Information for schools and providers

In February 2024, the government published its guidance for wraparound childcare for schools, setting out their role and expectations of schools in relation to wraparound childcare. The guidance outlines support schools can expect particularly in relation to the local authority, to meet these expectations including where wraparound provision is delivered on school site.

Schools are central to delivering the programme as they are at the heart of the community, understand the needs of local families, and are usually the first port of call for parents for wraparound childcare.

Funding has now been agreed for schools who are able to expand or create places prior to March 2025.

Benefits of the wraparound childcare programme

Providing wraparound childcare can bring benefits for children, families and schools including:

• enabling parents to work or study
• supporting vulnerable children
• offering enriching activities that children enjoy
• attracting parents to the school
• supporting a soft start to the school day and attendance
• investing fees into the school or community facilities

Programme funding

The programme funding is available to supporting schools to fulfil their roles in relation to wraparound childcare. Funding is not designed to cover costs of delivering wraparound childcare in the long term but to cover the costs of the initial setup or expansion of wraparound childcare provision to meet existing unmet demand.

It's also designed to remote the financial risk of setting up or expanding provision where sufficient demand is not guaranteed to sustain provision from the start (but where sufficient demand may be built over time as parents are assured of the supply of places).

It's expected that over supply of places will help generate additional demand, as parents are assured of the availability of provision.

Programme delivery

There are a number of ways the programme can be delivered, below are examples:

• school-led provision delivered by school staff on a school site: operating on school premises, managed by staff employed directly by a school and open to all children in that school
• private provider-led provision, on or off school site: operated and delivered by staff employed by a private provider based on or off school premises
• community cluster model: children from multiple schools attend provision on one site, this could be operated by a lead school, a private provider, a community organisation or any other appropriate body
• childminders: the provision is delivered by childminders (registered with Ofsted or a childminder agency), which a school or local authority signpost to, childminders, could work together on a single site or individually from their homes
• Early Years providers: a nursery or a pre-school operating on or off a school site may take children during wraparound hours before and after school

Expectations on schools

With support from the local authority, the government expects all schools that educate primary school-aged pupils to:

• work with the local authority wraparound lead and others in the sector to identify how you can support parents to access quality wraparound childcare
• have a school or PVI provider (including childminders) run wraparound childcare provision on the school site, unless there's a reasonable justification not to (having considered all support available, in particular from the National Wraparound Childcare Programme)
• work collaboratively with the local authority to ensure parents are, at a minimum, signposted to appropriate provision if you're unable to have wraparound childcare on the school site - these must not require parents to pick up or drop off their children between the school day and the wraparound childcare
• promote and support government subsidies such as Tax-Free childcare and Universal Credit childcare, which can help parents with the affordability of childcare and supports schools, trusts, and PVI providers with the sustainability of provision
• support the local authority to understand parental demand and, where relevant, existing wraparound childcare provision at the school site
• respond to communities wraparound childcare needs by adhering to the right to request 

Requirements of providers funded through the programme

• deliver provision that is child centred, safe, easily accessible and responds to the needs of families
• be inclusive to all children and make reasonable adjustments for those children with disabilities
• be Ofsted registered
• sign up to accept Tax-Free Childcare and Universal Credit childcare
• deliver provision between 8am and 6pm, unless demand shows a need for alternative hours
• provide data/ and information to the local authority as requested to support monitoring

Role of the local authority

We can support schools to meet the expectations of the wraparound childcare programme by:

• providing support for schools to set up and run wraparound provision on site
• providing business support
• advising on the required standards including safeguarding and registration with Ofsted
• advising on marketing and communicating your wraparound provision to parents
• developing partnerships across schools, trusts and PVI providers
• helping schools understand demand for, and supply of, wraparound across your local area
• identifying and considering options to meet unmet demand, which may include:
• setting up or scaling up school-run or PVI-run provision
• community models
• communicating childcare options delivered off site to parents
• providing a list of available wraparound childcare providers in your local area to communicate to parents, if a school does not deliver wraparound childcare
• suggesting links to resources for government childcare offers, such as:
• Early Years entitlements
• Tax-Free Childcare
• the childcare element of Universal Credit
• providing information and arranging training for providers that will help make the programme successful

Wraparound childcare network

We're also in the process of developing a wraparound childcare network. The network group will meet online on the second Wednesday of the month between 10am and 11am.

If you'd like to join the network to meet with other providers for support and  develop the programme, please email [email protected].