Starting an after-school club in your nursery can bring some extra revenue to your setting, but you need to be aware of the competition, says Mary Evans
September, and the start of the new school year, brings new opportunities to develop your nursery's services and to increase your income with the establishment of your own out-of-school club.
At least that is the theory. In practice, nursery managers need to research and plan the launch of a club carefully to avoid the risk of a potentially lucrative idea becoming a time- consuming and costly catalogue of managerial problems.
Pros and...
On the plus side, an out-of-school club can help your nursery meet your parents' needs by becoming the stop-off and pick-up point for all the family. This means your setting is more likely to continue earning from these families for longer than if they made alternative arrangements.
A club helps you maximise the income from your premises and enables you to offer more flexible work to your staff. Some nursery owners believe developing out-of-school provision can help them recoup income lost through children joining the school system earlier.
A further bonus is that out-of-school clubs attract start-up funding from the New Opportunities Fund (see box), as they are a cause dear to the Government's heart because they allow parents to work, and allow children to learn and play in safety.
... cons
On the minus side, you will need to invest in extra staff, furniture and play equipment for the older children. Unless local schools are within easy walking distance, you will have to provide transport, which is expensive and impacts on staff ratios. Then there is always the risk that local schools might set up their own schemes and undermine the viability of your club.
Nurseries operating successful out-of-school clubs report that the trickiest area to manage is the relationship with local schools. Sylvia Archer, who with her sister Theresa Ellerby runs a club at their Children's House Nursery in Stallingborough, Lincolnshire, says delivering and collecting children has to be managed carefully to maintain the correct ratios in the nursery.
'Some children go to school within walking distance of the nursery, but we have to use transport for the others. Before we started, I went round to the schools and introduced myself, but some are not interested in working with us. I think they feel we are a threat. I was once five minutes late collecting a child and in that period the head teacher had telephoned the parent to say we had not collected the child, instead of telephoning us to check if we were on the way.'
Liz Wardale, who runs a club for up to ten children at her Jigsaw Private Day Nursery in Cleveleys, Lancashire, found a local school became less co-operative after it opened its own club.
'Suddenly I was told I could no longer drive into the car park to collect or deliver the children. I used to collect children from four different schools and it got very difficult. If one school came out late it meant I was late for the others. We have cut it back and, apart from one special needs boy whom I drive to school, the others all go to a school within walking distance,' she says.
Start-up money
Mrs Wardale received funding from her local Training Enterprise Council for the club, but was required to write a business plan although the nursery was already a profitable concern.
'It is an extra service and not a great money-spinner. Schools have an advantage in having more space for children to play ball games, but we are open longer and give the children a big high tea.'
The start-up costs of the club at Children's House were included in their overall launch expenditure when the nursery opened earlier this year. Mrs Archer says, 'Obviously, you need to buy larger furniture and different games, such as board games and electronic games such as Nintendo.
'We are lucky, as there is a pub opposite us which has a large play area and a football ground behind it which we can take the children to, or we can go to the community playground, which is less than a five-minute walk away.'
Further information
Ready Steady Go!, the information pack on starting after school clubs is published by the Kids' Clubs Network and is available price 10 to member and 12 to non-members. Further information is available on its website at www.kidsclubs.co.uk or on its information line on 020 7512 2100 or at Kids' Clubs Network, Bellerive House, 3 Muirfield Crescent, London E14 9SZ.
What you need to know for a start
Registration You will need to register with your local authority social services. Check the local requirements.
Staffing Under the Children Act 1989 at least half the staff must hold relevant qualifications or have extensive experience, and your adult:child ratios need to be 1:8. As with any childcare staff, after school club workers will have to have undergone police checks.
Pay The Kids Clubs' Network (KCN) recommends paying hourly rates of 8 to 10 to club co-ordinators and 6 to 8 to assistants.
Training Most local authorities call for out-of-school club staff to have NVQs in Childcare and Education or Playwork. NVQ Playwork Level 2 is appropriate for an assistant playworker working under the close supervision of a more experienced colleague. Level 3 is appropriate for a playworker working as part of a team but able to work on his/her own initiative. KCN has collaborated with the National Extension College to develop Playcare Packs which can be used for home study to NVQ Level 2 and with City and Guilds it has set up a Playwork award. For further information telephone (01223) 450500.
Space At least 2.3 square metres (25 square feet) per child.
Transport Unless you are within easy walking distance, you will need to ferry the children to school. Check that this would be covered by your insurance.
Funding The New Opportunities Fund, which distributes National Lottery cash for projects relating to education, health and the environment, earmarked 400m to spend on out-of-school programmes up until 2003. It set aside 180m for out-of-school learning schemes and 220m for out-of-school childcare. Obtain details on NOF's general enquiries line (0845 0000 121) or its website, www.nof.org.uk
Speak out!
The time has come to recruit graduate qualified business managers who do not have childcare qualifications, says Michael Thompson, managing director of Child Base, which operates 24 nurseries
While I applaud the Government's initiative in encouraging more people to consider childcare as a career, the real issue for the future of our sector is how we can recruit, train and retain our managers. The sector is growing at rates where I cannot see how standards will not be compromised unless the issues of recruitment and retention of staff are addressed by providers over the course of the next 12 months. Every week we hear of new openings, new chains entering the market and funds being thrown at those who have a vision to expand their operation.
At the same time as the sector grows, the nurseries get ever larger. The average size of new nurseries has increased by 25 per cent in the last ten years. Ten years ago I remember the resistance to registering nurseries with over 50 places. Now 100-place centres are commonplace.
Far from childcare
The skills of running these larger facilities take the incumbent manager further and further from childcare. Indeed, the modern manager will be running a business that turns over several hundreds of thousands of pounds, employs 30 or 40 people, has several hundred customers and deals with countless suppliers.
They are expected to be personnel managers, financial controllers, and marketing and customer care managers as well as quality controller and childcare experts. How can we continue to find managers with these qualities in the numbers required to sustain the current growth in the market? It is even more restricting when one considers that every manager has to possess an NNEB qualification or equivalent.
Nursery nurse opportunities
The time must be right for the practitioners and regulators to consider whether we should widen our catchment and seek to recruit graduate-qualified business managers who do not have childcare qualifications as a prerequisite for taking up their post. We are already beginning to see the sort of salaries being paid which are necessary to attract business managers, and career structures will follow.
The real issue is whether it is easier to take childcare professionals and teach them the skills of management, or take managers and teach them childcare skills. I happen to believe that if it is to be the latter, then those business recruits will need childcare professionals alongside them to ensure the care is delivered to the appropriate standard. However, what this structure will provide is a development opportunity for nursery nurses who can assume some responsibility for day-to-day matters while deferring to the business manager on the larger operational issues. It will allow their development without shattering their confidence by asking them to accept too much responsibility too soon.
We compromise the quality of our nurseries at our peril. That must include the management. From the management stems the direction, vision, enthusiasm and motivation of others. It is my belief that we do not have enough people within the childcare sector who can meet these challenges. We need, therefore, to look elsewhere. That process needs to start now.