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Holiday club and out-of-school providers in talks with DfE over reopening plans

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Some of the largest wraparound childcare providers in the country have joined forces to share their concerns around the survival of out-of-school childcare with the Department for Education, and their ideas for how the sector may be able to be able to reopen safely in time for the school summer holidays, Nursery World has learnt.
Dan McCaffrey, director of Pioneer Childcare and Class Of Their Own: 'The sector is heading for collapse'
Dan McCaffrey, director of Pioneer Childcare and Class Of Their Own: 'The sector is heading for collapse'

In a joint letter to the DfE, the directors of the country’s leading providers of breakfast, after-school and holiday clubs - who between them run more than 300 out-of-school clubs - highlighted the severity of the threat to the sector, which they warned would see many of them go ‘out of business by Christmas’.

Their approach led to a ‘constructive and positive meeting’ with the DfE last Thursday, according to Dan McCaffrey, director of Pioneer Childcare and Class Of Their Own, which operates 20 clubs in the Brighton and Sussex area. 

The letter was written by Mr McCaffrey on behalf of a group of eight providers, including Energy Kidz and KOOSA Kids, who collectively run 332 settings, caring for more than 50,000 children on a weekly basis.

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