setting up an after school club-anyone done it?

[lulubooboo]

Hi,

I had a brain-wave and have been looking into setting up an after school childcare club which is much needed in my area.

1. Has anyone done this? I am slightly daunted by setting up my own business. Looking for some tips and insight please as I don't really know where to start.

2. Does anyone send their child to an after school childcare club? What sort of things to your children do, eat and how much do you pay?

Thanks in advance!

How did you get on with expanding your idea, because I looked into this as i'm already self employed doing something similar but for younger children and I wouldn't have been able to make it pay, and it wasn't worth the hassle.

Have you tried the Out of School Alliance website? They have loads of information and advice on how to set up out of school clubs.
www.outofschoolalliance.co.uk/setting.php

You would need to have an appropriate childcare/playwork qualification at Level 3 or above if you wanted to run the club yourself (as opposed to employing a manager to run it for you), and you'd need to have at least two staff at the club at any time (and possibly more depending on the number of children).

If you plan to open for more than 2 hours per day (and most after school clubs do) and to accept children under the age of 8 you will need to register your club with Ofsted. Ofsted registration can be VERY slow so you would need to get this in progress ASAP.

Your two biggest costs will be premises and salaries. If you can get cheap/free premises via the school that will really make a difference to your profitability.

I started an after school club at my children's school about thirteen years ago. It was run as a charity rather than a business and I was Chair of the Management Committee, however other than making a profit or getting a wage it was more or less the same.
I do remember being surprised at the amount of paperwork and policies; child protection, health and safety etc, even then. We were helped by the fact that one of the other members of hte committee worked for the Social Work Department running a Childrens Centre.
AS grendel says, the cost of premises is a huge expense and we were fortunate that we had the use of two rooms in the school rent-free.
Obviously this is a long time ago so things may well have changed since then, however my youngest daughter still attends an After School club. It is charity as are most of the other ones in our area. the only ones that I know that are business are those that are attached to a nursery so have the premises already.

Hi,
Thanks for the responses. I have been ticking it over in my mind and I think that the premises would be the stumbling block. The school is tiny with very limited storage space and the surrounding buildings are all hired out most afternoons with various extra curricular activities.
I am concerned that it won't be worth setting up in terms of being profitable and that the key to making it a success will be to run it over the school holidays too. It feels a little too 'big' for me to handle?
I guess my next step would be to contact the school to see if they have considered it before.

where are you?

There might be a village hall/community hall nearby that you could hire at a reasonable rate? You could negotiate for a lower rate because you will be a regular and long-standing booking.

Schools are supposed to survey parents on a fairly regular basis to check what level of demand there is for wrap-around care. If sufficient parents say that they need before or after-school care the school is supposed to provide it (either themselves, or more often via a third party). This is part of the previous govt's 'extended schools' initiative.
Ask the school when they last surveyed the parents, and if they haven't done so within the last 12 months ask if they can do the survey again.

If you can demonstrate that there is a real need for out of school childcare you used to be able to access start-up funding via SureStart. This helps to offset your costs in the first year. However, since funding for SureStart is now up in the air it is unclear whether this will still be available. Contact the Early Years and Childcare team at your local authority to ask for advice.