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<p>Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England
only.</p><p>The department has not made a recent assessment of the potential merits
of providing free after-school activities at schools.</p><p>The department is committed
to ensuring young people have access to high quality extracurricular opportunities.
The department knows these are an important part of a rich educational experience
and can bring wider benefits to young people's mental health, confidence, social skills and
general wellbeing. We also recognise the important role wraparound childcare, including
after-school clubs, has in enabling parents to work.</p><p>Schools are best placed
to understand and meet the needs of their pupils and so have flexibility to decide
what range of extracurricular activities to offer and how to resource these activities. Both
pupil premium and recovery premium can be used to fund enrichment activities. In March
2022, the department updated its guidance to make this clear to schools. Schools can
choose how they wish to use this funding in line with a menu of approaches.</p><p>Working
families can also get help with childcare costs through Tax Free Childcare (TFC) worth
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, and the childcare element of Universal Credit (UC)
for children up to age 16. Parents and carers can benefit from TFC and UC for the
cost of after-school clubs, but the providers must be on the Ofsted Early Years or
Childcare registers.</p><p>The department also supports a range of initiatives to
expand access to high quality extracurricular activities, for example investing over
£200 million a year in our Holiday Activities and Food programme and working with
the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to offer the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award
to all state secondary schools in England. The government is also investing £289 million
in a new childcare ‘pathfinder’ scheme to support local authorities to work with primary
schools and private providers to set up and deliver wraparound childcare before and
after school.</p>
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