Parents face 100 a week holiday childcare bill

This year’s report, based on a survey of local authorities, highlights the problem of finding suitable holiday childcare for older children.

Working parents living in rural areas and those with disabled children also face difficulties.

The charity warns that a combination of high prices and a shortage of childcare could mean that more parents leave their children at home alone during the summer holidays.

Fees have risen on average by 9 per cent since in the past 12 months.

Six local authorities reported an average cost of holiday childcare at more than £175 a week, equivalent to the maximum support a parent on a low-income can claim through Working Tax Credit.

Despite a legal duty on local authorities to provide sufficient childcare, only 30 per cent of councils in England and 16 per cent in Wales are able  to offer enough holiday childcare for working parents.

In Scotland around half of all local authorities were unable to confirm supply and demand in their local area.

There is no legal duty in Scotland for councils to assess whether there is sufficient childcare in their area, which the survey says makes it difficult for them to intervene in the holiday childcare market.

Anand Shukla, chief executive of the Family and Childcare Trust said, ‘We seem to be moving to a situation where childcare is increasingly thought of as something that affects only the under-fives. Our research shows that many local authorities are failing to fulfil their obligations to working parents, in particular those with school-age children who are poorly served or priced-out in many areas.

‘It is deeply disappointing to learn that such little progress has been made to meet the holiday childcare needs of older children, a group whose parents face shortages, and even a decrease in provision, in some areas. The impact of cuts to youth services, that at one time provided an alternative to formal childcare, adds to the burden faced by working parents.

‘With holiday childcare costs rise faster than wages, and with the average weekly rate in Britain now breaking the £100 a week threshold, we are likely to see more parents forced to take unpaid leave - or unable to afford to enter the labour market - and more children left without adult supervision during the summer break. We need to ensure that recent proposals to allow schools to determine their own term-times do not add to the problem.’

Julian Foster, managing director of Computershare Voucher Services, which supported the survey, said, ‘It’s impossible to overstate the importance of affordable formal childcare over the school holidays, yet provision still appears to be patchy.’

He advised parents to check when booking summer activities whether they accept childcare vouchers, which can be used for all children up to 15-years-old.

The National Day Nurseries Association said the survey's findings highlighted the extent to which nurseries are under-funded.

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said, 'Every year the issue of holiday childcare for working parents comes to the fore.

'We are currently facing a difficult economic time and for providers the cost of delivering childcare has had to go up due to increased running costs such as business rates, utilities and rent.

'There have also been funding cuts at local authority level which has impacted on the amount of provision available to working parents.

'Childcare funding in the UK is complex because of the different funding streams available for parents.

'A significant amount of Government investment in early years is not actually getting to the childcare providers which are pushing up the cost for parents.

'A sufficient level of funding will stop nurseries having to increase the costs of paid for hours to cover the shortfall.'

'Government and local authorities must also look at the free entitlement funding to ensure it is enough to cover the costs of childcare in all local authority areas.'