Press release: Deadline approaches

Deadline approaches for establishing out of school provision


The Government's deadline for all primary schools being able to offer some form of out of school provision is September 2010, which is just six months away. With Ofsted registration taking up to 25 weeks to complete, this means that any schools that don't already have out of school care in place must take action without delay.

Six months is a very tight schedule in which to set up any new enterprise. In addition to obtaining their Ofsted registration, new out of school clubs need to resolve a wide range of issues before they can open their doors, including:

  • Funding
  • Premises (finding somewhere suitable, environmental safety, etc)
  • Staffing (recruitment, CRB checks, etc)
  • Marketing to parents

To help simply this process, the Out of School Alliance (OOSA) provides a wealth of information on its website giving practical advice on all aspects of setting up and running an out of school club, including step-by-step guides, discounts on insurance and other products, and regular updates on changes to legislation and best practice.

Ofsted requires all out of school clubs to have a full set of policies and procedures. OOSA offers a Start-up Pack for new clubs which contains templates of all the forms, policies and other documentation needed for running a club, thus saving new clubs a huge amount of time and effort.

Catherine Wrench, one of the founders of OOSA, explained, "When I was setting up my own out of school club, I could find no single source which had all the information I needed and I spent many late nights trying to assemble all sorts of documentation to meet Ofsted requirements. Any new club trying to achieve the September deadline just does not have the time to track down everything themselves, which is why a service such as OOSA is so essential."

9 March 2010