This article will introduce you to our ActivePlus extended childcare provision through the holidays.
What is ActivePlus?
ActivePlus is our extended childcare provision that takes place outside of standard school hours. This includes before and after school care, and holiday provision. The full day runs from 7:30am – 6:00pm with options for shorter bookings.
We understand that work doesn’t stop during school holidays and so we made the decision to mirror our term time offering during the holidays.
Holiday provision across our hub venues offer early pick up and late drop off options.
How does ActivePlus work during term time?
Our diverse timetable offers a minimum of 10 activities per week, ranging from dodgeball and football, to cooking and science. Our flexible booking options mean that your child is able to attend for the first session only if you don’t need wraparound care. This means we are able to offer schools a wide range of afterschool clubs for all children, as well as additional activities for those who need childcare for longer.
ActivePlus breakfast club includes a healthy breakfast for every child including a range of cereal, toast, crumpets, fruit and yogurt. Once breakfast has been served, children will be able to take part in a light physical activity or a wellbeing activity to get them ready for the busy day ahead!
During the extended wraparound care provision, we provide a snack. This includes wraps, sandwiches or rolls with fillings such as cheese, ham, chicken and jam, as well as fruit and a range of other snacks. We ensure that all dietary requirements are catered for. Once food has been served children can then take part in another activity, as advertised on the timetable, or they can relax with a range of games, books or arts & crafts.
Visit our dedicated wraparound page to find out more about our term time activities.
How does ActivePlus work during the school holidays?
We want to ensure parents have access to the same level of wraparound provision all year round, which is why we’re aligning our existing holiday and wraparound services.
We will now be offering a wider range of activities in our 360 Active camps (formerly 360 sports), as well as extending the day to mirror our term time offering. This will mean parents can plan accordingly safe in the knowledge that cost and timings will remain consistent across our services.
What’s included in your ActivePlus holiday provision?
ActivePlus both during term time and during the holidays will include:
- Wide range of activities on offer including different sports, games and wellbeing sessions.
- Light breakfast and healthy snacks in the morning and evening extended sessions.
- Extended day services charged at £5.40 per hour + food.
- Core day for holidays charged at £3.75 per hour (lunch not included).
What’s different to your previous Holiday offering?
We recognise that the previous holiday and wraparound provision did not align, creating confusion and inconvenience to our communities. We listened to your feedback and acknowledged the need for a longer day, with a wider range of activities.
360 Sports camp has become 360 Active across our hub venues and include a variety of activities as seen on our wraparound programme, including a number of exciting new activities such as battlezone archery, go karts and more. This change comes as a result of your feedback to include more than just sports as a solution to keep your children active.
Our extended day provision now incorporates the cost of a light snack both in the morning and in the evening, as well as extended drop off and pick up times.
Why do we offer ActivePlus during the holidays? Why has this impacted cost?
Previously, we’ve been asked by parents if we could offer childcare provision like the service we provide during the school term. Many parents are after consistency when it comes to planning for the year ahead, especially when juggling work commitments too. That’s why we made the decision to introduce ActivePlus to our holiday provision too.
This alignment in our childcare offering means the overall cost for holiday provision has had to increase, as we now offer extended early drop off and late pick up options for our camps, and also include a snack during these sessions.
The increase in our standard day price also reflects the changes to the activities available in our 360 Active offering.
What will impact price increases?
- We’re proud to be a real living wage employer, which means our team earn the real living wage as a minimum. That’s not the government living wage, it’s the actual living wage people need to live as reviewed by the Living Wage Foundation. Naturally, this has an impact on our bottom line. For example, being a Real Living Wage Employer added +10% to our overhead costs in 2024 and will likely continue to rise over the next year.
- Cost of living rates.
- CPI index.
What are the different times slots you offer with ActivePlus?
As a standard offering, we start our breakfast clubs 1 hour and 15 minutes before the day starts (typically 7:30am). During holidays we then offer our Standard Day from 8:45am – 3:45pm.
Once the standard day has finished, we offer two extended day options. Option 1 being an after school club / a 1 hour 15 minute extended activity day during the holidays, and option 2 being a final session ending at 6pm (during holidays and school time).
Typical times slots –
- 7:30 – 8:45am
- 8:45am – 3:45pm
- 3:45 – 5:00pm or 3:45 – 6:00pm
How can you pay for our ActivePlus provision?
Tax free childcare
If you’re a single parent, or if you and your partner both work a minimum of 16 hours a week and earn more than the National Living wage, then you qualify for the governments tax-free childcare scheme.
This allows you to continue to book on to our Active Holiday camps with a further 20% price reduction, and you can still apply our Active Saver 15% off discount too on top of this (Only during the active saver window). Read more about the scheme, here: https://www.activeme360.com/government-tax-free-childcare-scheme/
Universal Credit
You may be able to claim back up to 85% of your childcare costs if you’re eligible for Universal Credit.
You (and your partner if you live with them) will usually need to either:
- be working - it does not matter how many hours you or your partner work
- have a job offer
How much you’ll get
The most you can get back each month is:
- £1,014.63 for one child
- £1,739.37 for 2 or more children
You can claim Universal Credit online.
Why is the last hour £5.40 in comparison to the hour before?
The last hour is £5.40 as this is our hourly rate for extended day services, however the time slot before is 15 minutes longer in duration (3:45pm – 5:00pm) and includes a snack. Therefore with the above considerations the 3:45 – 5:00pm slot is charged at £7.50 per session.