‘I get up at 4am to work before they wake up’: Coping with the cost of summer holiday childcare

The summer holidays are meant to be a time of rest and relaxation but for single father Daniel, the extended break means forking out hundreds of pounds in childcare fees that he cannot afford.

He’s been able to book off two weeks from his job at Asda to look after his three-year-old son but when that ends this week he’s facing a £55 daily fee for nursery. “I earn around £50 on shift – so I would basically be working for free, or working worse off,” he told The Independent.

The newly single father, who is based near Dudley in the West Midlands, has taken out a loan of £600 to cover some of the nursery fees. But he is worried about how he will pay it back.

Recent research from childcare charity Coram found that parents are spending more than £1,000 per child on average for school summer holiday care – a rise of 6 per cent on last year.

The average cost of a place at a holiday club in the UK is now approximately £175 per week – 2.5 times higher than the cost of an after-school club during term time.

Have you been affected by the cost of summer holiday childcare? Write to holly.bancroft@independent.co.uk

Daniel, 32, works at the supermarket on Fridays and Sundays, and gets some overtime work on Tuesdays, and he is keen to keep himself in employment. He cycles an hour to and from work because the Asda store closest to him has no work available, but he’s worried that he could be penalised by the company or by the benefits system if he can’t find childcare for his son.

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“I’m worried about having to explain this to my work coach and I’m worried they will penalise me. I’m also worried about being sanctioned if I lose my job, because if I lose my job then I’d lose my benefits.” He said he is struggling to sleep and feeling low due to the mounting pressure of childcare costs.

“I was told that I could claim 85 per cent back on childcare costs through universal credit, but that’s only if it’s a contracted work day. I’m not contracted to the days that the nursery are open and my manager isn’t helping. I can’t get the rebate back and they’re saying that if I can’t find childcare and I don’t turn up to work then I’m going to be dismissed,” he said.

The one place he can turn to for help is a social prescribing support service called Dudley Integrated Plus, which works with the local council. “They’ve helped me get bus tickets so I can take my son to the park,” Daniel said.

“The property that I’m in doesn’t have a communal garden or anything like that. The nearest park which isn’t burned up or ruined is a 30-minute bus ride away. They’ve helped get me bus tickets so I can take my son out to Mary Stevens, which is the biggest park in Stourbridge.

“My son loves the bigger park. It’s been warm and they put the water area on and he gets to play in the fountain. He also likes the swings. He’s quite active and I do feel sorry for him at home when he’s just watching the older kids off the balcony who are playing in the street.”

Dudley Integrated Plus also got Daniel his bicycle so he can ride to work and paid for a carpet in the flat.

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Antoinette, 45, has been lucky enough to get a council-funded place for her five-year-old daughter Ayaniah to go to a holiday club this summer. She works freelance as a family support worker and the spot in the holiday club will allow her to continue working. The council ensures that her daughter gets a hot meal while she’s there but Antoinette knows from her own experience and from supporting families in Brent how expensive childcare is over the summer holidays.

“The placement is only 15 days so I still have to take time off,” she told The Independent. “It’s a catch-22 because you’ve got to use all your holiday time to take time off with your children but that means you can’t earn money at work.

“It’s £90-plus a week for your child to go to school club and sometimes you have to provide them with a packed lunch as well. You also have to provide them with snacks – imagine if you had four or three children of that age, that’s a lot of money.”

She added: “You also want your child to be able to go on the trips and that’s sometimes between £10-£20 for each trip. And maybe you will want to add on two trips so your child doesn’t miss out.”

Her eldest son, Atwain, is aged 18 but has autism and special education needs so Antoinette also has to help him keep occupied over the summer break.

“Last year, it was a lot better because family wellbeing centres were running a lot of activities for young people with special needs up to the age of 25. Funding has been cut now, so there’s not so much available,” she said.

Research by the charity Coram found that in England levels of holiday childcare have decreased in all categories, with just 3 per cent of councils reporting enough holiday childcare for disabled children.

They are calling on the government to maintain the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme – through which Antoinette was able to get a funded holiday club – after its planned end date of March 2025.

Gemma, 42, from Liverpool, is juggling her work as a marketing consultant with caring for her 6-year-old niece, who she is a foster carer for.

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As her niece is in care, she was offered a place on the local council holiday club but she’s had to turn it down. “They run from 9am to 3pm and they’re not always in the local area. I was finding that it was taking me an hour round-trip to get there, so two hours out of my day, with not much time to work.

“My niece also struggles with attachment issues and she had been getting quite distressed going to a new place,” she said. They have opted to pay for a holiday club, run by her niece’s school, for £30 a day so that she can be in familiar surroundings.

“If she was going to that throughout the summer the total cost would be around £900. We’ve decided to do two days a week and I’ve condensed my work hours into three days. But some days I have had to get up at 4am to do four hours of work before the children get up,” said Gemma, who also has a 13-year-old son.

Her husband works shifts as an electrical engineer and helps look after the kids when he has time off.

Lucy Peake, CEO of national charity Kinship, said carers often tell the charity that it is “very difficult, sometimes impossible, to find local, affordable childcare during summer”. She added: “Most Kinship carers who have stepped up to raise the child of a relative or family friend do not receive any ongoing financial support, so of course finding affordable childcare for a six-week school break is extremely challenging, especially for single, working Kinship carers.”

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Alex Stephany, founder of fundraising platform Beam, said they were working with a number of parents who were fundraising their childcare costs. He added: “It’s clear that unaffordable childcare is a major challenge for so many. For low-income families, the continually rising costs of childcare and rent often leaves their living situations in a state of jeopardy. We work with a range of parents experiencing or at risk of homelessness.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Too often, childcare is unavailable or unaffordable, particularly for disadvantaged children or those with additional needs – and we are determined to rebuild opportunity for every child.

“Local authorities are expected to offer the equivalent of six weeks of Holiday Activities and Food Programme provision, which provides meals, activities and free childcare places to children from low-income families.”

An Asda spokesperson said: “Our colleagues are what make Asda, which is why we’ve continued to invest in retail pay to become the highest-paying traditional supermarket. We also have a wide range of benefits available to support our colleagues’ wellness outside of the workplace, this includes offering flexible shift patterns, flexible wage services and access to financial guidance and support.

“We would encourage any colleague with concerns regarding their situation outside of work to access these benefits and discuss this with their line manager in the first instance, so that we can work with them to better understand their situation and offer them the appropriate support.”