Wraparound Programme
Parents of primary school age children are not always able to find, or afford, the childcare they need to enable them to work and support their families. The government's ambition is to ensure all parents of primary school age children who want and need it have access to affordable wraparound childcare from 8am to 6pm, either side of the school day.
From September 2024, the national wraparound support begins over 2 academic years to enable schools and local areas to set up wraparound childcare provision either side of the school day, with the expectation that by September 2026, most primary schools will be able to offer their own before and after school care.
The DfE have published the document 'Wraparound Childcare: Guidance for Schools and Trusts in England (February 2024)' which sets out programme expectations and also this guidance for schools and PVI providers.
We held briefings on the wraparound programme during March 2024 - a copy of the presentation can be accessed here.
Childcare Works HUB to support Providers
Childcare Works are supporting Providers to deliver the wraparound childcare programme and will be listening to what providers need, creating resources, tools and guidance in response.
These completed resources will be hosted in the HUB; a one-stop shop for all roll-out resources including good practice guidance, case studies, upcoming events and more to support providers.
Find out more at https://childcareworks.org.uk/
Nottingham City is incredibly fortunate to have a rich, mixed economy of existing provision. We will work with providers and schools to build on what already exists and also use our Childcare Sufficiency Assessment to help us ensure there is sufficient provision to meet local demand.
There are various different delivery models of how this wraparound provision could look and we will work with schools to identify models that are best for their local school community;
- School based provision - delivered by school staff on the school site, purely for the children of that school.
- Private provider-run provision, on or off the school site - private provider operates and delivers wraparound provision with staff they employ, could rent space from the school to run on a school site or operate in a separate building off the school site.
- Provision delivered by childminders - schools can signpost to provision delivered by childminders who can provide bring them to, or collect them after, school. This could also be a group of childminders working together on a single/community site.
- Community Models - An example could be that the LA co-ordinates a cluster/hub model which operates from a central site, such as a community centre, and provides care for a number of schools. This provision could be run by a private provider, community organisation or any other appropriate body.
- Other Early Years providers - existing early years providers, such as a playgroup or nursery, may have space to provide care for primary school aged children before and/or after the school day.
To deliver this ambition, the government will invest £289m from September 2024 to enable schools and local areas to set up wraparound childcare provision.
The LA have received capital and revenue funding to support this agenda and more information will be shared in due course.
As part of any provision developed, we would expect a local feasibility study to identify both the demand for developing new provision and also what parents could reasonably be expected to pay for this. This is to ensure models developed are affordable to parents and the provision will be both well used and sustainable when it is developed.
Furthermore, to support the affordability of this provision, parents will be able to use Universal Credit childcare support for up to 85% subsidy of their costs and eligible parents can also use Tax Free Childcare to subsidise costs, covering 20% of costs up to £2k a year.
For more information on what childcare provision is currently available in the City, please visit the ASKLiON website.
