Nicky Morgan: schools should stay open for full working day

Morgan told the audience that she planned to give “more working parents something the best schools already do”. The Education Secretary has pledged that families of children should have the “right to request” that their school “provides childcare for a full working day, before and after school and during the school holidays”.

She said: “If enough parents call for childcare at their local school, we will expect the school to take reasonable steps to accommodate it, in a way that works for them.

“Because we want working parents to have the confidence their child is in a happy and safe environment.”

However, head teachers have warned that the proposal will need to be handled “extremely carefully to ensure it is not just a populist gimmick”.

Russell Hobby, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, cautioned that although the idea is overall a good initiative, there are still issues such as budget cuts and recruitment matters which mean some schools are simply not in a position to offer the service.

He said: "Extending provision beyond 38 weeks, providing care outside of term time, can also prove very difficult for schools because of staffing and a lack of private provision.

"Parents can ask but the government must guarantee that a school's decision is respected. Otherwise, it is merely going to provoke conflict between schools and their communities and would undermine the decision-making of head teachers."

Sources close to the Education Secretary maintain that the details of the scheme still need to be worked out, including the quantitive proportion of parents necessary to request childcare in order to enable action from the school.

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