At last child care is on the agenda

MARK Barnett has always felt we could make better use of our schools. The headteacher of Westfield Community Primary School, in York, has never been one for mincing his words. "What is the point of a school only being used to 15 per cent of its capacity?" he says. "We should be using 100 per cent of their capacity."

He is particularly proud of the word 'community' in his school's title - because that is precisely what it is, part of the community.

So he has no arguments with Tony Blair over his plans to extend the opening hours of schools to provide school-based child care for all primary-age youngsters between the hours of 8am and 6pm. Far from it, in fact. Mr Barnett's school has got there long before Mr Blair.

The Prime Minister's big idea to help working parents, announced with a fanfare last week, is for schools to be open longer to provide somewhere where working parents can leave their children in safety before or after normal school hours.

The traditional short school day didn't necessarily fit in with their parents' working day, Mr Blair said.

So more money had already been set aside to ensure schools could offer breakfast clubs in the morning and after-school clubs in the evening, to help relieve the daily "stress and struggle" many parents faced.

"This is about trying to take the burden off working parents," the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister's idea - part of a "ten-year plan" - is for affordable, school-based care to be available for all primary-age children by the end of the next Parliament.

But guess what? It already is at Westfield.

The school's breakfast club begins at 8am, for those parents who need to drop their children off earlier. And it's after-school club, offering a range of activities, runs until 6pm, five days a week.

Also, the school's recently-built nursery and children's centre effectively extends the care available for youngsters from soon after 7am to almost 7pm - and into the school holidays. The centre houses the school's own nursery and a private day nursery, Kaleidoscope - the first time a school nursery and private nursery have been housed in the same building in York.

So do the extended child care hours work? Not half, says Mr Barnett.

"It certainly helps working parents. Child care is a real problem in this day and age. There are a lot of parents who need to work to provide their family with everything they want to provide.

"At least parents feel they can safely leave their children here, and if we provide a local opportunity for them to do that, they can decide what hours they are going to work."

Thumbs up for the Prime Minister's proposals then, at least from this headteacher?

Well, yes - with a few qualifications. It will be vital for any proposals to be properly funded so schools can recruit the trained staff they will need, Mr Barnett says. And if the idea is to really succeed, it will be important that schools themselves adopt the proposals willingly.

"I think this is a model that could be extended to other schools, but it depends on the ethos of the school. If it was simply imposed on unwilling schools... if those schools were not already doing something like it, it will be very interesting to see how it works in those establishments."

With a general election looming, both Labour and the Conservatives are keen to cast themselves as the friend of the working parent.

So while Mr Blair was at an East London primary school outlining his plans for improved child care, Michael Howard, the leader of the opposition, was unveiling his own alternative proposals. In a nutshell, those boil down to tax relief on childcare and more flexible maternity allowance payments.

The war of words is already beginning. Despite the qualified support of headteachers such as Mr Barnett, critics of the Labour proposals warn that expecting a child to spend ten hours a day at school for the convenience of parents is not on.

Emma Hutchinson, director of Music House for Children, which provides musical tuition for youngsters, has warned about extended childcare becoming "boarding schools without beds".

It is hugely important for children to be able to talk to and be supported by their parents, she says. "I'm not against activities after school, but the way it's being done.

"There is very little opportunity if you are at school up to ten hours and then home and straight to bed. It doesn't promote children and families sitting together and being together as a unit."

Supporters of the Labour proposals point out that no one is suggesting a child should spend ten hours a day at school five days a week - merely that if schools extend their opening hours, parents can be more flexible about when they drop off and pick up their children.

Nevertheless, Lucy Hjort, York restaurateur and spokesperson for the York branch of the National Childbirth Trust, admits she does have some worries about the number of hours some children may end up staying at school.

Lucy has two daughters - Amy, ten, and Sarah, seven. Sarah has joined an after-school club at her primary school and loves it, Lucy says. At her elder daughter Amy's school, meanwhile, there is a breakfast club. Amy herself doesn't go: but she has a friend whose child does.

"And she says it's fantastic," Lucy says. "There are no more rows at home about what they are eating for breakfast. She says things are much calmer and more civilised now."

There is, however, a downside to the idea of extended school hours, she says. "For children to be in school uniform for ten hours a day is not necessarily going to be comfortable for them. Parents could end up paying emotionally, because they are picking up over-tired, over-stressed children."

For such schemes to work, Lucy says, it will be vital for the after-school activities to be kept separate from the school day, and to feel different too. Children will have to feel they can enjoy the activities, she says - and it would help if they could be given a snack, too, so they weren't too hungry and crotchety by the time their parents came to pick them up.

What about the Conservative tax proposals? If the idea was to create a new tax code for parents of young children, so they paid less tax that way, it may work, Lucy said: but it would be difficult to make it work if parents had to claim tax back afterwards. That could get too complicated and messy.

Perhaps the best news for working parents is that the issue of child care is now firmly on the political map.

"Working parents will be pleased to see the political parties trying to outbid each other in the provision of child care," said TUC general secretary Brendan Barber. "This puts the needs of working parents high on the political agenda in the run up to the election."

The proposals compared

LABOUR

School-based care for primary-aged children between 8am and 6pm

Breakfast clubs in the morning for children whose parents need to drop them off early because of work

After-school clubs until 6pm for parents who need to pick their children up late.

Money "already set aside" for the proposals to be introduced by the end of the next parliament

CONSERVATIVES

Consulting on whether to make the cost of child care tax deductible

Consulting on whether to offer more flexible maternity payments, so that payments could be concentrated into a shorter period

More flexible childcare tax credits so parents could choose how to spend the money

"Fast track" system to help grandparents qualify as childminders

Updated: 11:14 Monday, November 15, 2004