Wrap around care for those who don't work??

[Raisinsandweetabix]

Free breakfast clubs, afterschool clubs. Why would you need this if you are at home all day anyway? Another kick in the teeth to working parents. Obviously not including those in dire need of this care.

Quit work and go on benefits then op but be sure to divorce your dh too so that you qualify. Extra points if you develop an alchohol/ drug addiction.

Agree with PP about the logistical issues not having been thought through, and I've written similar on previous threads (work in school admin so see the challenges first hand).

It's a great idea. In theory. Should benefit disadvantaged children and families for whom life is difficult, chaotic and stressful. Children for whom life will probably always be hard, for whom the playing field will never be level, children who - with the best will in the world - are never going to have the life chances that others will have. In all honesty a child whose parents 'have never worked a day in their lives' or who manage to 'game the system', as some posters have described, or 'pick up their freebie vouchers early so they can go on holiday'..you know what, that child is still disadvantaged. They still have feckless parents making poor life choices and who are therefore poor role models. They will still never have the life chances others will have.

The idea of free wraparound should, in theory, ideally also benefit families who are functional and capable and setting a good example to their children but who are struggling for any number of reasons.

But. But. But.

No-one has thought through the logistics. Or the impact on schools who are already haemorrhaging staff.

Where will they take place? No school will have a hall big enough, and no teacher is going to want a breakfast club trashing their classroom (and yes they will get trashed).

Who will co-ordinate the food buying?

The food storage?

The day to day logistics?

The food service?

The cleaning up? (Ever seen a school dining hall after a typical lunch period? Believe me sometimes the mess needs to be seen to be believed).

And that's before you even try to find staff to actually run them, manage behaviour, deal with health and safety and safeguarding issues and so on....

Everyone WANTS wraparound care but no-one wants to WORK in wraparound care.

With all the good intentions in the world, this isn't going to work.

Most of these families are ex teen mum's/dad's. Our first born son gets free school meals until he finishes year 6 because we were in a bad situation financially when he was in reception now we've worked our butts off to get where we are now our younger children won't get free school meals. I understand it's still frustrating for older parents who also work their butts off TBF but that's just the way the cookie crumbles.
Funny how everyone on their internet wants to talk about how everyone under 21 is a sweet innocent ball of fluff until it comes to hating on teen mum's/dads, in fact I shouldn't of bothered typing this comment because someone will probably use it to say we plotted at 15 to have a child just for the free primary school meals.

I never understood why people who don’t work should get free childcare if they’re just at home all day doing nothing. Then I started working in social services and thought ‘ah’. Like you say, it’s about providing a safe space for the child more than giving the parents a break in a lot of cases

It's to give the kids a break from their parents

Agree OP - I don't work as a stay at home mum - but we don't get child benefit (fair enough) as my husband earns over 50k, yet know people who earn nearly 100k as a couple and get it. All skewed isn't it?

That wasn't meant to sound rude sorry! It's to give them a break from what they know and develop interests outside the home

Unless she's taking up places that your kids could use and you're being denied a place then it's not really your business

This is a threshold created by the last Tory government to stop people qualifying for fee school meals. you get barely any universal credit unless you work a minimum number of hours a week that would put you over 7k a year so they effectively reduced the number of children who qualified overnight even thought the overall household income didn’t change. Thus you have families where the older children qualify for FSM but the younger ones don’t.

Millions of children in receipt of FSM do so because of older thresholds and the fact you qualify for 6 years or automatically if you transition from primary into secondary during those 6 years.

Reasons why children may be in wraparound care when their parents aren't working:

• the house has no heating and the children need warmth
• the family are living in poverty and it means they get breakfast
• their parents may have health issues - mental or physical - and they can ensure their children are able to be themselves and not having to be carers
• parents have children at different schools and can't be in more than one place at once
• the child may have a sibling who needs more care and they are spending time with their friends rather than having to compromise on their needs
• the parent may have difficulty coping and it's better for the children to be out if a stressful environment for longer
• the parent may be attending the job centre at a time given to them to attend rather than the parent being able to choose it - every fortnight!
• the parent may have other caring responsibilities
• the child may benefit from a less structured time to make and develop friendships.

All of these reasons are true for children in our Trust to attend wraparound. Those families you class as 'unworthy' may have lots of good reasons to use it.

I think the important thing to remember is that, regardless of whether you agree with some people's lifestyles, it is never the child's choice.

As a society, we never break the cycle of loss of opportunity unless we support children to be emotionally intelligent enough to realise their potential.

Think it's been asked a few times before , but im going to ask again before I head to bed , but where in all this is the children's other parent?

She probably means it’s the people who work that earn just too much to receive any benefits but not enough to live comfortably. The ones stuck in the middle who neither reap a lot of reward for the work they do, or receive a substantial amount for doing nothing. When I say ‘substantial’ I mean in terms of not having to work for it - money for doing nothing

This!! I hate these kind of threads . You don't know people's circumstances, stop judging. A parent at my kids school lost her husband suddenly ,which left her in a really difficult financial situation. She worked, but had to put her kids in breakfast club. I could never begrudge a child that.

And even then it's tough shit

At this stage it just seems like you’re playing troll bingo.

Benefit scrounger check
6 kids check
spending all the benefit money on fags a cruises check
woke check
champagne socialists check

Ding ding ding full house.

Your DH obviously takes home more than £80k if you don’t receive child benefit.

I think in cases where those entitled to free care are prioritised does take it away from working parents as they miss out on the opportunity when they actually need it the most to be able to work - as several posters have pointed out

I don't know when you were last in schools but in the past 3 years things have changed a lot. Could you explain what you think a full day TA contract would look like?

Perhaps look up the statistics for food bank use amongst families and you might understand why they want to give out breakfast to children!

It is often far more expensive to do these things on a case by case basis, so while I don’t support welfare for those who don’t need it, I do support running programs that help children who need it effectively and efficiently, and not letting ideology make them less effective and more expensive. If effective and efficient means a blanket breakfast club approach, then I’m for it. I believe you are 1000% for that too, based on your previous posts.

Yes good point - my child's best friend at school, whose parents don't work and are on benefits, gets breakfast club, free school meals, free after school clubs, free school holiday clubs.food vouchers during holidays. I'm pleased for her because she is from a difficult home life, a very chaotic life, and she shouldn't be punished because of this, so good that she gets to do stuff she otherwise wouldn't.

The one thing that does piss me off, and I can't help it, is that her mum recently paid money (!) to have her privately diagnosed with ADHD. Her mum now gets 400 pound a month on top of her benefits because her daughter now gets Disability Living Allowance. 400 a month ?!!? For having an ADHD diagnosis??
She spends most of her time round here! So yeah, good for the daughter but who knew about the 400...just a piss take that.

Sadly in lots of cases it will be to give the kids a break from their abusive parents and horrible home lives.

💔

But- it's making working parents lives even harder

How in God's name is your children's school offering wraparound care for all children making the lives of working parents even harder?

No she gets DLA because it has been proven (through a very difficult system) that she has needs above those of her peers.

you don’t get DLA based on diagnosis, it’s based on needs.