Further delays expected on reopening of holiday clubs

In another blow to the sector which provides holiday clubs for children, the Out of School Alliance (OOSA), said that some large providers had already cancelled summer holiday provision because of the uncertainty around opening, and that parents would face the difficult choice between using unregulated childcare for their children, leaving them unsupervised, or not returning to work.

The OOSA met with the Department for Education on Wednesday (17 June) and has  provided the following update for its members:

• as things currently stand, no holiday clubs of any kind are allowed to open
• the DfE are working to produce a set of guidance that will set out how - or even if - holiday clubs will be able to open this summer
• although they hope to get this guidance out 'soon', in reality it is very unlikely that anything will be released before the next major government announcement about moving to the next stage of lockdown on 4 July.

Clare Freeman, director of the Out of School Alliance (OOSA), told Nursery World, ‘We are extremely frustrated and disappointed with this stance. There is no indication of what measures will be expected, or what conditions settings must fulfil, before they are allowed to reopen.

'As a result, some of the large national holiday clubs like Barracudas and Super Camps have had to make the decision to not open this summer due to the uncertainty. At the same time, clubs across the country are inundated with calls from desperate parents needing vital holiday cover so that they can work. They will face the difficult choice between using unregulated childcare for their children, or leaving them unsupervised, or not returning to work.’

According to the OOSA, the DfE is not making any distinction between Ofsted-registered clubs, which are there to provide childcare for working parents, and unregistered clubs which typically run provision based around a particular activity, such as sports or drama.

Ms Freeman explained, ‘It seems that one of the causes for the delay is that the DfE wants the guidance to cover every type of holiday club – regulated and unregulated. It seems inexplicable to us that a club which is Ofsted-registered, and therefore subject to external oversight and accustomed to following strict regulations, cannot be issued with a series of conditions that it will need to meet in order to be able to open at the start of the summer holidays.

'We have asked whether an indication of the guidelines could be released now, so that clubs could at least start to look into whether they would be able to meet them, but the representatives of the DfE were not able to agree to this suggestion.’

A DfE spokesperson told Nursery World, ‘It is our ambition, if the science allows, that holiday clubs will be running in the summer. We will be updating guidance soon.

Guidance will be provided to the sector on how to implement the protective measures necessary to open safely, and to parents on how to minimise the spread of the virus if they choose to attend.’