What is wraparound care/provision?

In England, wraparound care refers to childcare services offered to school-aged children (although sometimes early years) before and after the standard school day, and sometimes during school holidays. It’s designed to help parents manage work schedules by providing regular, dependable care, often from 8am to 6pm during term time. This differs from occasional extra-curricular activities, focusing on consistent care provision.

Please note wrap-around in Wales is childcare that ‘wraps’ around a part-time funded education place currently (either in a school or childcare setting that is funded for education) whereas children in full-time education would have before and after school care. In Wales for a childminder to provide wrap-around care they should be registered with CIW as any provider would be. See here for information on becoming a childminder in Wales.

What type of wraparound care is there?

Whether alongside your usual childminding business or as a standalone service, there are many ways that you can provide wraparound care to support families in your area:

What training and qualifications do I need to provide wraparound care?

This will depend on which childcare register you apply to. Work through these questions to find the answers for your situation.

Safeguarding training from Coram PACEY

The introduction of the Annex C: Criteria for effective safeguarding training sets out the minimum requirements for effective safeguarding training, helping providers know what they must be looking for in a safeguarding course and also what information a course must contain. Requiring a training renewal period of every two years strengthens safety.

We have developed two new courses that meet the criteria for effective safeguarding training outlined in Annex C of the EYFS safeguarding reforms (effective 1 September 2025):

• Safeguarding children for Designated Safeguarding Leads

Designed for DSLs. Meets all the criteria for effective safeguarding training outlined in Annex C of the EYFS safeguarding reforms (effective 1 September 2025). In every setting, a practitioner must be designated to take lead responsibility for safeguarding children. In childminding settings, the childminder is the Designated Safeguarding Lead.

• Safeguarding children for staff 

Designed for staff (childminder assistants, nursery workers, nannies etc.). Fulfils part one and two of the criteria for effective safeguarding training outlined in Annex C of the EYFS safeguarding reforms (effective 1 September 2025).

Paediatric first aid (PFA) certificate

First aid training is not only a requirement as a childcare professional, but it’s a potentially lifesaving skill that you never know when you’ll need.

Coram PACEY works with Tigerlily Training to deliver first aid courses designed for childcare professionals and offers Coram PACEY members a 10% discount. The Department of Education continues to recognise Blended First Aid in the Early years foundation stage statutory framework and you can be guaranteed that Tigerlily meets the full guidance.

Level 3 Award in Preparing to Work in Home-based Childcare (HBCA)

Our Level 3 Award in Preparing to Work in Home-based Childcare (HBCA) is the most comprehensive qualification to help you cover everything you need to begin a career in home-based childcare as a childminder or nanny in England.

The course will support you to develop the appropriate skills, knowledge, and a give you a clear understanding of your role and responsibilities in order to provide good quality early years provision and enable you to meet the requirements of the childcare registers.

Common core skills

The Common core of skills and knowledge for the children’s workforce – often referred to as the common core – describes the skills and knowledge that everyone who works with children and young people is expected to have. There are six areas of expertise in the common core:

• Effective communication and engagement with children, young people and families
• Child and young person development
• Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child or young person
• Supporting transitions
• Multi-agency and integrated working
• Information sharing

There are many providers offering training in the common core skills. If you are looking for training you should consider – along with your own professional judgement of the training provider – the delivery method, cost and how long the course will take to complete to find a course to suit your requirements.

***Coming soon – Common core skills training from Coram PACEY***

The Government’s Wraparound scheme (England)

The national wraparound childcare programme provides grant funding to local authorities in England to help ensure there is sufficient before and after school childcare in their area. 

As part of this scheme, they have released guidance for schools and trusts on their role in providing wraparound childcare to children of primary school age in England and how to include PVI (private, voluntary and independent) providers including childminders. Read the full guidance here.

Childcare providers will set their own fees for wraparound places, so prices will vary. Parents and guardians will pay their wraparound childcare provider directly for their child’s place. Households eligible for Tax-Free Childcare or Universal Credit Childcare will be able to use the support to help pay for wraparound care. Tax-Free Childcare could save eligible parents up to £2,000 per year for children aged up to 11, or £4,000 per year for children aged up to 17 with disabilities. Universal Credit Childcare could save eligible parents up to 85% of their childcare costs for children aged up to 16. Parents may also be able to get help with their initial upfront childcare costs.

Resources

Coram PACEY is committed to supporting childminders who provide wraparound care and anyone considering setting up their own wraparound care business. We have a number of FREE resources to support your business and the children in your care:

Examples of wraparound business models

Ellis Reynolds, Dudley

Ellis and her husband provide wrap around care to children at four different schools with a growing demand for more from their local authority. Some of the schools have wraparound provision in place, some do not. Some children are with them from 6am – 8am, then their parents drop them to school, this means Ellis can support emergency works on shifts. In addition to this they provide holiday care which is often not available to children until they are 5-years-old.

All Ellis’ care is home-based provision in her home. They have a growing amount of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) with diagnosed ASD and ADHD in the setting who are thriving from the home from home environment they provide the children.

She has been very fortunate that their local authority, Dudley have been really supportive of childminders providing wraparound care in their local area. Initially she began offering the service of her own accord however, in the past year they have worked closely with their local authority and Wraparound Lead to maximise the amount of spaces they can offer families.

Charlotte Greeno, Cambridge

Charlotte is a registered childminder of 12 years, with almost two decades of early years experience. She has two consecutive Ofsted outstanding gradings, holds a BA (hons) in Early Years and won Childminder of the Year in the Nursery World Awards in 2023. 

Charlotte provides early years day care and currently provides wraparound care for a child in a specialist school, as they have no wraparound service or school holiday care to care for children with complex SEND. Charlotte only provides wraparound care for children that have been with her since their early years.