Breakfast clubs 'lifeline' for working parents

CREDIT: This story was first seen on Nursery World
A survey by breakfast club provider Kellogg’s has found that more than a quarter (27%) of working parents believe that without access to a breakfast club they or their partner would need to give up work, Nursery World reports.
Parents were also aware that the cost of alternative childcare would be much higher, with almost one in five respondents with more than one child in breakfast club, claiming that it saved them around £50 a week.
The Parent’s Lifeline report looks at the role that breakfast clubs play in the lives of working families and how changes to society are affecting family breakfast times.
According to Kellogg’s, 38% of children attend a breakfast club, with more than a quarter of parents of the belief that children’s learning benefits from the extra time in breakfast clubs.
Breakfast clubs also enable parents to start work earlier in some cases, the report says, for a ‘more productive working day’.
The report also highlights how eating breakfast together at home has become difficult for many families.
More than a third (37%) of working parents surveyed said they rarely or never eat breakfast with their children during the week.
Just one in five (22%) working parents manages to sit down and eat breakfast with their children every day.
Around half of parents recognise the importance of their child eating a good breakfast before heading off to school, but breakfast is rushed for a third of children (36%) who spend just ten minutes eating breakfast.
The report also found that children spend time before school using iPads, watching TV or videos on YouTube, often because such distractions allow parents time to get ready for work.Some parents also admitted to bribing their children with a treat to make sure they were able to leave the house on time in the morning. Twenty-one per cent gave children biscuits to take to school and 15% gave them fizzy drinks.
Megan Jarvie, head of policy and public affairs at the Family and Childcare Trust, said, “Breakfast clubs are about much more than just cereal and toast in the morning – our research shows that breakfast clubs can help children do better in school and beyond, can help parents commit to their job’s work hours and can provide working families with the support they need to manage a work-life balance in modern Britain.
“Too many families are struggling to access childcare that meets their needs, but extended schools services like breakfast clubs can help fill the gaps when there is not enough out of school childcare available. They help boost outcomes for children from all backgrounds and support parents to work.”