Schools with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) will not be expected to provide wraparound care on the basis that they do not have space that can be adapted or have building work ongoing, the government has confirmed.
The Department for Education has today published guidance for schools, which outlines how schools and trusts can deliver new or expanded wraparound childcare for primary-aged children.
All schools will be expected to provide wraparound childcare on their school site, “unless there is a reasonable justification not to”, the guidance says.
The non-statutory guidance says that, currently, 80 per cent of schools provide some form of wraparound care, but at least 40 per cent of schools offer wraparound “in a form that may not support parents to work the hours they want”.
This may be because the “hours offered are limited” or there is no provision on the school site, “which requires parents to pick up or drop off their children between the school day and wraparound childcare”, the guidance says.
It states that the government expects all schools that educate primary school-aged pupils to work with their local authority wraparound lead and others in the sector to identify how to support parents to access wraparound childcare.
It also says it expects schools or private, voluntary and independent providers (including childminders) to run wraparound childcare on the school site, unless there is a reasonable justification not to.
Confirmed: 234 schools with RAAC
Examples of reasonable justifications include “unsuitable space that cannot reasonably be adapted, or ongoing building or maintenance work”, which the DfE has confirmed includes those schools affected by RAAC.
“If a site has or is being treated for RAAC it will not be expected to provide wraparound provision on the premise that they have unsuitable space that cannot reasonably be adapted, or ongoing building or maintenance work,” a DfE spokesperson said.
There are 234 schools confirmed by the DfE as having RAAC, as of the latest update. Of the schools affected, over half (50.85 per cent) are primary schools.
Schools who are unable to provide wraparound care should “work collaboratively with your local authority to ensure parents are, at a minimum, signposted to appropriate provision, if you are unable to have wraparound on the school site”, the guidance says.
Wraparound care must not become ‘societal burden’
Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, warned that “providing childcare - particularly outside of school hours - is not the core role of schools, and levels of staffing and other resources present real challenges in many cases”.
“This must not become yet another societal burden that schools are expected to carry on their own,” Ms McCulloch added.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said that “additional guidance is unlikely to make much of a difference here, particularly when schools don’t have the funding or staffing to oversee the sort of expansion in provision envisaged by the government”.
“The funding to date is neither sufficient nor permanent, creating a cliff-edge when it comes to an end after five terms,” Mr Whiteman warned.
The announcement comes after chancellor Jeremy Hunt pledged back in March 2023 that a “start-up” fund would be made available to ensure all primary pupils would get access to wraparound care in school between the core hours of 8am and 6pm by 2026.
The DfE said in October last year that it “expects all parents to have access to wraparound care either from their school or from another provider in their local area” by that date.
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