Time for Parenting...

...because raising children is a full-time job

June 2000 Newsletter

Day Care: The True Story; Women @ the Millenium; After School Clubs; ParentChild 2000 Conference

After School Clubs

The Government is investing in a huge expansion of out-of-school care. To fulfill its commitment in the National Childcare Strategy, such care will increase from the current 2% of primary-school children to a staggering 25% in the next three years. Apart from the problem of finding suitable staff, what are the hazards of such rapid expansion, and is this a good form of childcare for the Government to promote?

Studies carried out for Brunel University by their Childcare Research Unit found that most initiatives on out-of-school care are parent-centred, and overlook the views of the children involved. Researchers Fiona Smith and John Barker therefore embarked on a project entitled "What children think of out-of-school care". They visited 24 out-of-school clubs spread across 6 sample areas with a wide socio-economic range, and talked to 400 children.

When asked, most of the children said they enjoyed the clubs, the favourite reason offered being "there's lots to do here - at home all I could do is watch TV". But more detailed questioning raised a number of problems. Most of the children at the clubs were using them for only a two-three days per week or less, but the children who were there five days a week were less happy, because they missed the opportunity to be at home and to have their friends to play.

In many of the clubs there was clearly a conflict between the desire of the children to find some private space and the playleaders' wish to keep the children all in view so they could be more easily supervised. Clubs with outdoor spaces, or large indoor ones, tended to be taken over by boys playing football; the girls retreated to the margins to chat. Girls were also more willing to participate in organised "cutting and sticking" activities, whereas boys did not.

Because many of the playleaders were NNEB trained, activities were often more appropriate for the younger children, and older children felt bored or talked down to. The happiness of individual children was often dependent on whether their particular friends were at the club that day.

None of these conclusions are surprising, but they confirm the need to consider children as individuals. Packaging their care to suit adult working hours should be kept to a minimum, as primary-school children have minds - and needs - of their own. Whilst out-of-school clubs can fill a gap for part-time working parents, they should not be viewed as a means to enable mothers to work full-time, five days a week. JK