As Nursery World reported last week (14 August), BMRB research carriedout for the DCSF found that the number of holiday clubs fell by 9 percent between 2006 and 2007 to 5,800, following a sharp rise in numbersbetween 2003 and 2006.
The number of places in holiday clubs dropped by 13 per cent to230,000.
Jackie Nunns, director of Kids City, which runs three London holidayplayschemes with 160 children a day in Wandsworth and Lambeth, as wellas out-of-school childcare, told Nursery World they would like to runmore holiday clubs but were prevented 'partly because of funding, partlyaccess to school buildings and building work taking place in children'scentres during the holidays. We're working with schools who want us torun services but they haven't enough money.'
However, she added the clubs were doing well this year.
Ms Nunns said some schools ran limited provision - for example, usingextended schools funding to run clubs from 3.30 to 4.30pm, and were notopen 48 weeks a year.
'Money is not ring-fenced - they don't have to prove that they have usedit for extended services. It's a shambles. Until schools are compelledto meet targets, they won't.'
Ms Nunns also said grant-giving organisations were less likely to givemoney to charities running out-of-school care because there was aperception that Government was 'paying for everything'.
Private provider KOOSA Kids runs six holiday clubs on school sites inSurrey, Hampshire and Berkshire, and will see around 6,000 visits thissummer with around 40 children a day. They also run out-of-school clubsfor 60 schools.
Director Lee Partner said they did not have access to extended schoolsfunding. 'You don't see the money as a provider.'
He added, 'A lot of money could be being spent on administration andextended schools co-ordinators rather than on the end user. We drawfunding through local authorities via Sure Start, but it's a quarter ofwhat it was four or five years ago. It's not enough to set up a club.'While he said KOOSA Kids numbers had grown, he suggested some holidayclubs could be affected by the credit crunch.
'Parents have less money in their pockets and it could possibly be thatthey have less to spend on holiday childcare, so there are fewernon-working parents using holiday childcare.'
A DCSF spokesperson said, 'Any apparent reduction in holiday clubs wouldbe disappointing, but this report does not show the whole picture, as itdoes not cover extended schools, which are increasingly offering clubsin the holidays as well as in term time. Currently over 12,000 schoolsare providing extended school services, so this picture will improve aswe make all schools extended by 2010.'
But BMRB said the survey sample for holiday clubs came from daycareproviders classified as 'out of school' providers by Ofsted, which,unless they were registered in a different way, would have includedextended school provision.
