Does a school HAVE to provide after school provision?

[TooTiredtoGoogle]

I thought this was mandatory in the previous government's drive to encourage parents to return to work.

Just wondered if primary schools were legally obliged to provide after school care?

no I'm pretty sure not.

no, not in England anyway

I think it is not as simple as that... yes they should if they can but they don't if they can't.. with me??? And I think they can join forces with other schools

I did a thread about this recently. The answer to your question is apparently not. Surprised me too. No asc around here but it seems most households here have one non working parent.

They currently don't but I think it's coming in the foreseeable future in the next few years ( perhaps a bill has yet to be passed in parliament?).

the trouble is... who runs it? Who locks up the school? Who cleans up? Who provides the stuff for the children to use

They have to sign post services for you but not provide them.

there needs to be access - so if an after school club runs in the area the school does not need to provide, issues arise when there is no local provision from outside agencies.

I was under the impression that schools had to provide wrap around care from 2010 but the school dd1 goes to doesnt and there are no breakfast clubs or after school clubs in the local area.

There are cms that pick up from the school and I use one of those. But it looks like she might have to close from september which will put me in the position where I have childcare for dd2 while she is still too young for school but not for dd1. The only other cm that picks up from the school has a waiting list and closes before I finish work.

It gives me a headache.

Thanks for all the answers.
Yes, I was under the impression that it had become mandatory for schools to provide wraparound care too.

No. Under the Extended schools scheme they have to be able to point you in the direction of wraparound care which could mean giving you a list of childminders in the area or how to find childminders/afterschools clubs in the area, they don't actually have to provide the care themselves

If ds wanted to go from our local school to after school care I would have to arrange for a taxi to take him. Not sure how I feel about doing that for a 6 yr old.

The main reason I ended up choosing private was because of the lack of wraparound care (private does 7.30 to 6.30 for £4 a day on top of school fees). Since he started school the local schools did try to get an after school care service started but only had one pupil using it between three schools.

As others have said, primary schools are not under any legal duty to provide after school care. The previous government encouraged them to consult in order to determine what provision was needed. Schools could validly decide that they didn't need to do anything.

No, they have to point you towards it.

But this may be simply "here is the number of the local authority, which can tell you who childminds in the area"

Sorry.