Today marks another significant milestone in Defence’s support for current and future Service families. After successful pilots, the Wraparound childcare (WAC) scheme is being rolled out across the UK today.
The Wraparound Childcare scheme will help eligible Service families with children aged 4 to 11 years old who are in school or being home schooled in the UK. Families can claim for up to 20 hours per week of funding for each child attending before and after school care during term time. WAC is known as ‘Out of School care’ in Wales and ‘School Aged Childcare’ in Scotland.
How can WAC help families?
Service families who were involved in the pilots said that the WAC scheme helped their children form new friendships and settle into new schools and locations more easily, and also had positive employment, financial, educational and wellbeing benefits for their families.
For more information on why WAC is important for current and future Service families, you can read the previous posts here within the Forum ,the GOV.UK announcement from July 2022 or through Defence Connect..
How do families claim WAC funding?
To benefit from the WAC scheme, personnel must complete five steps in sequential order. These steps and their related resources are available through:
- Discover my Benefits online
- Defence Childcare Portal on defnet or Defence Connect
Join a virtual WAC explanatory session on Teams
Personnel and Service families can attend the virtual Microsoft Teams sessions to hear more information about the WAC scheme. Attend the sessions by clicking on the following links (these will link you straight into your Teams session on the day – no registration necessary):
Questions can be submitted before the sessions, using the Slido link.
A Frequently Asked Questions document is also available via the resources section: resources
A discussion area has also been created within the forum: Wrap Around Childcare (WAC)
Click on the poster below to download:
20220901-WAC Navy poster-O (1).pdf
