Child-centred after school and holiday care: case study interviews

Smith, Fiona and Barker, John (2015). Child-centred after school and holiday care: case study interviews. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-851978

The project is exploring the provison of out of school care, defined as providing childcare to groups of children aged between five and twelve years in settings explicitly offering creative play opportunities, from the perspective of the child. While the service is currently going through a period of rapid expansion, fuelled by the Governments "Out of School Childcare Initiative", the development has been parent centred, focusing in particular on the needs of the growing number of working mothers. The research aims to re-establish the importance of out of school care to the child by: 1. Exploring what childrens experiences of out of school care are; 2. Identifying how they would like the service provided; 3. Involving them directly in the planning and development of the out of school service; 4. Examining how childrens opportunities after school and during school holidays are constrained or facilitated according to where they live and who they are; 5. Identyfing ways in which out of school care can be used to promote equality of opportunity amongst children, and 6. Exploring the relationship between the kind of care provided in the local area and the way children are perceived and defined in that area. Playworkers in the case study will be trained to gather data with children through the use of interviews, painting, drawing, craft and drama. At the analysis stage of the project, children and playworkers will be consulted to validate the conclusions drawn by the researchers.

Data description (abstract)

Dataset consisting of 24 case study interview transcripts of interviews with children and adults. In a first instance, the research involved statistical analysis of the Kids Clubs' Network database. Using this information, six case study locations were identified to contrast children's experiences in localities providing different models and levels of provision. Clubs were sampled within each of these localities to explore the experiences of children living in areas with different socio-economic and demographic profiles. All children attending sampled clubs were asked if they wished to participate in the research, and parental permission was obtained. Play workers in the sampled clubs were trained to gather data with children to contextualise their daily experience of out of school care through the use of interviews, essay writing, painting, drawing, craft and drama. Research was also undertaken in schools with children not attending an out of school service to find out how their experiences after school and during school holidays differ from those children attending clubs and to identify the constraints that render the service inaccessible to particular groups of children.

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