Nursery World - 'Invest a billion in out-of-school clubs'

Kids' Clubs Network (KCN) has called on the Government to invest 1.25bn a year in out-of-school provision to regenerate communities. In a report, Kids' Clubs in the Community, published by the Network this week at the start of the fifth annual Kids' Clubs Week, KCN said out-of-school clubs are a worthwhile investment because they play a crucial part in breaking the cycle of poverty in disadvantaged areas.

In a report, Kids' Clubs in the Community, published by the Network this week at the start of the fifth annual Kids' Clubs Week, KCN said out-of-school clubs are a worthwhile investment because they play a crucial part in breaking the cycle of poverty in disadvantaged areas.

The report found that out-of-school clubs enabled parents to return to work. 'Other benefits were longer-term and less easy to quantify, such as reducing vandalism, raising children's aspirations, helping children to understand and respect others, and providing that increasingly important community focus and "glue",' the report said.

'The long-term benefits of an out-of-school club to the community as a whole are in many ways as important as the more immediate effects of enabling parents to return to work.'

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