Making sure that your business is offering good value for money is an absolutely essential piece of reflection that all childcare practitioners should be considering in today’s current climate. It is no great secret that the Cost of Living crisis is having a significant impact on the spending habits of consumers, and that also includes parents paying for childcare.
The cost of living crisis means that consumers are more determined than ever to make sure that every penny is accounted for, and spent wisely. That puts even greater emphasis on the childcare providers, such as ourselves, to make sure that the service being paid for is of the very best quality.
As part of our commitment to be stay in touch with the world around us, we know that many of our customers may be struggling to make ends meet, we know they may be resorting to using food banks or food vouchers for their food. As such, we like to play out part and help out by out free complimentary toast, we even offer jam on different days of the week (not every day though- think of the sugar content!) to make sure that the children we look after don’t go to school hungry. Plus, some of our children arrive at provision at 7:30 am, that sometimes means they’ve been rushed out of the door at home without time for breakfast, so we just think it makes sense to provide the service! It is a much in demand service, with many rounds of toast being gobbled up every morning!
Similarly, when booked on for snack, children get two snack times. Upon arriving at the provision children can choose between fresh fruit, or energising cereal bars, and then roughly an hour later they have their choice out of more substantial options. These options include: sandwiches, toasties, wraps, crackers- with fillings such as ham, jam and cheese. (Though again, we’re aware of the high sugar content in jam, so this isn’t available every day!) We feel this dual snack set-up is good value for money and means that your child has plenty of energy to tide them over until collection time.
Sometimes we even offer complimentary snacks like popcorn, or the opportunity to try hummus and different fruits and vegetables as a treat! While these occasions don’t occur with any real frequency, they are fun opportunities to change up the routine and introduce the children to something new- and, it’s a bit of help for the parents too, if their child has had a little bite to eat with no extra costs.
Another aspect of our determination to provide great value and quality for money lays in the fact that our clubs are run by qualified professionals; whether it’s football, cricket, adventure club and so on, our team of lovely professionals are qualified to deliver activities, give First Aid Treatment and so much more! There’s enthusiasm in abundance, all for the price of the club or the wraparound care! Speaking of which, all children booked onto the wraparound childcare have the chance to attend the clubs that are taking place that afternoon too- for example, even if your child isn’t booked onto Pokémon club, they can still attend the club if they’re at the provision while the club is taking place.
However, not only do clubs take place afterschool, we have lots of fun activities that our wraparound provisions take part in. While there is some element of free-play and creative/active roleplay scenarios for children to engage in, there are lots of other activities which include:
- Arts & Crafts (usually themed to current or upcoming events, celebrations and days of special note)
- Playground games- now is an especially great time of year to encourage children to explore the outdoors.
- Mad Science. Now this activity is always received with a lot of excitement! From making eggs into bouncy balls, to fireworks in a jar, there’s fun and learning to be had by all! (Even our playworkers who deliver these activities are often blown-way by the results of the science experiments, AND by the enthusiasm of the children!)
- There’s a lot of focus on the stress faced by children in this day and age, so we like to help de-stress the children we care for; it can be mindfulness colouring, unpacking and exploring their emotions through the medium of roleplay, or even doing some simple, but effective, yoga.
Most importantly though, we provide great value for money by having great communication between ourselves as a team, by liaising closely with the schools we work in, and giving and receiving feedback from the parents who pay for our services. It is our ability to reflect on the successes and failures of our company and the services we provide that means we’re able to keep updating and improving what we can offer to parents and schools.
If you have any further questions, or would like to give us some feedback, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are always happy to help.