Free breakfast clubs

[whatcanthematterbe81]

Whilst this is brilliant for families, my buinesss is a breakfast club. We're in the midlands and take £5000 per month, more than half of that goes on costs and I live on the rest.

Gutted, surely my business is going to close. What would anyone pay me for something they can get for free at school. Not sure why I'm posting. Advice maybe?

Yes and it’s becoming clear from links that neither of these policies are going to be generating enough money to do half of what they’ve said they will be doing.

There are lots of ways they could still achieve the manifesto pledge on breakfast clubs while offering a shit service. Eg if every school has to open a club, there might not be a minimum number of children specified so it might just open for vulnerable kids or have numbers limited by a ballot. It might not open as early as yours does etc. Yes it obviously will sound appealing to parents to have the option of a free club but it might not necessarily do the same thing eg IFS article here suggesting that they could even just provide a cheap breakfast in the classroom rather than offering childcare.

ifs.org.uk/articles/free-breakfast-clubs-schools-what-labours-plans-would-mean-pupils-and-families

I think people would still pay if you were offering something sufficiently different. Like a decent breakfast and the early opening time.
Does every school have to offer a breakfast club - do the schools you serve currently all offer one but parents have to pay?
I can imagine if schools already run one, then it would be easier for them to start providing it free - but could that mean that every single child in the school was now attending? If schools don't have one, I can't see how they can magic up the staff in the next few months.

I really like the idea of free breakfast club for people who need it but your business sounds lovely so I hope there is space for that too.

Quite - because as we all know, teachers and school staff have bags of time and they're probably twiddling their thumbs at the moment.

I thought the government idea was aimed at breakfast... so free toast 10mins before school,not an hour of childcare

They're specifically calling it wrap around care

I’d be surprised if the funding covers the cost of providing care for the pilot. The wording is very careful on the early adopters application form and there is no information re what form the model will take. The current scheme seems to give schools a 75% subsidy of food. the food aspect seems to be a drop on the ocean compared to staffing.

Could you pivot to doing after school care instead? 3-5pm instead of 7-9am?

It's highly likely that the free breakfast clubs will only operate from 8/8:15 similar to the ones in Wales, allowing a 30 - 50 minute open drop off period pretty much just for a free breakfast. Those of us who currently use paid for services for childcare to allow us to get to work on time will still use the ones where we pay so that we still have the 7/7:30 drop off that we need.

I'm sure teachers don't have time to run these free breakfast clubs. I'd have a word with your local schools as you might be about to get a lot of new kids attending after April. Personally I think it's a great idea as it means parents can drop kids off at 7.30am and start work for 8am.

Yes ours starts at 7:30. 8am seems a bit late (you can drop off for the school day between 8:15 and 8:30 normally at our school so 8am wouldn't be worth it). Maybe that will help OP if they free one doesn't start till 8am.

Yes this happened at my school in Scotland and the private wrap around care had to stop offering breakfast club but still do after school. Then with Covid hitting they have had to massively downsize and move premises.

We are two well earning professionals who can afford to pay for childcare but 1. There is no other provision available now and 2. Not having two journeys every morning is better for my children so even if something else was available we would pick the school.

The school doesn’t open until 815 which is right on the cusp of what works for us. I have no idea what anyone who needs earlier provision does but the number would be very small.

My sons school had a breakfast club with drop-off at 8.00. Toast, cereal, juice .. supervised by an existing support/lunchtime assistant. Colouring, board games..again supervised. To be honest isn't it more about providing parents with a slightly earlier drop off and something in the stomachs of children who might not eat at home. It really isn't a business opportunity for anyone.

lol I mean, it's my actual business so you're wrong about that 😂

Even for free I wouldn’t send my children to a school bk club as I suspect the quality of the food would be similar to what they have for the free lunches.
If you are offering a healthy bk in a clean setting with a limited number of children (so calmer environment than they would have at school) I would not worry too much.

Schools will have to offer it, but parents won't be forced to take up the free offer.

If what you offer is sufficiently different/better than the free provision then your business should be ok.

State school breakfast clubs are rubbish. Even more so if they’re ‘free’. If you start earlier and do drop offs you will probably still attract the same parents.

From what I can gather from some teachers here our school will just be opening its doors at 8:20 rather than 8:40, but only for a limited number of children and its pre bookable.

People saying this won't be possible to instigate yet they manage it in Wales. I hope it happens.

@whatcanthematterbe81 - you missunderstand my post. I can see you run a business offering a breakfast club and are concerned about schools offering breakfast clubs at low cost/free. Some posters suggested that schools might offer a job opportunity to run these clubs for them - it was that idea which seemed an unlikely, unprofitable plan.
lol - come on who actually still says this?

@redwinechocolateandsnacks not really sure what to reply to this. I don't think we get each other but there's no need to be mean on a thread like this. Good night

Just to add to this, another example from Wales where the free breakfast club which has been going for years operates from 8:10, but the onsite breakfast and afterschool club is still going strong. To contend with more wfh after Covid it has had to open a bit earlier (from 7:30) but still attracts parents who need the earlier child care.

The initial plan is only some schools, after the full roll out there still is no guarantee on hours offered. Schools could only offer a limited number of places and start at 8.15, or even later. I wouldn't make any decisions yet

Thank you x