School wrap-around - what do we do ?

[Oneanddone88]

Hi,
DD (4) just started reception. I chose the school based on local reputation plus the availability of breakfast club and after school club to facilitate us still working. The school explained to us in a meeting that the after school club runs daily.
Fast forward to a week before term in September and the club (who are a private company hired by the school), says they aren't running due to a lack of staff.
Panic stations as we have no local family and not huge flexibility with our jobs. Partner WFH twice a week so collects then and I work 4 days. So we needed after school club for two afternoons.
The schools response was 'that's a shame but nothing we do'.
We've had to juggle it with another local parent who collects on the two days we needed and we take her DS to school every day. Workable in the very short term but not long term as she is having to leave work super early those days and meet important meetings.
I've emailed the school a few times asking for updates and it's all very 'no nothing sorry '.

I'm at the point where I'm wondering do we move schools to one where they have nursery wraparound.
Also one childminder serves the school we chose, and she's full with a waiting list.

What has also annoyed me is that when we went to info afternoon with the school where they told us the club runs daily , that it wasn't even true. The after-school club told us they ran for two days a week last academic year , and not even the days we needed.

Has anyone else experienced similar before? I feel very stressed. I changed my job of 12 years due to DD starting school and wonder now why I bothered as we're in a worse logistical situation thanks to this.

There's nothing from the club or school about when this is going to be resolved.

Whereabouts are school jobs like hen's teeth? Last time we tried to recruit a TA we had no applicants at all!

Not anymore, are school jobs ‘like hens teeth’ very few, if any applicants for school jobs, especially support roles (admin, kitchen, caretaking, cleaning, TA). The number of Re-advertised jobs too.

My LA recruitment arm for the first time has had to put out a general ‘pool’ advert on behalf of schools to try and find school staff.

We have schools where the HT is cleaning/caretaking. Schools where the only way the WRAC can run, is if the HT ‘makes up the staffing numbers’ and is on-site 7.45-18.15 every day. Unsustainable given workload and having to attend meetings elsewhere. I was in that very position.

I think we must be in quite different areas of the country, then. So, while it may well be true in some places, where I live (small town, NW England) it is not hard to find part time school staff, and parents still want to work as TAs/in wrap around care.

(The way I know this is that my DD's school always puts school jobs ads in their newsletter and then they tell us that X who has a daughter in Y4 is now working as a lunchtime supervisor, or Y who used to work in the after school club is now working in nursery so we have to call him Mr Z now not by his first name).

When you want schools to be responsible for providing a service, that's precisely what you're saying, given that they won't be able to compel outside agencies to provide the provision. The onus will be on the school.

And you saying it's an attractive post for a TA or a school parent (just one?) everywhere doesn't make it so. You're just pulling things out of your arse here, as with the claim that there must be disaffected teachers who've left the profession who want low paid, inflexible work between 3 and 6pm.

But your last paragraph possibly explains why you're getting this so wrong, because the term time only hen's teeth thing is years out of date now. The greater prevalence of remote working has given people who need work that fits around their kids many more options. Hence schools are struggling to recruit in general. They used to have much more of a captive market. The sort of school mum you confidently assert will find the role attractive, presumably because she can bring her DC along, now has more choices available than she did in the 2010s. And then of course there's the tight labour market generally.

Basically, you're talking like we're still in 2019 in work terms. We really, really aren't.

The parents at my DD school who are TAs or who work in ASC are not those who have the skills to do a remote job. They are those with no computer skills (likely no computer) and no work experience since their eldest was born.
The childcare students are also not going to take on a call centre or PA job.
Like I say, I think we are talking about a totally different demographic.

Also - just because you work remotely doesn't mean you don't need childcare. It's role dependent obviously but we have ours in wraparound on days when we're both working from home because we have meetings etc

Your last sentence sums it up: there is considerable variation by area. Yours isn't the default, and that's why you can't assume that because vacancies are easily filled near you, the same is true everywhere. As such, schools having any kind of duty or obligation to provide ASC is unworkable.

Nobody said it did.

However, clearly some remote workers are able to have their DC with them for a couple of hours at the end of the day, particularly where the DC are older primary and/or the parent has considerable control over their schedule. I'm one of them, which is just as well actually as one of mine is ND.

This has had an impact both on demand, as several people have mentioned already, and on the availability of workers who need something where they can have their DC with them. This impact doesn't have to apply universally for it to have hugely changed both the labour market and in some areas the viability of provision full stop. School jobs are not hen's teeth any more.

Tough situ, we would be utterly lost without DC’s school wraparound. In your situation I would try to find a childminder first and if you don’t succeed, a new school with wraparound care may be the only option.

If those parents don’t have the skills to do a remote job, or have no computer skills, what makes you assume they have the skills to work as a TA or in ASC? The skills required to be an effective TA are considerable and I imagine ASC staff require a range of skills too.

I'm so sorry. I feel your pain. I remember being let down a number of times by my DC's ASC at that age and it's stressful and difficult to resolve.

I don't have any advice sorry, other than to try to find another CM (some will travel to do pick up) or another school, but in all honesty if you move school you may find the same problems.

The trouble with wrap-around care is that because it is unreliable, parents don't rely on it, so they often don't have enough numbers or staff and cancel things. It becomes a downward cycle.

It's something successive governments keep promising to look at and don't because it's only working women who suffer... our childcare system here in the UK is utterly appalling.

@Bluevelvetsofa you can be an extremely effective TA or ASC worker with very few computer skills. In fact it's a bit patronising to suggest otherwise. As I say, several have moved on to longer term/full time/better qualified work - ASC to TA to teacher or ASC to full time nursery work.
While I fully appreciate that WFH in front of a computer may be preferable to school office work in front of a computer, it's totally different to working in the ASC or as a TA or lunchtime supervisor.

And yes, there are school parents who haven't worked since their eldest was born who I know well enough to know I wouldn't employ them to care for my DCs. But there are others who are extremely competent, just not up to date on the online skills needed for a WFH office job.

As I've said, we also get quite a few childcare students who have clearly chosen this type of job rather than WFH in front of a computer. We also get some students who are boosting the practical side to their degree (education, psychology) and who obviously need to get both types of experience.

I don't know if this suggestion is of any help but are there any babysitting services in your area? I have a friend who is in her early fifties and babysits in the evenings. Since September she has been collecting a pair of siblings from school 3 afternoons a week and looking after them for a couple of hours. Could this work for you? Hope you find a solution soon.

I'm a bit confused as to why everyone is determined to prove me wrong here.

Yes we have thriving ASCs in our area.
Yes they have a reasonable success rate at recruiting staff because there is a clear body of people who need that type of jobs and in many cases a clear future career path.
No they are not the same people who now WFH online.
We do have a dearth of childminders and many of the ASCs are full due to this (and I know some of the ex-CMs have gone into very different work now). So yes we have a shortage of childcare spaces but this is obviously the opposite problem to "no demand for ASCs and no profit in them" - partly because they are all either school run or non-profit.
And yes I'm aware (and have discussed) that the employment issue is likely to be different in different parts of the country.

Because your suggestions have been ridic

Exactly the same situation here (South West) - the CoL crisis means that school jobs have become really difficult to recruit to. The school where I was governor had to stop running the ASC in-house as it was just too difficult to recruit/keep staff.

Oops cut off there, looks like my computer skills aren't up to scratch either!

Basically @drspouse you've said you want schools to take responsibility for providing a service in addition to the ones they already struggle to staff. You've said they need to make the service pay its way but they don't need to fund it, totally ignoring the posts pointing out that they'd have to fund it if the numbers didn't add up otherwise. You initially assumed that because it happens that ASC is easy to staff in your local area, that means it must be doable everywhere too, but even now you've acknowledged the regional variation you still don't seem to have clocked the impact that it actually has.

I don't know of any ASC that are run by schools; keeping the ratios of staff, the cost of renting the space for the club, wages,l and training costs, the Ofsted paperwork usually means that small clubs just can't be financially viable.

School is not childcare? Well it is in a way. Otherwise lots of parents (mostly mothers probably) would find it difficult to find a job! We can only work because my children are in school. I can't work and have my children with me. It's not like private nursery I know that, but it's a place I send me children to get and education and be looked after and treated well.

Yes OP we had a term where the after school provision stopped and this was announced two weeks before term started. Lots of working parents struggled but now we have a great one. No advice really but it's just extra stress for working parents. You have my sympathies in this!

Find another childminder but if you can't then see if you or partner can arrange with work something that is agreeable for both.

@drspouse I think you are being quite dismissive with regard to the TAs and ASC staff you know, inferring that they are less valuable because of their lack of computer skills.

Agree the school day in itself clearly functions as childcare for many working parents. We learned that lesson during lockdown. But wraparound is something different again.

It’s not that you’re “wrong”, it’s that you’ve used one example and extrapolated it to all areas. It wouldn’t work in my area, for example.
You’ve not considered the varying demographics, labour shortage and employment and travel issues in certain areas.

Probably been mentioned but have you tried bubble childcare app or Koru kids ?

I don't think it should be down to the schools to sort wrap around care. It should lie with the Local Authorities.

Our afterschool picks up from 4 schools. Used to be 5 but they cut the 5th school because of staffing issues.
65 places between 4 primaries per day. That is not a huge provision. They'll be at least 1200 kids between the 4 schools.