HAMPSHIRE County Council has approved funding of £5.9m to help more parents access childcare before and after school.
The funding has been granted by the Department for Education to support schools and local authorities to set up or expand the provision of childcare which ‘wraps around’ the school day, enabling parents and carers of primary school-aged children to access and pay for term time childcare from 8am to 6pm.
The funding will be allocated from September over two academic years until April 2026. The expectation is that afterwards, settings will be able to run successfully on income from parental fees, without the need for financial assistance.
READ MORE: Hampshire foster carers not paid as county council bring in new system
Cllr Edward Heron, the cabinet member for children’s services, said: “The timings of a school day can be a barrier to work for some parents of school-aged children, and Hampshire already has a good mixed childcare offer in place to help address this. With the continued take-up of free childcare for children attending nursery and pre-school, it is important that we support the government’s ambition to make wraparound childcare for school-aged children more widely available.
“This will better support those parents who are already working, as well as those who are looking to enter employment, and will have significant positive outcomes not only for individual families but for the wider economic prosperity of the county as a whole.
“We look forward to working with schools, childcare providers and childminders in the coming months and years to help make this programme a success for local families.”
The national wraparound childcare programme comes as part of wider childcare reforms announced by the Government in its spring budget last year. These include the expansion of free childcare to all eligible working parents of children aged between nine months and four years, from September 2025.
SEE ALSO: Hampshire County Council confirms seven care homes will close
The key aims of the wraparound childcare element of these reforms are to ensure that childcare provision for school-aged children is regular and dependable for working parents, operates for longer hours, and is inclusive with appropriate support for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
Provision can be offered by schools, either directly or in collaboration with private, voluntary and independent providers, including childminders and early years settings, and can be run on a school site or at another setting in the local area.
The County Council is currently considering a variety of funding approaches to best support schools to deliver a wraparound childcare offer and will provide further information to settings in due course.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here