Out of School Care and Recreation (OSCAR)
On this Page:
What are Extended Services?
Extended Services are school-based OSCAR programmes that receive extra help to extend the range of activities they offer to provide stimulating, healthy activities for children of all ages from five to their 14th birthday. Extended Services:
- receive three-year guaranteed funding to extend their OSCAR programmes
- talk to their local communities, children and young people to see what sorts of activities they want to see offered
- focus on improving the health and general wellbeing of children and young people at their programmes.
The Government is funding twelve Extended Services in low-decile, urban schools by 2010. The first Extended Services began operating in February 2008 and the second four services began operating in February 2009. The final four services have now been selected and will start operating in February 2010.
Eight Extended Services are operating and the final four Extended Service programmes to start in February 2010
The first four Extended Service programmes began operating in February 2008 and the second four started in February 2009. They have all been providing some great new programmes for their children and young people. Activities range from setting up edible gardens and cooking classes to producing material for the school's FM radio station and running a programme to help prepare older children for their first jobs.
The final four providers have been selected and will start operating their Extended Service in February 2010. The new providers are:
- Kea Kids Club Manukau, based at Leabank and Finlayson Park Schools in Manurewa
- Skids Henderson, based at Henderson Primary School, Henderson
- South Hokianga OSCAR Charitable Trust, based at Opononi School, Opononi
- YMCA Nelson, based at Victory School Nelson.
These programmes have more great initiatives planned for the children and young people that attend their programmes.
Current Extended Services prviders are based at:
- McLaren Park and Henderson South Community initiative (MPHS) Children and Youth Activities OSCAR programme based at Henderson South Primary School in Henderson, Auckland
- Rhode Street School Sustainable Kids OSCAR programme based at Rhode Street School in Dinsdale, Hamilton
- The Rata Street School OSCAR programme based at Rata Street School in Naenae, Wellington
- The Neighbourhood Trust's Glenmoor OSCAR programme based at Glenmoor School in Mariehau, Christchurch
- The Moerewa School OSCAR programme, based at Moerewa School in Northland
- The Riverina School OSCAR programme, based at Riverina School in Pakuranga, Auckland
- Kreative Kidz OSCAR Extended Services, based at Selwyn School in Rotorua and;
- Waltham Out of School Hours Incorporated (WOOSH) Extended programmes, based at Waltham Primary School in Christchurch.
Some of these programmes have their own websites:
Findings from the first year of implementation of the Extended Services initiative
The report shows that the four providers implemented their Extended Service programmes as intended. In 2008, the four providers:
- widened the focus of their programme to include activities and opportunities that can contribute to the positive development and wellbeing of children
- consulted with children, families, schools and communities
- worked with the host-school and local community
- reached school-aged children in low-decile schools
- aimed to sustain their programmes in the long-term.
The experience of the four providers pointed to several factors contributing to the successful implementation of Extended Services. These factors included:
- providers having strong partnerships with the host-school
- providers fostering a positive environment and good relationships with children and families
- providers involving children as 'partners' in their programmes.
The Five-Year Action Plan for Out of School Services
This Action Plan was developed with input from a wide range of people, including parents, children, providers and people from the education and disability sectors.
In 2007 Government approved funding for the actions beginning in year 1 (see table below).
|
Five-Year Action Plan for Out of School Services |
||
|---|---|---|
| Outcome area | Actions beginning in Year 1 (announced in Budget 2007) |
Actions for Years 2-5 (subject to government funding) |
| Improve quality | Establish a group of experts to advise the Government on the development of quality standards and a workforce strategy for Out of School Services | Provide funding to providers for employee training and development costs |
| Improve the current approvals process to encourage more providers of Out of School services to meet the current quality standards | ||
| Improve affordability | Review the administration and funding of Out of School Services | Implement decisions made as a result of the review of administration and funding |
| Improve availability | Increase the pool of funding for approved providers from July 2007. This will raise the average grant from $11,000 to $13,500 per programme (up to a maximum of $16,000) | Increase the number of services run on school sites by providing one-off time-limited grants for minor modifications and improvements to existing facilities (for example providing access to hand basins, food preparation facilities, etc) |
| Establish 12 activity-based out-of-school programmes for five- to 14-year-olds (Extended Services) at low-decile schools between January 2008 and January 2010 | Provide subsidies and grants for approved small-scale and home-based services | |
| Improve accessibility | Refer to years 2-5 for actions in this area | Provide subsidies to all families who earn less than a certain amount and use approved Out of School Services, regardless of their employment status |
| Develop a strategy to raise awareness of available services and how to access funding, and support providers to improve the quality of their services | ||
| Help children and young people with disabilities or who are disadvantaged to take part in Out of School Services | ||
| Look at ways to provide support for people using informal care | ||
Improving Quality
An Advisory Group (the Group) met a number of times in 2008 and provided expert advice and technical assistance to officials about how to improve the quality of OSCAR programmes.
The notes from those meetings can be downloaded from the links below.
The CYF approvals process has been enhanced to help more providers become approved and gain the benefits of meeting the OSCAR Standards. These benefits include eligibility for government funding to help providers with the day to day costs of running an out of school programme and parents with their out of school care costs.
Improving affordability
A review of the administration and funding of OSCAR has been completed in 2008.
Improving availability
The Extended Services initiative has now been implemented with the final four programmes due to start in 2010.
