No Wraparound Care from September

[Mum2Girls19]

School has advised that they are not offering wrap around care from September as bubbles cannot be mixed.
They are thinking that part time places are also the way forward as they cannot social distance properly in a smaller place.
Further information hasnt been announced yet
Im a bit lost of how Im going to work without wrap around care, yes im working from home but who knows how long that will be for

Anyone else??

If there’s a further lockdown we might not have much choice.

Let’s at least be honest about it’s effectiveness and the consequences for the children affected.

quite, there should be support and incentives for employers who are being socially responsible.

But many are just fighting to survive right now. Incentives for this would be pissing in the wind. They need to have people on board who can help the business survive and grow.

Oh ffs.

Just seen this. It's bloody ridiculous. We need policy, funding and support for schools not a bloody PR session

schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-spends-s-spinning-covid-response/
DfE spends £££s spinning Covid response

The Department for Education diverted an external PR agency promoting teaching vacancies to highlight its efforts to boost remote learning. It reallocated about 10 per cent of a £117,500 contract.

The government also splashed out on a sponsored post on Mail Online presenting the positive experiences of schools that reopened in June.

And

Last month, Four Communications, a PR firm that describes itself as “one of the leading integrated marketing agencies in the UK and the Middle East”, contacted journalists on behalf of the DfE, offering “content and advice and interviews from teachers and schools who are successfully working remotely”.

The press release also set out how the DfE had “committed over £100 million to boost remote education and this includes up to £2,000 per school to help them set up effective digital education platforms”.

And

Ben Verinder, who runs a PR agency that specialises in education, said: “It appears that the DfE has chosen to spend money on advertising as part of a campaign to reassure parents who are worried about sending their children back to school in September.

“However, it’s the experience of school and how safe they judge it to be that will determine the attitudes and behaviours of parents in the autumn. That in turn will be shaped by the support that schools receive from the government and others, rather than by adverts or any other kind of promotion.”

We’ve had details of two holiday clubs and they both run wrap around clubs locally so fingers crossed they’ll be open. Childminders are open too. Can you look at Childminders?

I've had to find a childminder and pay a ridiculous retainer fee, plus agree to pay over school holidays to keep their place (I only work term time). We have very limited childcare provision locally and with schools removing their wrap around care it's even more scarce so what is available is priced much higher than you'd expect. (But she's a business and I respect that.) I started calling around weeks ago, others have not been so lucky.

I'm fortunate that my DD's are older but reading this a few ideas - why not group together with other kids in your "bubble" for drop offs / pick ups /after school care. Most kids have two parents (even if they don't live together) can one drop and other pick up shifting each of your work hours (we did this to avoid using childcare for my DD's as their school didn't have wrap around then). What about a childminder - for 8+ it's not as regulated so perhaps a parent who is out of work could get licenced? What about an older neighbour who would like the company? Finally talk to school and your employer. What could you do? Drop hours temporarily maybe.

These won't work for everyone but there's alternatives to school based wraparound care, we had no choice 15 years ago.

@LaurieMarlow

Is the answer not to try? What happens when schools are forced to close again because local hospitals are swamped by a surge in cases?

There needs to be a contingency. And that is a better, more effective blended learning system AND investment in childcare provision to support parents AND more incentives to allow flexible working.

Employers are often fearful of flexible working because they don’t understand the benefits. If done well it should boost productivity.

Is the answer not to try? What happens when schools are forced to close again because local hospitals are swamped by a surge in cases?

We need to be honest with ourselves about what a lack of school, childcare means for our children, businesses and women’s ability to access the workforce.

Not just wax a bit lyrical about what employers ‘should’ be doing in an ideal world, that no one will ever enforce. Or kid ourselves that blended learning is an answer for young children with working parents.

We will have some very difficult decisions to make in the near future I’m sure. I’d rather we made them with our eyes open, knowing the consequences. Rather than look back, at who was shafted by all this with a ‘aw what a shame’ attitude. When it was blindingly obvious.

[quote BelleSausage]@StaffAssociationRepresentative

I agree. We’ve spent all this time getting students used to online learning. We should be using the time in Sept to move some of their learning over to online so that they are ready when more disruption comes.

It would be completely criminal to send students away AGAIN without support or skills to be self starting with their learning at home.

I don’t relish the idea of more weeks in and out of school with whole chunks of learning missing.[/quote]
I completely agree with this.

Online learning doesn't really work for the under 8s and doesn't solve the childcare issue for parents who can't work from home.

What we're really saying as a society is that it's not acceptable going forward for children not to have a SAHP who can drop everything to do whatever weird drop-off/pick up times schools mandate and supervise home education if schools close. Given that this is going to cause huge financial issues for families, especially single parent families, we need more government support for parents or accept there will be a dramatic increase in child poverty.

I haven't heard anything from my sons wrap around provider yet (it's an outside company that comes into the school). I'm hoping I hear soon that it will be running from September otherwise I won't be able to complete my final year of university :/ it really leaves anyone who has any regular commitments in a pickle.

Given that this is going to cause huge financial issues for families, especially single parent families, we need more government support for parents or accept there will be a dramatic increase in child poverty.

This with bells on

I agree it boils down to what the government do, rather than schools.

Our school is offering the wraparound, its doubled in price because they're going to stick with class bubbles and have to staff it accordingly. You also have to book it by today for the autumn term, it has to be a whole week per child you cant do odd days and that's made it unaffordable for me. I'm hoping my employer will be flexible about me doing drop offs and pick ups given that I work from home the majority of the time

What the government really shouldn't do is make it compulsory for children to attend school from September if what they're offering is going to be so dismal for the children and inconvenient for parents. One of my single parent friends who has used all her holiday/unpaid leave is talking about sending her DC to stay with grandparents for the next few months so she can keep her job. They're fairly young and happy to have them, but live too far away for the kids to attend school.

But they could attend the school near to their grandparents, especially as you are talking months.

You can't just move kids schools around like that. Most schools are rammed, if she gives up a place where she lives, she would likely not get it back and there may be no places near the grandparents

@Pleasance

But they could attend the school near to their grandparents, especially as you are talking months.

Do you have children?

I've been helping out the mum of DS's best friend by picking up both boys whilst shes at work (dropping her son back to his Dad who is WFH). school have had no issue with it - my friend did check with the head. Why are some school's saying it has to be parents collecting?! whats the issue?

It seems different schools have different policies and this has been the problem all through lockdown. A lack of govt clarity has meant some children getting a good education with excellent pastoral support during lock down and others having had nothing since March. I could understand at the beginning when it was all a rush and all over the place but nearly 4 months later and looking further ahead it’s not acceptable.

I know there will always be a lack of fairness even in the state sector but for some children having schools communicating regularly, wrap around care etc and for others to have no communication and their parent having to give up work and potential become homeless is out of order.

And for the poster who said 15 years ago they had no choice but to find something that works - you didn’t have to deal with a global pandemic at the time!

Given that this is going to cause huge financial issues for families, especially single parent families, we need more government support for parents or accept there will be a dramatic increase in child poverty.

But to be fair, that is going to happen anyway because of all the redundancies. I don't think government will want to spend money on making wraparound childcare more available/affordable when the net result will be the same number of people unemployed and claiming benefits. They will just be different people.

Let's say the government does nothing and loads of working parents have to quit work. Those people might have to claim benefits. However, their jobs will be taken by other out of work people who would have been claiming benefits (possibly also with children but with available childcare such as grandparents)

Then say the government spends loads of money making wraparound childcare available etc. Still the same number of vacancies broadly speaking, still loads of unemployed people claiming benefits. But in this scenario, loads more taxpayers money has been spent, just to make it "different people" out of work.

Don't misunderstand me - my DC are older now but I am a SP and I think it's shit, but I can't see why the Tories would care.

Eh? But why should someone who has worked bloody hard all their lives to make ends meet be ok with being jobless and their child potentially homeless because hey, at least there’s plenty of child free people to take over ffs

I agree help but economically it doesn't make sense to throw money at it.

And it won't necessarily be child free people -just those who don't have these kinds of childcare issues

Wraparound care at schools is not a statutory requirement anyway-some schools have never offered it. Some schools would love to Re-open theirs but have no staff to do so. It would be impossible for the government to say schools HAVE to offer wraparound care from Xam to Xpm every day from September 1st, because schools are different, with different buildings, staffing availability, parental need etc