Summer holiday childcare costs now more than DOUBLE after-school clubs, averaging £179 a week
Families paying for childcare over the six-week summer holiday now face a bill of £1,076 per child on average – a rise of 4 per cent on last year.
This compares with just £399 for six weeks of after-school club during term time.
The report, by the Coram Family and Childcare charity, also found councils have reported a shortage of holiday childcare places.
It was based on surveys of local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales about summer holiday clubs in their areas.
Wales has the highest weekly price at £210, followed by England at £178 and Scotland at £168.
There is significant variation in holiday club prices across England, ranging from £196 per week in the South East to £162 per week in the North West.
The report also found that the average cost of a childminder during the holidays is £234 per week in the UK.
Inner London has the highest childminder price at £306 per week, compared to the South West where the childminder cost is £191 per week.
The lack of places was particularly accute for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
In England, only 9 per cent of local authorities said they had enough holiday childcare for at least three quarters of children with SEND in their area.
This figure falls to 0 per cent for three regions in England – the East Midlands, the East of England and Inner London, the report said.
The charity is calling on the Government to provide more funding, training and support to holiday childcare providers to meet the needs of SEND children.
The holiday activities and food (HAF) programme – which funds local authorities to provide holiday childcare, activities and food for children eligible for free school meals – should also be maintained after March 2026 to ensure disadvantaged children have childcare during school holidays, it added.
The expansion of funded childcare – which was introduced by the Conservative government – began being rolled out in England in April last year for working parents of two-year-olds.
Working parents of children older than nine months are now able to access 15 hours of funded childcare a week during term time, before the full rollout of 30 hours a week to all eligible families in September.
The report said: 'It is encouraging to see increasing recognition that childcare is essential for facilitating parental workplace participation, with the continued expansion of funded childcare in early years, support to develop wraparound childcare before and after school, and the introduction of free breakfast clubs.
'There is no longer an assumption that parents and employers are able to fit their work around the school day, or an expectation that they will do so.
'However, outside of school term time, the situation is very different.
'Holiday childcare remains the unspoken outlier of childcare policy and the gap that parents must bridge every school holiday.'
Lydia Hodges, head of Coram Family and Childcare, said: 'The need for childcare doesn't finish at the end of term.
'Holiday childcare not only helps parents to work but gives children the chance to have fun, make friends and stay active during the school breaks.
'Yet all too often it is missing from childcare conversations.
'Whilst the increase in government-funded early education has reduced childcare costs for working parents of under-fives in England, prices for holiday childcare are going up for school-age children.
'This risks encouraging parents to work while their children are young, only to find it is not sustainable once their child starts school.
'Availability of holiday childcare is an ongoing issue and without a clear picture of how much holiday childcare there is in each area, we cannot be sure that children – particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities – are not missing out.'
Arooj Shah, chairman of the Local Government Association's (LGA) children and young people board, said: 'While councils recognise the importance of ensuring there is sufficient provision available for children with SEND, it can be difficult to ensure the right provision is available, particularly given the challenging situation that many providers face at the moment.
'Councils work closely with providers to improve access to holiday childcare provision for children with Send but without investment and recruitment of quality staff this will be difficult to deliver.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
4 hours ago
- Sky News
Supply teachers costing schools £1.4bn - as students say they are 'falling behind'
Chronic teacher shortages and increased sickness absences have pushed schools to rely heavily on supply agencies, costing the education system nearly £1.4bn in the last year alone. The majority of the £1.4bn was made up by academy schools which spent £847m on agency supply staff in the 2023-24 academic year, new analysis by Sky News using Department for Education data shows. That's nearly double the amount (in real terms) compared to 2014-15. One headteacher told Sky News it can cost schools upwards of £200 a day for a "decent supply teacher". "In some subjects like physics, supply agencies can charge £300-£400 per day, and schools are being held over a barrel," said Gary Moore, the headteacher at Regent High School in north London. But it's students like Zainab Badran who are feeling the impact. "Every lesson we would have a different supply teacher," the GCSE student said. "I didn't feel like I was learning anything. We were falling behind." Mineche Kyezu-Mafuta, a Year 10 student, remembered her science class being taught by five different teachers in a week. "We had subs, and we have science five times a week, so we had a sub for every single one of those lessons - the sub changed for every lesson," she said. "Students (were) out of their seats, throwing stuff, talking, just anything you could really think of would be happening in that class. "It was very loud, students weren't behaving, no one was really doing their work." The vacancy rate among classroom teachers is still three times higher than it was a decade ago. Last year, the number of classroom teachers leaving was twice the number of newly qualified teachers joining the workforce. At the same time, teacher pay has failed to keep up with the rising cost of living. Since 2015, the median teacher salary has increased by nearly 30%, while inflation has risen by about 50%. Agency commission rates Agency commission rates are another source of frustration for school leaders. A teacher earning £30,000 may cost a school approximately £36,900 through an agency, an effective 23% markup. This rate of fees continues to rise further with higher salaries. Andy De Angelis, headteacher of a secondary school in west London, said: "UK agencies provide a CV and possibly help with references. I arrange the interviews." Sky News contacted several leading supply agencies for comment, but none responded. A Department for Education spokesperson said work is "well under way to deliver on our pledge to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers so schools are less reliant on agency staff in the future". "We are already seeing early progress with over 2,300 more secondary and special school teachers in classrooms this year, and over a thousand more people than last year have accepted places on teacher training courses starting this September," they added. "To support schools to get better value for money when hiring supply teachers and other temporary school staff, we have established the agency supply deal." 'Significant failings' But the teachers' union NASUWT has said recent government-commissioned research shows less than 0.5% of school leaders reported obtaining supply teachers through the Crown Commercial Service framework. "Currently, the approach of government ignores the significant failings that exist in the provision of supply teachers," it said. "This creates unnecessary cost and adversely affects supply teachers, schools and pupils. "The best way forward for both schools and supply teachers would be for schools and local authorities to be supported by the government to maintain their own supply pools."
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
The historic town drowning in sewage... and why YOUR area could be next thanks to Labour's new plans
There's a plumber connecting the dishwasher in Nick Robinson 's kitchen, plus a newly installed bespoke counter and a smell of fresh paint. After eight months, his Buckingham home is nearly ready for him to move back into. Yet memories of the sewage that spewed through drains outside and flooded his floors last November are not so easily fixed.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
I am delighted my children are growing up and leaving primary school. No-one talks about it, but this is why the pre-teen education years are by far the worst: GEORGINA FULLER
'Last day? You must be feeling so sad!' the lady behind the counter says to me as I buy celebratory sweets with my 11-year-old daughter. 'The years go by so quickly, don't they?' I smile wistfully and nod. But the truth is, the sweets are as much a celebration for me as they are a treat for my daughter on her last day of primary school. Unlike other mums, who were lamenting at the school gates and on social media their little darlings' last day before 'big school', I've been longing for it for years.
