Parents who have won lottery cash to set up holiday and after-school clubs in York say they are struggling to recruit staff to the get the clubs up and running.

Before and after-school clubs and holiday play schemes cater for the children of working parents and the Government has set national targets for increasing their number. They are usually set up by committees of parents who then take on staff.

But although several groups in York have been successful in applying for lottery cash to fund clubs, they are finding it difficult to recruit people.

Kat Hewitt, development manager at York Childcare, the group responsible for encouraging new groups in the city, said one club, at Badger Hill, had not yet got off the ground because of the problem.

Other clubs, like Wigginton Before and After School Club, were struggling to expand.

Mum Bev Lambert, chairwoman at Wigginton, said they had won £12,600 from the lottery's New Opportunities Fund to expand and provide holiday playschemes.

They had hoped to run their first one this Easter, but had had to drop plans because they could not find a new manager.

"At the moment we are trying to recruit a manager because the co-ordinator we had left. We need someone who can work in term-time and holidays and people don't usually want to work all the holidays. We did advertise earlier this year and only had three applicants, two weren't suitable and the one we offered it to turned us down."

She said they had enough staff to run the ordinary club and were using some staff who were students, but the problem there was that their work was seasonal and they could only do a minimum of hours.

Kat said the average wage for ordinary childcare workers was £4.50 or £5 an hour and people did not necessarily need qualifications to start with, just the willingness to work towards them.

"They need to have enthusiasm and a willingness to take up training and the paramount thing is that they are interested in the well being and play experiences of children. We have three new clubs and six or seven existing ones looking for staff."

* For more details contact York Childcare out-of-school service on 01904 679864.

Updated: 12:01 Thursday, April 12, 2001