Wraparound Care: the importance of robust systems to ensure that children are safe, nurtured and happy

We share our findings to show how supportive partnerships can achieve sustainable results

Wraparound Care has become increasingly vital for busy working families. When a school is able to offer this, it makes it much easier for parents to feel confident that their child is being well cared for in a familiar environment. However, adapting our education service offer to reflect today’s world and creating an extended learning environment where every child is able to be successful, can be a challenge. Venturing into providing out-of-school care is not something to be undertaken lightly.  Children deserve the best, and this means staff who are well qualified, knowledgeable and skilled, with a secure understanding of what’s required to provide excellence in education and care standards in wraparound settings. Not only that but, as with any other aspect of work that takes place in schools, Ofsted will check for both quality and compliance.

In order to be a successful provider of wraparound care, there are a range of areas that leaders need to consider. These are very similar to those in schools. They include:

• Quality of education: provision of a well-planned, rich and engaging curriculum which enables children to develop in all the seven areas of learning and is supported by effective teaching.
• Behaviour and attitudes: supporting children to manage their feelings, interact well and socialise with others, follow expectations and develop a love of learning.
• Personal development: the provision of a PSHCE and enrichment curriculum which enables children to develop and flourish.
• Leadership and management: effective leaders who are able to develop and implement robust policies and procedures to comply with the legal duties around safeguarding and welfare requirements for children, regardless of their age. Leaders must also be able to evaluate the quality of their provision and plan to enhance it in a cycle of ongoing improvement and development. To do this effectively, leaders must also focus on staff wellbeing and reflect this in safeguarding supervision meetings.

Wraparound Care services are inspected against the relevant criteria in the Early Years and Education Inspection Frameworks. Reading through the government material on legal requirements and best practices is time-consuming, but essential. Ofsted’s current EIF is very different from previous frameworks and gets right to the heart of curriculum and quality of education. While this is a significant move in the right direction, it can pose a challenge to settings to structure and articulate the rationale for their practice. However, you don’t have to do this alone. This is where B11’s experienced consultants can help.

Over the last year, B11 has been working closely with a number of partners to support them in providing safe settings and ensuring the welfare of the children attending them.

Wraparound Care was a completely new product to Premier Education, with a wide variety of considerations, systems, training and knowledge required to not only be compliant but to also ensure we deliver the framework model to comply with Ofsted.

The support Cassie Blackwood from B11 has provided the network has influenced and created a platform of success for our Wraparound Care Business.

B11 have supported over 70 wraparound care venues, with measured training for playworkers and venue leads nationally. 

Tommy Stevens, Wraparound Care Manager, Premier Education

Our approach is robust but developmental, and we firmly believe in securing ongoing relationships with our partners rather than delivering one-off training or quality assurance. We have supported and modelled good practice through delivering effective leadership coaching and training. We have also worked with leaders to put in place robust policies that have helped them to meet their duty of care, and to review them regularly to ensure the children are kept safe from all forms of harm. In addition, we have provided leadership teams with the most up to date information about specific forms of abuse and safeguarding issues, compliant with Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022 statutory guidance.

Some of the areas of support that we have offered this year have been:

• With the evaluation of the quality of the curriculum. We have discussed with staff their curriculum intent (what they want children to learn), how they implement their curriculum, and what impact it has had on children’s learning and development. This has included working with leaders to identify how they will support the all-important development of cultural capital: a key area which enhances children’s learning and understanding of the world at school and beyond. It is particularly important that children should have experiences which enable them to build on home and family learning.
• With the development of effective teaching and learning: providing ongoing CPD and support to ensure that staff have the skills and knowledge to deliver the curriculum well so that children make good progress during their time in the wraparound setting.
• With the development of vocabulary, language and reading in recognition of the fact that a secure start with these in early years gives all children the best chance of accessing the curriculum as they progress through school, and so increases their life chances.
• Supporting leaders to quality assure their provision, including the crucial aspects of safeguarding. Without these fundamentals, settings will not meet Ofsted’s robust requirements.

The robust systems, guidance and knowledge we have received as a business to deliver Ofsted standards daily would not have been possible without this support.

Tommy Stevens, Wraparound Care Manager, Premier Education

To find out more about our Wraparound Care support and guidance, get in touch today to start a conversation.