Self reliance can point the way to a sustainable future
Children have never had so much choice of after-school activities - from literacy sessions and home-work support to t'ai chi, from netball and football taught by professional coaches to clubs for chess and Dr Who fans. But can it last? Can schools provide these at a low enough cost to be accessible to all and sustain them financially over the long term?
Such activities are one of the elements of the "core offer" of the extended school that all schools are required to provide by 2010. They include study support - catch-up sessions and homework clubs, usually offered free of charge - and constitute an integral part of many primaries' childcare offer.
At Robertsbridge Community College in East Sussex, all activities offered to its pupils are free. They are paid for out of income earned from renting facilities to community groups and with funds raised from different sources by the college's full-time extended schools co-ordinator.
"It's about knowing where to access money," says Karen Roberts, the headteacher. Part of the co-ordinator's salary is paid by East Sussex's Local Partnership for Children. Ms Roberts wants to secure the funding over the longer term. "We'll bid for the post to be extended to at least a three-year contract," she says.
ContinYou, the charity that is contracted by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) to help develop extended schools, is concerned that relying on a variety of funding streams, grants and budgets can leave schools vulnerable.
"Schools need to charge so their provision can be sustained over the long term," says Jenna Hall, ContinYou's director for study support. "Young people are increasingly fed up with short-term provision, even if it is free."
Both ContinYou and the DCSF stress that if charging for activities is to succeed, schools must first consult rigorously with their parents, pupils and wider communities. Each school's governing body must then devise and publish its charging and fee-remission policy. At Robertsbridge, the extended schools co-ordinator took her questionnaires out into the town and surrounding villages and conducted face-to-face interviews. At Delaware Community Primary in Gunnislake, Cornwall, headteacher Jo Grail invited the local community to an open weekend. She also sent out questionnaires.
But discrepancy between charging and questions of equity are inevitable. "There are huge differences between schools," Dave Sugg, extended school strategy manager for East Sussex, says. "In prosperous parts of East Sussex, you can charge £2.50 a session. In less well-off areas, ask a pound and they won't come near it."
Once a school invites in private providers rather than hiring staff itself to run the activities, it becomes harder to keep costs down. Clubs at one primary in south-west London cost between £4.50 and £9.50 per session, with parents required to pay up front for the full 10 sessions, while the school down the road keeps provision in-house and has an upper limit of £2.50 per session.
The national charity 4Children, which supports childcare provision within the extended school, points out that parents negotiating their way through the working tax credit system can claim back the cost of clubs and after-school activities as long as the providers are Ofsted registered. "Tax credits can be used to cover club fees, because they are part of a childcare package," says Anne Longfield, the chief executive of the charity.
Ultimately, it is up to a school's governing body to ensure that the charging policy guarantees access for all children regardless of income. "Schools will wish to ensure there is free access to some study support and affordable services for low-income families and other groups," the DCSF says. It has promised more money for "disadvantaged children" from April this year in pilot projects, which will be made more generally available in 2009-10 and 2010-11.
There is no requirement for schools to monitor the uptake of after-school activities by particular groups of pupils. Many heads rely on close knowledge of their pupils to ensure that none of them is denied access. They are allowed to waive fees where appropriate.
"If children were denied access, we would guarantee it," says Jo Grail at Delaware Primary. "Each child has a termly meeting with their mentor. We can ask then,'Is there something you'd like to do that you're not doing?' It would come up in that way."
But she would never subsidise a child from the school's delegated budget and is determined that after-school activities and childcare at her school be self-financing. Other schools rely on voluntary funds raised from parents which they already use to subsidise school trips.
There is public money available. The Government is investing £1.277 billion in extended schools over the next five years. Sustainability funding and a subsidy scheme will be entrusted to local authorities, while schools are encouraged to use funds for personalised learning - already located within their school standards and dedicated school grants - to pay for extra after-school study support.
"There is more money in there than has ever been the case but it's difficult to get hold of," says Anne Longfield. "If the money goes to local authorities and schools within their general budget, then it will get lost in the system."
Source: The Times Educational Supplement, 29th February 2008.
29th Feb 2008
