Financial boost for out of hours services

ENGLAND – Children’s minister Dawn Primarolo has announced the regional breakdown of £167m (NZ$419.1) to boost out of hours services offered in schools across the country.

Extended services in schools provide children and young people with innovative and exciting things to do before and after the school day, enabling parents to stay at work for longer, safe in their knowledge their child is being looked after and entertained.

The money is part of the extended services subsidy which has been allocated over the next three years.

Ms Primarolo said: “Extended services put schools everywhere at the heart of the community, offering invaluable experiences, extensions to learning and out of hours childcare of the highest quality.

“In an economic downturn it is even more important for schools to be working with parents and carers to offer as much support as possible to helping them get into and stay in employment wherever possible.

“Extended services give schools a unique opportunity to offer parents this support.
“We are already asking local authorities to pay particular attention to meeting families’ needs over holiday periods and to bring together the full range of childcare and supervised activities on offer for five to 14-year-olds in a way that can be easily understood and accessed by families.”

Eighty-six per cent of secondary and 81 per cent of primary schools are already offering access to these services and this financial boost will help meet the target of every school offering out of hours activities by 2010.

All extended schools will offer:

• Childcare from 8.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. all year round for primary schools.

• A varied range of activities including study support activities.

• Parenting and family support.

• Swift and easy access to specialist services like speech therapy.

• Community use of facilities including adult and family learning and ICT.

The allocation of funding follows an announcement by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) recently of £5.5 million (NZ$13.8) to help find innovative solutions to gaps in holiday childcare provision.

Recent reports show that in some regions parents have difficulty finding childcare for their children during the summer holiday.

The DCSF announced a pilot in every region aimed at finding innovative local solutions to this problem. The money will cover 10 pilots, the findings from which will provide an insight into sustainable solutions for holiday childcare.

Ed Balls, Secretary of State for children, schools and families, added: “Children and young people have the opportunity to have a really enjoyable summer, taking part in a variety of activities as well as ensuring that when they return to school in the autumn, this round-the-clock childcare support continues for the families who need it most.”