Should a ‘childcare service’ fee should be introduced at school breakfast clubs?

Do you think there should be a childcare fee introduced at breakfast clubs provided at local schools?

Wrexham Council currently operates a breakfast scheme between 7:50am and 8:50am at 49 primary schools across the county borough.

Breakfasts are provided to children between 8:20am and 8:50am, however staff are employed between 7:50am and 8:50am – which Wrexham Council say is “effectively providing free childcare for up to half-an-hour”.

The current cost of the service is £636,000.

However as part of the local authority’s Difficult Decision consultation it has been proposed that a £1 charge for the period between 7:50am and 8:20am is introduced.

This would mean parents who drop their child / children off between 7:50am – 8:20am would pay a £1 per-day per-child fee. It will remain free for children being dropped off at the school after 8:20am.

Details about the proposal in the Difficult Decisions consultation, state: “This would be offering a childcare service from 7.50am to 8.20am (for which there would be a charge of £1) and a healthy breakfast from 8.20am to 8.50am (which would continue to be free).

“If a child arrives after 8.20am there will be no charge, but if the parents want to take advantage of the scheme and the child arrives between 7.50am and 8.20am then a charge of £1 per child per day is proposed. The fee would only be charged for the childcare element (ie 7.50am to 8.20am) to make sure the service is sustainable.

“The council would still be contributing to the scheme; the parental contributions would help to make sure the overall cost to the council would be less than it is now.”

Is is thought the introduction of the fee could generate an extra £106,000 in 2018/19 and a further £52,000 in 2019/20 – making “the service sustainable and make it less expensive for the council to run”.

There are a number of ways you can let Wrexham Council know what you think of its proposals to save £13 million from services it provides:

– Please complete the survey – either online or in paper version to say what extent you agree with the proposals Wrexham Council are making.
– There will be more detailed consultations conducted with service users for some of these proposals – which will also contribute to the decision making process.
– You could also write to ‘Tell Us What You Think’. 3rd Floor Annex. The Guildhall. Wrexham. LL11 1AY
– Or email [email protected] (please mark your correspondence ‘Difficult Decisions’)

The responses submitted will help the decision making process for the new budget in January / February 2018.

A document outlining Wrexham Council’s proposals can be found here. You can fill in the online consultation here and you have until November 30th to do so!