It's a long one but here was my answer:
This could be for a number of reasons, for example they may be new to the area and do not know about the different services that are on offer. At the holiday club we mainly advertise through word of mouth but if a family does not know many people in the area the word might not reach them. A good method for advertisement is in local school newsletters and notice boards as this targets children to whom the service is local and convieniant and in the right age range for our setting. It would also be worth putting advertisements in the local paper for families of children who may be home schooled.
It is also possible that there could be families who do not speak English very well and need the information to be provided in other languages. We could have this information printed and available on request and give some out to local schools and youth groups to distribute accordingly.
For families with financial difficulties methods of funding could be put in place. This could involve the setting helping with applications for funding from the county council or partially subsidising the fee for the child.
Children with special needs are welcomed in my setting and we have separate staffing ratios and facilities put in place to accommodate their needs. However, we have some difficulty each year with funding this. When we do not have the capacity for any more 1:1 ratio children we offer alternative services and support and often refer to social services.
We endeavour to cater for the majority’s working hours as we run from 8:30am-6:00pm Monday to Friday. Some parents may work outside these hours though and in this instance the setting can out them in touch with out of school time services which run during the holidays or childminders.
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