The Out-of-School Childcare Grant Initiative: a second evaluation

The Social Survey Division of The Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, together with the Institute for Employment Studies, were commissioned by the then Department of Employment to undertake an evaluation of the Out of School Childcare Grant Initiative in England and Wales.

The aim of the Initiative was to improve the quantity and quality of out-of-school childcare in order to facilitate increased labour market participation, among those who wished to combine work with family life, by parents of school-aged children.

The grant was intended to assist with the start-up costs of new schemes caring for children out of school hours, or support the creation of new places at existing schemes. Its purpose is to cover initial capital costs and support operating costs for a maximum of one year.

During the first year of the Initiative, 1993-94, 40 Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) in England, along with five in Wales, were selected to deliver the grant on a pilot basis.

At the end of this period the remaining 35 English TECs, together with the remaining two in Wales, were brought into the initiative. The Scottish Local Enterprise Companies (LECs) began development work in 1993, and the main phase of the Initiative began there in 1994.

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