A survey of more than 1,000 parents and a similar number of school-aged children, published last week, found that children eligible for free school meals or whose parents were unemployed were less likely to use the services.
Sixteen per cent of parents cited cost as a barrier to out-of-school activities.
The survey found that 60 per cent of parents and 67 per cent of pupils were happy with the childcare and activities offered by their school. It found that 94 per cent of schools offer extended services either at or through a 'cluster' of schools working together, and 58 per cent of parents had used these services in the last term.
While acknowledging that schools were trying to make services affordable by waiving fees in some cases, the DCSF said schools need to communicate better with parents about the financial help available to them.
It also said that there seemed to be a gap between the availability of holiday childcare and parents' perception of activities on offer in school holidays.
Children's minister Beverley Hughes called on schools and local authorities to do more to ensure extended services met the needs of families and were sustainable.
She said, 'Across England there are exciting and innovative examples of schools providing out of hours activities - now we need schools to show off their hard work and make sure that all parents and pupils are aware of the opportunities open to them.'
Further information
The reports 'Extended Schools Survey of Schools, Pupils and Parents' and 'Extended Schools: Establishing a baseline methodology to estimate the impact of the extended schools programme' are at www.dcsf.org.uk
