What Mearns After School Care Service does

Mearns After School Care Service (MACS) is a private Scottish childcare provider, founded in August 1995 and headquartered in Paisley, operating 14 out-of-school care sites across East Renfrewshire and Glasgow. The company delivers three core services: a Breakfast Club (7:45am–9am), After-School Care (school dismissal to 6pm), and full-day Holiday Care during school breaks, with a combined daily capacity exceeding 1,000 places. Services are delivered on-site within partner primary schools, and the customer base consists of working parents and their primary-school-aged children (P1–P7).

The underlying operational technology is intentionally lightweight. The company runs the Magic Booking online platform for holiday session reservations and parent self-service, a Wix-hosted public website for enquiries, and Formstack-based online forms for enrolment and holiday bookings. There is no proprietary software, no public API, no mobile app, and no disclosed AI/ML capability. Staff are SSSC-registered, and MACS itself is an SQA Approved Centre, enabling in-house qualification delivery. Regulatory oversight is provided by the Care Inspectorate, with PVG checks and statutory childcare standards governing operations.

MACS generates revenue through recurring session fees invoiced monthly and settled via Direct Debit, childcare vouchers (multiple providers), or the UK government's Tax-Free Childcare scheme. Holiday care is a separate fee stream with a £5 late-booking surcharge. Pricing is not publicly disclosed; parents are directed to contact head office. Distribution is direct-to-consumer via school partnerships and word-of-mouth referrals, supported by an organic social presence across five platforms. The company has no external investors, no parent entity, and has grown entirely organically over three decades.

Name

Mearns After School Care Service

Legal name

Mearns After-School Care Service LTD

Website

https://macs.uk.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1995

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Mearns After School Care Service (MACS) operates 14 out-of-school childcare sites across East Renfrewshire and Glasgow, Scotland, providing breakfast clubs, after-school care, and holiday programmes for primary school children of working families.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Out-of-School Childcare Services

NAICS

Child Care Services (62441)

SIC

Services-Child Day Care Services (8351)

akta.pro primary industry

School-Age Wraparound Childcare Centers (Holiday/Break Care) (EDACAAAL)

akta.pro secondary industry

Part-Day Childcare Centers (EDACAAAB)

Keywords

• Out of school care
• After-school childcare
• Breakfast club services
• Holiday care programmes
• Wraparound childcare

Headquarters

HQ city

Paisley

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices14 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Childcare Session Fees: Revenue generated from breakfast club and after-school care sessions. Parents pay for regular or ad-hoc childcare sessions throughout the school term. Sessions are invoiced monthly and can be settled via Direct Debit, childcare vouchers, or Tax-Free Childcare scheme.
2. Holiday Club Fees: Fees charged for holiday care during school breaks. Bookings are made via online forms with a late booking fee of £5.00 for submissions after the closing date. Additional charges may apply for trips and activities during holidays.
3. Tax-Free Childcare and Voucher Payments: Acceptance of government Tax-Free Childcare scheme and various childcare voucher providers (AllSave, Apple, Care-4, Edenred, Sodexo, etc.) as payment methods for services.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

MACS operates before-school breakfast clubs (7:45am-9am), after-school care (school closure to 6pm), and full-day holiday care programmes across 14 primary-school-based locations in East Renfrewshire and Glasgow, providing supervised, regulated childcare (Care Inspectorate, SQA Approved Centre) for primary-school-aged children with on-site activities such as arts, crafts, baking, sports, Forest Kindergarten, and outings.

Product overview

Mearns After-School Care Service (MACS) is a childcare service provider operating 14 project locations throughout East Renfrewshire and Glasgow, offering over 1,000 childcare places per day. The core service portfolio consists of three interconnected offerings: Breakfast Club (morning care from 7:45am-9am with healthy breakfast provision), After-School Care (afternoon care from school closure-6pm with play activities, arts & crafts, baking, and workshops), and Holiday Care (full-day care during school holidays at various venues). Parents use the Magic Booking platform for holiday session reservations, while administrative functions are centralized at MACS Head Office. Activities across all services include Forest Kindergarten, sports, entertainment, outings, and healthy snack provision.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• MACS Breakfast Club Before-school childcare service operating from 7:45am to 9:00am, providing primary-school-aged children with a healthy breakfast and supervised activities ahead of the school day; available across MACS project locations in East Renfrewshire and Glasgow.
• MACS After-School Care After-school childcare service operating from school dismissal until 6:00pm, providing supervised play, arts and crafts, baking, workshops, and other activities for primary-school-aged children; available across all 14 MACS project locations.
• MACS Holiday Care Full-day holiday childcare club operating from 7:45am to 6:00pm during school holidays (excluding public holidays), providing themed activities including arts and crafts, cookery, physical play, and outdoor activities; venues vary by holiday period and a late booking fee of £5.00 applies for forms submitted after the closing date.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 1,000 childcare places provided daily across 14 locations
• +2 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Care InspectoratecoreOthersMACS is regulated by the Care Inspectorate, the independent scrutiny and improvement body for care and social work services in Scotland. The Care Inspectorate can be contacted at 0345 600 9527 for concerns that cannot be resolved through MACS's internal complaints process.
• Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA)coreOthersMACS is an SQA Approved Centre, allowing the company to deliver and support SQA qualifications and training for staff members who wish to pursue childcare certifications.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Market position

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/macsafterschool
• Facebookfacebook.com/mearnsafterschoolcare
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/mearns-after-school-care-service
• Instagraminstagram.com/macsafterschoolcare
• Pinterestpinterest.com/macsafterschool

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries13 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Mearns After School Care Service