. My junior school was in a factory town and a lot of mums worked at the factory on an evening shift. My mum started working when my sister and I were 7 and 5 but we were in an unusual position where my dads job was flexible enough to do pick ups.

In the 70/80s my mum worked evenings or Saturdays so she was around in the week for school pick ups and drop offs and dad looked after us. I guess some women took up part time/ lower paid work to fit around family life. The arrival of Childline and other legislation to protect children ramped up in the 90s so clubs were more commonplace.