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Extending your Provision to Provide a Holiday Club
Providers of after school clubs are often approached by schools or parents to ask if they will extend their service to provide care during the holidays as well as during term time. This article looks at some of the issues you should consider.Ofsted registration
If your setting is currently registered with Ofsted to provide after school care, you do not need to register with them separately in order to provide care during the school holidays. You do, however, need to contact them in writing (by post or email) to let them know that you will be increasing the number of hours and number of weeks that you will be open. You do not need to wait to receive approval or acknowledgement of such changes: you can begin operating for the additional hours or weeks straightaway.Tip: Be careful about how many weeks you will be open in total over the year. If you open for 45 weeks or more in the year you will become liable for the higher Ofsted registration fee (£220 per year as opposed to £35 per year).
See Ofsted's fees factsheet for more details.
If you want to be able to care for more children at the holiday club than are currently covered by your after school club's Ofsted registration, you will need to submit a Variation Request form. Contact Ofsted to obtain a copy. You cannot begin caring for the additional children until you have received approval for the increase from Ofsted. Under certain circumstances (for example, if you want to increase the numbers dramatically, or if there were concerns about your provision at your last inspection) Ofsted may decide that an inspection is required before they will approve the increased numbers.
Staffing
As you are Ofsted registered, the statutory requirements for staffing ratios and the qualifications needed by your staff are the same as those for your after school club.More on staffing ratios >
More on qualifications >
CRB checks
If you need to recruit additional temporary staff for your holiday club, you must use the same safe recruitment procedures—CRB checks, references, employment history, identity verification, etc—as you would for employing permanent staff. This applies to voluntary helpers as well as to paid staff.If you are on Ofsted's Early Years register or Compulsory Childcare register, you can obtain CRB checks for no charge. Don't forget to leave sufficient time for the CRB check to be completed before the new member of staff is due to start work.
More about CRB checks >
Policies and procedures
Most of your existing policies and procedures will probably be equally applicable to the holiday club, but you will need to:- review your existing policies to ensure that no issues specific to the holiday club have been overlooked, and amend them if necessary
- draw up a new fees structure to cover the holiday period, including drop-off and collection times and any fines for late collection
- create a new registration form specifically for the holiday club: this will ensure that you have up to date contact and medical information for all the children, even those that usually attend during term time
- meet with those delivering the activity in advance to go over the details
- check that all staff are CRB checked and are suitably qualified to deliver the activity
- check that the providers are appropriately insured
- decide on whether a member of your staff always needs to be present at the activity