Providing safe wraparound care for children

By David Underwood, NSPCC

Any organisation providing childcare or activities for children and young people needs effective safeguarding policies and procedures, as well as confident staff and volunteers.

What is wraparound care?

Wraparound care is childcare for primary school-aged children provided before and after the regular school day.¹ It can also refer to care offered during the school holidays.

It is different from extra-curricular clubs and activities that schools may offer which are less frequent or a one-off.²

Wraparound care is designed to be regular and dependable for various reasons, including:

• enabling parents to work or study
• supporting vulnerable children
• offering enriching activities that children enjoy
• supporting a soft start to the school day and attendance.

What wraparound care looks like should reflect the needs of the children and families in the local community.

Parents should not be required to pick up or drop off their children between the end of the regular school day and any wraparound care provision.

How is wraparound care provided?

There are several potential wraparound care providers. These include:

• primary schools
• private providers
• voluntary providers
• independent providers
• childminders
• early years settings
• community organisations.³

Wraparound care can be provided:

• on a school site (run in-house by the school or in partnership with a provider)
• at a nearby school or private, voluntary or independent (PVI) provider.⁴

Local authorities may also co-ordinate a model of wraparound care where children from multiple schools attend provision on the same site.

How to provide safe wraparound care

Wraparound settings should be a safe and happy place for children. Parents, carers and families should feel confident that their child is well looked after and that robust safeguarding arrangements are in place.

Wraparound care providers have a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments so that children who have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) can access wraparound care provision.

Wraparound care providers should follow the relevant safeguarding guidance for the children they are working with and the activities they are providing.⁵

All providers should:

• make sure all staff receive safeguarding training
• have a named child protection and safeguarding lead and ensure all staff and service users know how to contact them
• ensure vetting, disclosure and barring checks have been carried out for all staff, including volunteers
• make sure appropriate policies and procedures are in place to identify and deal with safeguarding incidents quickly.

Providers of wraparound care in England: 

• on a school site must follow Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE) 2024
• caring for children in reception year or younger in England must follow the safeguarding and welfare requirements within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework
• who are not required to register with Ofsted should follow the safeguarding guidance for out-of-school settings After-school clubs, community activities and tuition: safeguarding guidance for providers.

> Read our CASPAR briefing summarising After-school clubs, community activities and tuition: safeguarding guidance for providers

Providers of wraparound care in:

• Northern Ireland should follow the Childcare Qualifications and Minimum Standards
• Scotland should follow the national guidance for child protection in Scotland
• Wales should follow the National Minimum Standards (NMS) for Regulated Childcare for children up to the age of 12.

Wraparound care in England that is not directly managed by a school

Even when wraparound care isn't directly supervised or managed by a school in England, the school is still responsible for making sure that the individual or organisation providing the care has appropriate safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures in place.⁶

Schools must make sure there are arrangements in place for the wraparound care provider to liaise with them on safeguarding matters where appropriate, as providers may care for children from multiple schools at the same time.

In England, each local authority must allocate at least one designated wraparound lead whose responsibilities include establishing links with schools and local safeguarding partnerships.

Local authorities in England should make sure that anyone working on the delivery of the wraparound care is familiar with the Working together to safeguard children statutory guidance.

About the author

David Underwood has over 16 years' experience working in mainstream schools, special educational needs schools and local authorities. Before joining the NSPCC, David worked as PSHE/RSE co-ordinator in a mainstream secondary education school. He has also worked with schools as part of school improvement groups.