No hourly rate for after school club

[Mackonadragos]

Hello everyone,

We are new to Oxfordshire, and I have just found out that I can only book an entire after school club session per day in our primary school. As opposed to book let's say an hour per day. Our school charges £13 per session and it runs between 3 and 6. I would need only 1 hour per day, between 3 and 4. I looked around nearby schools in town, and it seems that it is the common practice here, except one primary (further away), that has got short and long sessions with different rate (£7 and £ 12.95).

We've moved from Bedfordshire, where in our old school we could pay hourly rate and could book one hour per day if we wanted.

I am very annoyed by this, that I would need to pay for something that I will not use.

I am going to raise this with the headteacher, but curious to see how other people think about it. In my opinion it is very inflexible.

Thank you for your answers.

@Mackonadragos Even if you are not entitled to benefits such as Universal Credit towards your childcare costs, you can sign up to the government’s tax-free childcare scheme which gives you a discount towards childcare. This is available to everyone earning up to £100k

.Tax Free Childcare

Regarding your comment that the issue is that you’ll be working one day to cover childcare you don’t want to use, I assume you mean that the cost of ASC will take up one days wage. That is the trade-off with working and paying for childcare. My daughter’s nursery fees took up half my monthly salary, but it was worth it to stay in work as costs reduced once she got older and we got the funded hours, then reduced again when she went to school.

Have you thought about school holiday childcare as well?

You’ve done well to get a job after being at home for several years, and hopefully it will all go smoothly as you settle into working again.

Thank you for your lovely answers.

My life is about boring and relentless house work (4 children). But I feel sorry for my youngest to keep it in school for so long. Actually when they come home from school, they read and play lego etc very nicely.

Flat fee here and you have to pay for the full week-no individual days. It's the only club available and that's life!

I live in Bedfordshire and can pay for up until 4:30 or 6. I used to live in Bucks and it was a flat rate. I can understand why they do it as your child is taking a space, but I understand your frustration.

I know it doesn't make sense but it's better to think that you are sharing the cost of the childcare and it's not just coming out of your wages. Off topic but if you are returning to full-time work, parenting, housework etc needs to be shared so get your husband into the mindset early on!

Thank you for your answer. I will definitely look it up. Sounds good.

I sort of know, that women work and their earnings go to childcare. It is just hard to face up with it. (In the past I never needed to pay for childcare, also I never made any money.
I 've already made up my mind about Xmas. I do not celebrate Xmas this year, my husband with the kids will go to his mother, while I want to work through this period here, where we live.

Summer holiday is trickier. For me it was going home (continent) in the past and I have to think about it. I assume it will depend on the nature of my job.

)

At 13/14 I wouldn't have been happy with them bringing 3 younger children home from school and looking after them for a few hours, no.

And the thread came up in active. I didn't notice the board until you pointed it out.

15 per afternoon in leafy Berkshire but its open til 6.30. plus 5.50 for breakfast club. Run by a non profit charity.

To be honest I work from home and DH is home by 5.25 but we sometimes leave DD in club so we can have some fun. She doesnt go to sleep until 10pm and DH is asleep at 8pm and up at 5 so its our only chance. Even better is Tuesdays when she gets collected by another parent and taken to drama class till 7.30.

FWIW I spent 2 years working at a loss (if taking fuel costs into account). ASC is cheap by comparison.

I used to live in Oxfordshire 25 years ago, than moved around and lived in Bedfordshire for a long time. Then back to Oxfordshire.

I lived here pre-children time, and now with children.

It just seems more expensive here. Also, reading the answers too, it seems that this is generally accepted. Surely whatever can be done in Beds could be possibly done here too?

The only primary school in this town, who runs the two sessions for different rate is a brand new one, but if I am correct it caters for a less-well off (just like our school.) So I wonder when setting up this "two-tier" system they had this factor in mind.

Well, Y9 (13,5) and Y7 (aged 11,5) come home from school by themselves, older kid's school is a bit further, 15 min walk, younger just 5-7 min walk.

Y5 (9.5 years old) is picked up by me with his reception-aged brother.

I am talking about 1 hour at the max per day right now (although as I have job interviews, the timing can change slightly.)

OP it's not a county thing, they're businesses, some are run by schools, some outside providers, they will each do things differently, there is no county wide instruction. Our town has several clubs all operating differently, the county has nothing to do with it.

Yes, I already had a discussion about it with him. My mother and I spent the last decade looking after the children, while he was working, sometimes abroad (military). He was the breadwinner. I keep telling him that this 50s setting just does not work any more, also as the children are getting older (so am I) I want to do something. And this time for money.

He is supportive of the idea but his work is sooooo important that he need to be in London for looooong hours. He has a very specialised job, in London. So commute does not help either.

Yes, I know. But somehow I have this feeling (difficult to describe it in an articulate way) that there are elements of assumptions that you can get away with these (prices etc) because your target population is used to it/don't know anything else/that's their expectations.

It's pretty standard and that rate is pretty good. My local one is £18 for 3-6pm regardless oh whether u need 10mins or 3hrs. I'm in central Scotland.

Why is it soo expensive up there?

Also, I took the children to a nursery in Beds, run by a military charity. Than was taken over by a business.

The nursery went downhill afterward, business oriented, lack of quality etc. 3 of my children went there, huge difference. So obviously that is a difference between a non/profit organisation and a business. By the way, the charity wanted to take over, but was pushed out. They were very upset. Se were we.

I'd say the best thing is to book the full afternoons for your two younger DC and just get back out there. Don't worry if it doesn't pay - the thing you need to achieve from this job is to demonstrate that you want to work and will show up for work as agreed. That is the thing that is really in question after someone has chosen not to work for a while.

Not working for years can give you time for thinking about the way things should be, whereas working (rightly of wrongly!) forces you to just engage with the way things are in reality right now. Obviously your first job is just a step towards something better, and you may well be glad of the longer sessions soon.

Thank you. Definitely, I can recognise myself in what you are saying. I am laminating too much, and now this is time for action. That is why I decided to go for a job that is not entirely fit with childcare. I got frustrated with waiting and weighting up pros and cons.

Have you any idea what childcare pays?? You begrudge someone who is also not well paid their money so that you can earn yours? Isn't that somewhat hypocritical?

OP are you a military family? (Asking due to locations mentioned and the fact you mentioned a military charity) if so, military families don't need to pay for wraparound childcare for school aged children at all, we can claim it back. Let me know if you need any more detail.

I know. You are right. They are badly paid. I am not against the idea of they getting more money.

For me, the issue is that I only wanted an our long childcare. This is how I knew it was in the old place, I I was surprised to learn that this is very different here.

It is inflexible in my opinion. However, it seems to be the norm her, although the are some posters here, who has flexi childcare sessions.

Was military. Not any more.

I think you are being unreasonable. It's not like they will have staff that only work thr first hour and then go home, and it's not like the space can be filled by some other kid who needs the 4pm-6pm hours, so I think that expecting an hourly rate is actually expecting the other parents to subsidise your place.

Assuming it's run at either not-for-profit or with a very small margin it costs £390 total to run the session for 3 hours for 30 kids. None of those costs go away if 10 of the kids leave after 1 hour, and 10 leave after 2 hours, most of the costs are incurred in totality not accrued hourly. So if you had an hourly rate it would be you paying £6.50 for a service that actually costs £13 to provide, and the people who need 3 hours paying £19.50 for a service that actually costs £13 to provide. Very much unfair on them.

Your older 3 can make their own way home.

The youngest goes to the ASC - at £13 a day that's under 1.5 hours of work paying for the childcare. If you're working an 8 hour day then you're not 'only working to pay for the childcare'

(for context, We pay £55 a day for nursery AND £10 a day for after school pick up and it is still MORE beneficial for us both to work Full time)

I remember having to collect my younger siblings every day and being deeply resentful. Other people sometimes went to the library, or to one another's houses etc, but not me as I had children to look after. I couldn't even get on with homework properly, so ended up having to do that later in the evening. It meant my time was not my own. I don't think that is at all ok for a 13 year old and would never dream of doing that to my child. Even if you paid them, it still wouldn't be ok but expecting it done for free is a total piss take imo.