After school Childcare

[catherinec123]

Hi guys, I am interesting in starting a cooperative after school club at my kids school and wanted to get some opinions and feedback on this idea. This would be a Cooperative after school club for ages 6-11 (ages 6 up as you need a higher adult:child ratio for under 6's) which aims to provide cheaper childcare. Parents/guardians/family members volunteer to assist the permanently employed trained staff (male and female) and therefore the childcare would be available at a cheaper price. Parents are the owners of the club and they make up the decision making body i.e. they make all the decisions surrounding the care of their child/how money is reinvested etc. All profits reinvested into the club- the advantage to the parents is a cheaper price and quality childcare. We Propose a club running Monday-Friday from time when school ends until 6pm costing £120-£140 a month. The club forms a community unlike standard childcare services which is appealing to parents are children. We (the club) would fund one DBS check per child, any other family members (eg parents/grandparents/aunties etc) would need to fund their own check. All volunteers need to have a check. For each child enrolled, parents/guardians/family members would need to volunteer for approx. 2 sessions a month (ie approx. 6 hours). These sessions can be covered by different members of your family each month e.g. one parent and one grandparent as long as said members are registered with us and have valid DBS checks.

Some questions i wanted to ask you:

1. Would this club be something you would be interested in joining?
2. What time would you like the session to end?
3. How much time would you/your family members be willing to volunteer per month per child enrolled?
4. How much would you be willing to pay as a monthly membership fee?
5. What activities would you like to see included for your child?
6. Would you want the club to run 5 days a week after school, or have a day off eg Friday?
7. Would a discount for second/third/etc children make you more likely to join?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated- thanks very much in advance!

butteroff well ive found that that there is a proportion of childcarers that just ignore the equality act and will just ignore you when you ask if they take sen kids. or maybe its just my experience.

wizz, tell me about it. finding childcare is a real issue and DD will start secondary soon which will force me out of work as noone will take her. It just sucks how everybody seems to get away with it.

BadAsMe

That nursery looks lovely but seems more like a playgroup. Also reading the information it seems like it's only for a tiny number of children a day, as they have a paid manager and one parent per session.

Also reading the information it seems like it's only for a tiny number of children a day, as they have a paid manager and one parent per session.

& only from 9am to 2pm, just three days a week. Which is exactly the non-childcare, educational setting it would work for. It looks lovely.

Yeah, like other people I'd not be able to volunteer because I'm in work. It also sounds a bit chaotic.

Exactly Cole it's a lovely small nurturing group, but a very different situation to that of the OP which would be 5 days a week, term time.

Sounds exactly how playgroup used to run. And what a feckin nightmare it was. Trying to get overworked and overwrought parents to volunteer will be a nightmare.

Trying to get overworked and overwrought parents to volunteer will be a nightmare.

To be honest I think it will be almost impossible to get even those who aren't at work to volunteer.

I used a volunteer at a club that ran on Saturdays. I did it for 5 years. There were supposed to be around 10 volunteers. Everyone was enthusiastic at first and promised to rota themselves. Most only helped a few times and said they had other things to do whenever asked. In reality it was just 3 of us that committed every week. Was a total pain, especially when we wanted a day off.