Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
News
Original poster

Parents struggle with holiday childcare

76 replies

Strix · 14/07/2010 10:37

www.bbc.co.uk/news/10617865

Tell me these childcare prices were taken from the 1930s because if I could get a week of childcare for £100 I'd happily pay for the neighbors kids as well.

A week of childcare in distant suburban West London for one child is more like £300. And I am talking about a childminder. A nanny would be more.

And how can Scotland be more expensive than London? Is that true?

OP posts:
Chil1234 · 14/07/2010 10:43

8am - 6pm 'Holiday club' where I am in leafy Hertfordshire is about £25/day.... You're being ripped off. ;)

Original poster
Strix · 14/07/2010 10:47

I have never heard of such cheap childcare. Who qualifies for it? How do you find it?

I see a lot of holiday club offers sent home in Twickenham / Teddington / Hampton / Whitton and none are anywhere near as cheap as £25 per day.

Childminders in Twickenham charge between £6 and £6.50 per hour per child.

OP posts:
smallorange · 14/07/2010 10:47

A friend has an autistic son and is paying £75 a day for SEN summer care.

Original poster
Strix · 14/07/2010 10:49

Where?

OP posts:
smallorange · 14/07/2010 10:54

Glasgow!

Chil1234 · 14/07/2010 11:05

"I have never heard of such cheap childcare. Who qualifies for it? How do you find it?"

It's offered via school by the same company that run their breakfast and after-school clubs. Ofsted inspected. Available to everyone - no qualifications needed, not difficult to find. (And it's actualy £20/day not £25.)

TheInvisibleManDidIt · 14/07/2010 11:30

I sent my 2 to 'football school' last week. Ran from 10am- 3pm every day. Cost a total of £37.50 for the 2 of them for the whole week.

Was very pleased with this as it would have cost way more than I was earning for my childminder to have had them the days i was working. As it was she only had to take them for an hour in the morning to drop them off, then for an hour in the afternoon until I got home.

It's running 5 weeks out of the 7 weeks holidays- council run along with alot of other sporty weeklong activities if footballs not your childs thing.

Luckily because I work shifts some weeks I can manage without childcare (this week have been on nightshift). Unfortunately next week I could really do with it and that's one of the weeks it's off!

toccatanfudge · 14/07/2010 11:32

wow £37.50 for football - it's usually around £20-25 a DAY per child (and it's not even a "day" it' a couple of hours).

LIZS · 14/07/2010 11:36

£25 a day 9-4 here (SE) Is London heavily subsidised ?

Original poster
Strix · 14/07/2010 11:37

I have found local holiday club, but they charge £100 per week per child and the hours are 10:00 - 3:00. So, I could go to work for 1/2 a day. And the cost would still be £200 for only two kids. Next summer, I will have 3 children.

Sadly, think I'm better off with the nanny for some £400 per week once i add on all the wrap around to cover before 10:00 and after 3:00.

sigh....

OP posts:
Ragwort · 14/07/2010 11:37

Check out local council run holiday play schemes, they are usually very good value; last year my DS was the only child on one - with three carers - cost about £12.50 for six hours. Where we now live it is £6.50 a day (9am - 3.3pm), less for siblings and just £3.50 a day at another venue. Obviously highly subsidised by the council.

Original poster
Strix · 14/07/2010 11:39

I wonder if council subsidies will be on their way out with the all the budget cuts which are now under way? Bloody mess. Bloody Labour.

OP posts:
LimaCharlie · 14/07/2010 11:41

and thats why I had to give up work when DS started school - 14 weeks is just too much to cover

TheInvisibleManDidIt · 14/07/2010 11:45

Toccantan, thought it was going to be £50.(booking form said £25 for the whole week, x2 children £50) But when I went to pay they said if they're siblings the second is half price.

Fantastic price, with the added bonus of them playing football for 5 hours a day so were shattered by the time I got home from work

titchy · 14/07/2010 11:47

Strix - look harder! here for £150 for a week!

Plenty of these sorts of schemes around.

toccatanfudge · 14/07/2010 11:48

nope - the local one is stupid prices, and really short as well, so not really suitable for actual holiday childcare.

titchy · 14/07/2010 11:48

And they're registered so you can claim childcare tax credits and/or vouchers!

Chil1234 · 14/07/2010 11:49

@Strix.... There would be even less money for council subsidised holiday scheme if you got your way to have tax-deductible nannies for the well-off.

umf · 14/07/2010 11:51

£200 a week in Cambridge. That's for a 3 year old - but since blasted pre-schools also have holidays, pre-schoolers also need childcare...

toccatanfudge · 14/07/2010 11:51

oooo - wow - there's a few more places that do holiday care within a 2 mile radius of me now - there's a total of 7......

but only 2 of those would be able to take all 3 DS's after I (hopefully!) start work next September.......and even then only for one year, then I'd have to take them to different places.

compo · 14/07/2010 11:54

Our school offers holiday club for twenty pounds a day

toccatanfudge · 14/07/2010 12:00

oh and god help me if I end up with a job that's not "9-5" with my children their current ages -

There's one childminder that does weekends (but not evenings or overnights), but she doesn't cover my DS's schools (in fact schools she does are other side of town).

None of them start before 7am, and the latest any of them do is 7pm.

seeker · 14/07/2010 12:00

"Parents struggle with holiday childcare".....no shit, Sherlock!

toccatanfudge · 14/07/2010 12:01

PMSL @ seekers to the point comment.

In some areas parents struggle with any childcare that isn't regular before/during/after school hours.

TennisFan · 14/07/2010 12:11

We had to stop using after school clubs during the year and manage by bringing our 2 DC to our work after school, or try to work at home some afternoons.
It is a nightmare in the summer though - 9 weeks off here in N Ireland and most of the schemes are very expensive, or rubbish hours so hardly worth the effort.

However, I have found a council run scheme (9-4 every day) for £50/week and booked my DD in for 2 weeks. Sadly DS wont go!

Other sports based schemes are more expensive, like £50 for 2 hr/day for 5 days. But the timing is right in the middle of the day, so not much use for me trying to get work done.

The other ones are around £100 per week per child - but that would be £200 total for me and we couldn't afford that this year.