‘I thought childcare would be easier once my son started school, but wraparound care is broken’

When Carly Osman-Holme’s son Teddy was at nursery, she anticipated their childcare nightmares would be over once he started school – but little did she realise they’d only just begin.

She describes their childcare situation as a “tapestry of chaos” as they desperately muddle through and says they even had to wait over a year to secure a couple of spaces at after school club.

She is far from alone as new research shared exclusively with i reveals more than half of parents (55 per cent) don’t have enough after school provision in their area and 57 per cent say the stress of juggling childcare is negatively impacting their careers.

New research by childcare service Koru Kids of 2,000 UK parents delved into the state of wraparound care and the impact its lack of availability is having on parents.

More than a quarter (27 per cent) of parents said school wraparound care doesn’t fit around their work pattern and a fifth say they cannot afford to access after school clubs.

The findings uncovered regional differences, with East Anglia being hit the hardest with 73 per cent of parents unable to access wraparound care, followed by 72 per cent of parents in Scotland and 59 per cent in the South West.

When it comes to lack of wraparound provision by city, it varied from 74 per cent of parents in Glasgow citing it as an issue and 73 per cent in Cardiff, down to 43 per cent in Oxford and 38 per cent in Belfast.

Ms Osman-Holme told i she naively believed life would improve with childcare when Teddy, now five, started school, but it is actually more difficult.

“When your child is at nursery, you’re paying the equivalent of a mortgage and you mistakenly think when they get to school, there will be adequate after school clubs. But then you realise there aren’t and that the system is broken.”

Ms Osman-Holme, who lives in north London, runs her own marketing consultancy and her husband John is an engineer. She says they simply can’t pick Teddy up when school finishes at 3.20pm.

“It is a small school and after school club places are on a first come, first served basis and priority is given to those with siblings.

“Teddy is an only child and the huge costs of childcare and logistical nightmare has resulted in us deciding not to have a second child.

“School hours don’t fit with working hours. We basically have to wing it every night. It’s very chaotic and stressful.

“We rely on my parents a lot, which causes guilt, and use a mix of shipping Teddy to different activities, using an off-site after school facility and after school club and scrabbling to make things work.

“There’s always a sense of guilt. But we have no other choice if we want to work.”

‘It’s tiring and overwhelming’

Heidi McVay’s husband Paul is an airline pilot for long haul flights and away for days at a time and her own job as head of commercial excellence for a wholesaler sees her travelling all over Europe.

The couple, who live in York, have children Nia, 11 and Magnus, seven. Ms McVay says the wraparound childcare situation is so challenging, that sometimes, they can’t manage and one of them has to take a day off or call their work.

“Nursery was perfect as you’d drop the children off at 8am and pick them up at 6pm, but when you get to a school setting, it’s difficult to get into before and after school clubs. Then because my husband only gets his roster a month in advance, spaces get booked up.

“Neither of us has a nine to five job and there’s not enough flexibility with wraparound childcare. We have to sit down with our diaries every month trying to make it work by moving things around and sending emails to babysitters asking: ‘Can you help?’

Ms McVay says the only other option would be a nanny – but they don’t live in a house big enough to have a nanny and it would consume such a huge chunk of her salary, she would question whether it would be worth the juggle of working.

“People think life will get better once your kids start school – but it’s actually worse,” she said.

“There are moments when it’s all too much and I feel overwhelmed by the decision-making.”

The research was carried out online for Koru Kids by Research Without Barriers. It involved 2,002 working parents of four to 11-year-olds.

Rachel Carrell, founder of Koru Kids, said: “New parents struggling with childcare often see the school years as a glorious distant ‘finish line’, after which all their childcare problems will be over.

“Sadly, parents find it gets harder, not easier to sort out childcare once kids start school because the hours with work often just don’t add up.

“As a result of the pandemic, a lot of wraparound care providers went out of business. We have a chronic shortage of accessible wraparound care in the UK.

“Many parents can’t access after school care or make it work around their job, so they are left pulling in favours to be able to make it all work.”

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Anna Whitehouse, founder of Mother Pukka, who campaigns for flexible working, said: “For decades, parents have been forced to plaster over the gaps in childcare with sticky tape.

“There’s an assumption that when your children start school, you can return to working full-time for five days. But the reality is anything but with parents left running pillar to post trying to establish flexible working hours and pulling in favours from grandparents while simultaneously playing the school club lottery to try and secure after school care.

“The system is knackered and parents are knackered.”

Dr Aaron Bradbury, principal lecturer for early years and childhood at Nottingham Trent University, told i the issue of wraparound care has become a bigger problem is recent years due to a lack of investment by the government and the needs of families being overlooked.

“During the time of the Conservative government, childcare just hasn’t been on the agenda and the infrastructure that is so critical for families to be able to function and go to work so they can give back to society just hasn’t been there,” he said.

“Let’s not forget that all these parents who work are paying into the tax system and should ultimately get the support of the government.

“Parents are juggling everything to try to feed their family and pay their bills and often, the only way they can get out of that rut is by working more hours – but they can’t work more hours because the wraparound childcare provision isn’t there.”

Dr Bradbury added that laying the pressure on schools isn’t the answer as they are facing a recruitment and retention crisis and schools are struggling for funding and facing a deficit.

He says although the Department for Education has pledged to invest £100m to fund childcare places, this is a drop in the ocean as the system is “a mess”.

He said: “Families are often overlooked with government policies and he answer isn’t saying that schools should open up that wraparound provision as they are physically on their knees and don’t have the resource.

“Childminders are the other option and many would offer wraparound care by picking children up from school and taking them to their own home. But we have even got a crisis with childminders as the sector just isn’t supported.

“We need billions to be invested in childcare infrastructure, not millions, if we want the economy to grow as parents are the backbone of our workers.”