Please let me know if this would actually help parents?

[ordinaryhousewife]

We are always hearing about the BLACK HOLE in public funding but not often hearing about radical solutions If I am mad please feel free to let me know but picture this ( All of it please ) The Government stops Child benefit altogether, along with the supporting admin system. Remember I am talking only of the CHILD BENIFIT SYSTEM. They then make every Primary School in the UK open from 7 am to 7 pm 360 days per year. For families, the facilities would include, a FREE breakfast club before 9 am Free lunch cooked on the premises, and free after-school activities. With free tea club between 5 pm and 6.30 pm again cooked on the premises with parents welcome to eat with their children and siblings talking about their day etc. All remaining children are being collected by a designated responsible adult or parent by 7 pm having completed any homework. For the local community, it would mean jobs all at the living wage or more. All jobs would be permanent contracts ranging from PT to full-time. All Head Teachers would become the only ones responsible for overseeing Education matters between 9 am and 3 pm. With the Coordination Manager overseeing everything else the vast amount of New staff would coordinate 7 Days a week. Not, all parents may wish to take up everything on offer, and the holiday clubs would have to be booked in advance it would take a great shift in thinking from a Headteacher and their staff but primary schools could be a big part of ceasing child poverty improving the mental wellbeing of whole communities and integration would be greatly improved. Any parents not wanting to have their children take part in any out of Education activities at all would not be able to claim Child benefit from a system that no longer exists. There are many other benefits in place to financially help parents.

I can see where in theory this would be a good idea for some people potentially, but there are lots of big drawbacks including the NI aspect and also when there was recently a delay in child benefit being paid by a few days there was a thread on here with hundreds of comments from people who couldn’t pay a bill, couldn’t buy milk or nappies for their baby, couldn’t put petrol in the car to go to work etc. Rightly or wrongly people budget their child benefit to cover different things, getting rid of it would harm a lot of families on very low incomes especially.

So when my husband ran off with my wealthy friend leaving me with 3 children that he paid no maintenance for for 6 years, I'd have had even less money. Thanks.

No thanks - I didn’t give birth 4 runes to hand my children over to the state. Plus I think being with their family is far better for them than stuck in school 12 hours. Neither they nor we are slaves to the “state”.

Child benefit for an eldest child is £25.60 a week. If you add that to the 7k per child already spent on education (this is a top end figure) it's not really much per hour to offer this.

My dd is at breakfast club from 7.50 and in afterschool club until 5.30 ish 3 days a week, so it would be handy for me! I'm a teacher, my dh leaves for work at 6.30 and I have two days off a week partly so my dd doesn't have to do those long hours 5 days a week. The op isn't talking about kids using the full 12 hours. Whilst it would be great for me, I suspect those who don't need wraparound care would find it very unfair.

I've got a baby and an 8 year old. A nursery place has more or less doubled in that time; which is crazy! Will get the 15 hours and then eventually 30, so that's at least something.

You're talking about a massive increase in staffing and food costs, keeping schools heated and loos cleaned and facilities open for extra hours. I doubt CB would cover those costs. Most of the system is automated, so it's not as if thousands of civil servants being paid £45k pa would be suddenly made redundant. And where are all the skilled, DBS checked staff who'll be required to run this scheme come from? There's already a massive shortage of decent professional child care available because it doesn't pay well.

I wouldn't need to take advantage of it fully, maybe the odd evening where I had to work later, but I wouldn't care if it helped others. I don't qualify for CB anyway, we're a few £s over the threshold, so it's no more unfair than that really. Except there's an option to use it if you need it, there isn't an option to claim CB if you need it when you're not eligible.

No. Child Benefit admin is a relatively small
operation. It would not save much and the costs of this plan are astronomical.

No this would be awful. My kids are absolutely done by 3pm, and cannot wait to decompress and tell me about their day on the walk home. Then we have multiple activities throughout the week after school (swim, karate, music lessons) , which are partly funded by using some of the child benefit, and would be non affordable otherwise, meaning they miss out on their hobbies. School is already far too big a part of their childhood, made worse by the ever increasing restrictions on absences and holidays. What about the children who are deregistered from school, homeschoolers etc? This system would create a huge divide in society between those living in this weird dystopia, and those who choose to go against it. I would think a hell of alot more people would choose to keep their kids home away from this and then who knows what sort of education if any, they would be provided with.

How much do you think child benefit is? How would £25 a week per child subsidise an extra 51.5 hours per week childcare?

OP is not too dissimilar to how schools in Japan are set up with extra curricular clubs activities after school, at weekends, and during the holidays (no extra charge). It keeps many kids engaged and active while their parents work long hours. It also maximises the use of the school buildings that would otherwise be empty at those times.

It amazing thinking.

You know private schools churn out lots of happy and successful children based on a similar model?

My DC did 7.45 - 6.30 some days at primary school which included their clubs & prep club, plus breakfast, hot lunch and tea.

They wanted to stay at school that long.

Which children won't benefit?

Not a chance would I use this. Kids shouldn't be in school longer than adults are in work.

You see the trouble with society is that kids are at school/ childcare or once at secondary school left to their own devices too long. How about we get back to a society where both parents didn’t have to work full time. Where solo parents were supported. If I had my time again my kids would never have been out in childcare so you 12 hour a day sending them to school plan is bonkers to me.

It's no more batshit than anything politicians come up with - put it in the suggestion box 👍🏽

In all seriousness though, it would be extremely expensive to administer and supervise. Simply stopping CB wouldn't pay for something like that. Plus it sounds a bit bleak for both kids and parents tbh.

Simply stopping CB wouldn't pay for something like that

This. Not even a tenth of it. My £55 a week or whatever (3 dc's CB) wouldn't touch the sides if I decided to put dc3 in all these free activities and then rock up with the family for dinner each night 😂

This wouldn't have helped me at all when I was a single parent of primary aged children working full time. I'd still have needed other childcare, and would have had less money.

If its 360 days per year, how do holiday work? Can you take x number per year when you want? That would be a nightmare from a teaching perspective!

Which children won't benefit?!

My child with Special Educational needs/disabilities certainly wouldn't for starters. Plenty of children struggle in school for various reasons. Sure there are children like yours that would benefit but I would say they would be the minority.

Child benefit helps different people in different ways. Not everybody wants their children in a school for 12 hours.

Terrible idea.

Helping parents is not a one size fits all situation.

They then make every Primary School in the UK open from 7 am to 7 pm 360 days per year what are the five days you close?

For families, the facilities would include, a FREE breakfast club before 9 am Free lunch cooked on the premises, and free after-school activities what about weekends tho? Are you saying they get education seven days or you're just providing full childcare those days?

With free tea club between 5 pm and 6.30 pm again cooked on the premises with parents welcome to eat with their children and siblings talking about their day etc. so my small school now has to build capacity to feed not 200 students but potentially hundreds more once you factor in parents and siblings? We simply wouldn't have the space unless you built a giant room on the school field. Meanwhile nephews larger school would need cooking facilities to actually cook meals, with an intake of 400+ kids and then all the hundreds of add one.

All remaining children are being collected by a designated responsible adult or parent by 7 pm having completed any homework.
So, I drop my kids off at 7 am and rock up at 7pm seven days a week. I can come in for dinner if I want but want to time it so I don't have the kids longer than necessary. The time we have together once home at 7 would basically be bath and bed and I'd do this every night of the week, except for five times a year.

Do you really think the solution is to try to leaver parents put of their child's lives? Why not just make it compulsory residential from five to 18 with an optional one hour visiting a day and up to seven days family leave to include X certain dates

Some days being the operative word. op wants to normalise those times seven days a week, 51 weeks of the year.

If you're outsourcing help 7-7, 365 days a year, buy a packet of condoms and don't bother having children at all.

So your idea is that all parenting including feeding children is given over to the school and state.

No. No. No

Having a child is not compulsory - if you don't want to care for them or can't afford to look after their basic needs, don't have them.

Why not go the whole hog. Chuck in your CB plus an extra tenner and see if they’ll take your kids into care? It seems like it’s only bedtime that they’d be with the parents anyway so you wouldn’t miss them.

What a load of 💩