Parents struggle with holiday childcare

[Strix]

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?

Well 2 lots of nursery fees usually gets you 1 nanny - not a top notch one and probably live in.

3 lots of nursery fees gets you a pretty good live out.

CMs charge per child per hour. Nannies have a flat fee per family so it might be more expensive in term time if you have 2 schoolies and an under 5 but you're in profit in the holidays even with a super cheap CM with sibling discount if you have someone like me when I started.

Tbh when I started nannying I'd have been cheaper than the price Strix quotes for 1 child in W London and would have cared for all the children in the family, for fairly long hours and done nursery duties and other miscellaneous household stuff like being in for the Tesco shop and putting it away or letting in the plumber.

Admittedly inflation might have something to do with it but I must have seemed bloody bargainous!

25th December.

Well timed! That's one heck of a special Christmas present.

Noel is high up the name list then, as you're expecting another DS?

These prices are amazingly cheap, I pay £42 a day for nursery (2 year old), was worrying about schools hols but looks like its half the cost - please tell me thats because they get twice as easy?!

I pay £22 per day per child for three children, in Oxfordshire for a holiday club run at a local school (no sibling discounts) - and this is the cheapest full-day care I've found. £30-40 seems more typical.

So many holiday clubs that are advertised as childcare for working parents are 10-3 in this area. I can't see who that's beneficial for working parents, for the £15 they charge, great entertainment for kids, but not as childcare.

Even if normally working hours are in school hours I'd guess that as being more often than on at 9.30-2.30.

We have these www.barracudas.co.uk near us if thats of any interest to anyone. (I dont have school age kids so it doesnt apply to met yet so I cant comment on it) Theres a map of all the locations on their website.

Here in oxford, can get full week for £120 (0815-1815) ages 3-11. DS1 (now 4) is at the nursery which the holiday club is linked to and has been going on an ad hoc basis for over a year. He loves it.Seems reasonable price for 50 hours childcare.
www.kidactiveclubs.co.uk/holidayclub.php

Well here in the East Mids you can find (more or less) school-timed childcare (which is what you prob work with most of the year) eg 9am to 3pm at the local council sports centres or football clubs or other sports clubs for about £10-£12 a day so £60 a week.

If you need the whole day ie 8am to 6pm then it's more like £20 a day. But £300 a week?

I am sooooooo glad I don't (have to) live in London.

toccata footie all day at the local prem club is not £20! see here £12.50 a day from 9am to 3pm again.

equinox you certainly are being ripped off if you are in Derbys!

I pay £50 per day (9.00-5.30)for all three dcs at a school holiday club (the same people that run the afterschool club). So a week for all three works out at £250. Not too bad for posh Surrey. And I can use DH's Childcare Vouchers.

It isn't their own school (that would be mean!!).

But the best bargains are the Brownie/Scout camps. Ds1 is off for a whole week for £120 all-in, and dd1 had a four-night trip at Easter for £35!!!

£150 a week in Reading from 8:30 to 5:30 at a privately run club. That's average over here. The council runs some for £20 a day, but the hours are shorter, and there are less activities to choose from.

here in Exeter it's quite cheap. we pay £18 a day per child at the school holiday club (which is less if you use childcare vouchers) or £16 a day at the local leisure centre, less for siblings. Both of those are 8-6. or there's the local children's centre £5 a day for something like 10-3 but that's too short for us.
or £116 a week for the outdoor pursuits centre for the over 8.
or something like £40 a day for the posh club at the local private school but we don't bother with that with 3 children.

In Ipswich there's a variety of things. My DD is just finishing her first year of school. She's going to do a few weeks at her school holiday club at £18 a day.

There's also a private school just outside Ipswich which runs a scheme with lots of outdoor activities for £25 per day. I think if we used that, they take childcare vouchers, and they do discounts for bookings of more than 1 child.

Dance East is also running a 2 week summer school at £25 per day - I signed her up for a couple of days of that to give her a taste of dance lessons.

Our schools holidays are 5 weeks. I work 3 days a week. I have 3 weeks booked off work to help cover (2 weeks of which we will be on a family holiday). My DD is going to a holiday club at £20 per day (8am - 6pm) for one of the weeks. DS will be in nursery as usual. Then they are both off to stay with grandparents for a week (highly exciting for kids and us!). So, hopefully, childcare this holiday will cost us £60 for the 3 days we will need to use it.

I am so grateful that we live in an area where the childcare is available and doesn't cost the earth.

even if i could find it or afford it, i am worried about putting my youngest (4 yo) in on her own- won't she get trampled on by everyone else? All the holiday clubs I have ever seen have been crowd control. the more expensive ones just seem to have kids with posher voices , but still, crowd control. does anyone know a good, kind, caring one for little people who are a little bit shy? We're in islington.

£100 a week - not near me

any most tennis/swim/football etc clubs run 10-3 so still dont really help the average working parent

baracudas is about £40 a day 8-6ish so still £400 for 2 children

In my area SuperCamps have an activity summer camp in Ascot (so expensive part of Berkshire) at £34 a day (longest possible time is 8am-6pm) for children aged 4 to 14.

Strix - my niece was born on Xmas day. Congratulations on your news.

duh forgot to say congrats strix xx

We usually send ds to the david lloyd holiday clubs. They run from 8.30 - 5.30 and cost £35 a day, 10% off if you 'book early'. That's £140 a week, which i think is reasonable as they have swimming, tennis, cricket, football, arts and crafts and stuff like that all day plus small breakfast, lunch and 'tea' At the mo dd is at nursery which runs all year round but we're dreading hols from sept onwards as she'll be at school then....

Yes my ds does his school run holiday care for £30 a day as I work 2 days a week (2 days) and then some supercamps days at £35 (6 days). The rest is covered by 4 adults (blended families - one of the bonuses)and a very few GP days.

My dd stays in the day nursery - and she will until she goes to school for this very reason.

We are paying my mum to have the kids 2 days a week and she charges £20 per day.
This is for 1 child and she will be picking the other 2 up from nursery etc.
I know, I know, paying my mum! but she is cutting back on her hours and isn't able to manage without the extra money.

so for 3 children we are paying more than i earn, for holiday childcare, but when even family charge, what choice do we have?
Local play schemes run but are 10 -3 etc which we couldn't do!

On travel zoo someone told me there are PJL or PLJ - Cant recall exact title !-activity hols- something like that..but it£ 45 pw - but for maybe older than toddler stage !!maybe this will help someone?x

Do you mean PGL, lincolnlass?

They have 2 for 1 offers (one child goes free, which from what I can gather you could split with a friend if your DC doesn't have any siblings) and % off. But you have to keep an eye on their website.

fathersday I don't know about Islington, but the holiday club ds goes to caters for primary age dcs. From what I can see the little ones are well looked after - if they've been to school they'll be used to a degree of hustle and bustle and sharing their space with giant 10yos. Having said that, my friend's dd didn't enjoy it as much as nursery, although when she went there were a couple of, ahem, big personalities that tended to dominate things. Even ds, who was 7 at the time, didn't really like these characters, but they've long gone (thankfully).

linkage