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<p>The Department is committed to ensuring young people have access to high-quality
extra-curricular opportunities during the school day as well as before and after.</p><p>The
Department has introduced a minimum expectation on the length of the school week of
32.5 hours (the current average) for all state-funded, mainstream schools. The Department
expects all state-funded mainstream schools to work towards meeting this expectation
by September 2023 at the latest. The Department wants to bring all schools in line
with the current average as a minimum.</p><p>In addition, before and after school
activities can provide wraparound childcare, which is important for removing barriers
for and supporting parents to work. The Department strongly encourages all schools
to offer before and after school provision for their pupils. Schools should not refuse
a request from parents to provide wraparound childcare without a reasonable justification,
such as lack of demand.</p><p>The Department supports a range of initiatives to expand
access to high-quality extra-curricular activities through schools, such as:</p><ul><li>working
with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to offer the Duke of Edinburgh’s
Award to all state secondary schools in England</li><li>working in partnership with
the Ministry of Defence to help achieve the Government ambition of having 60,000 cadets
in school cadet units by 2024</li><li>investing in phase 3 of the Opening School Facilities
programme which will see a national provider support schools to open their facilities
in the evening’s, weekend’s and during the holidays to increase opportunities for
young people to get active outside of the school day</li><li>investing over £200 million
a year in our Holiday Activities and Food programme providing free holiday club places
to children on benefits-related free school meals, as well as other vulnerable children,
giving them a chance to enjoy extra-curricular activities and healthy meals during
the longer school holidays</li><li>investing up to £24 million to continue our national
schools breakfast programme until July 2023</li><li>funding music, arts and heritage,
which supports teaching within the curriculum and co and extra-curricular activities.
The Department has invested over £714 million between 2016 and 2022 on a diverse range
of music and arts programmes, over and above core school budgets, helping to ensure
pupils of all backgrounds can benefit from them</li><li>investing around £115 million
per annum in cultural education over three years to 2025, through our music, arts
and heritage programmes. In June, the Department also announced an additional £25
million capital funding for musical instruments.</li></ul><p>The Department is also
working with DCMS to help schools ensure their pupils are getting the most out of
the National Youth Guarantee, which expands access to youth provision and was announced
as part of the Youth Review.</p>
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