Childcare in school holidays

[ChildcarePanic]

I'm in a massive panic. My son is due to start school in September. I'm a lone parent and work full time. I'm trying to find play schemes for the summer holidays but can't seem to find anything that will cover up to 4 weeks, and holiday clubs in all the half terms. I'm worrying that my son is going to struggle having no down time. I worried I won't be able to find enough childcare to not affect my work. I'm worrying he's going to suffer because I'm going to have to use a lot of after school/breakfast clubs. How do other lone parents do it? How do you cope with working full time and also balancing childcare when your child is in school?

The cost of wrap around care and holiday clubs (which you won't need for every holiday as you can use your leave and also consider child swapping with another parent) is going to be a lot less than the full time childcare you currently pay for.

You need to budget for the cost spread over the year, rather than it all hitting at once .

This is an important point, and you get a 20% top up so you pay 80% of the cost

@ChildcarePanic it's really hard. I work part time and have 2 DC. Even part time us hard to cover. My parents help but find it tiring now abd I don't like to take the piss.

I've recently found the local sports centre are putting on homuday clubs - football, multisports, fun days. They are 9 til 3 abd are FREE if you are receiving WTC. They're £10/15 otherwise. They've been a godsend. It means my parents can pick them up and have them for 2 -3 hours which they are happy to do. 3 full days is too much for them.

I do wfh sometimes, they have TV, games, tablets, garden.....I just have to plan my work so that its stuff I can get on with with them there.

I'm a childminder and offer school holiday places out that my term time only little ones leave empty.

can you look into a childminder?

Talk to your employer.

You are entitled to apply for unpaid leave for childcare.

Consider if you can afford that, particularly if you can speak to your employer about taking a reduced salary throughout the year to cover it.

It might be more affordable to lose a months pay if it is spread over a year, or an option to do two weeks annual leave, two weeks unpaid. Or 2 weeks unpaid, 1 week of annual spread over two weeks and 5 days of informal childcare/wfh/tv babysitter.

Your employer may be able to support a pick and mix style of cover. But talk to them now.

It is hard, but try not to panic - you can sort things bit by bit, take it in baby steps and don’t look too far ahead.

Definitely look for Ofsted registered childcare so you can use the tax free childcare scheme to save 20%, or apply for tax credits/benefits if you need to.

Things that have helped me:

• retired parents in law help out about 12 days a year - is a day or two here and there with your parents a possibility? They might like spending time with your child on their annual leave and every little helps!
• factor in bank holidays as that’s 8 days in the year sorted. Christmas isn’t usually a problem for me as between bank holidays, a bit of annual leave, and a day or two with in laws it’s sorted.
• does your work offer parental leave? Mine offers 4 weeks unpaid leave to be taken in week long chunks up til a child is about 18 I think - I’ve never had to use this but it’s an option.
• ask other nearby local primary schools to see if they offer holiday care (near your work too) - I found one near my work that offers 4 weeks 8-6pm in the summer holidays, and it actually makes our summer routine breezy because it’s so close to me.
• when your child is around 7 he will probably cope fine with you working from home - you could do half days perhaps to stretch out your annual leave? I try to take a long lunch and take my boy to the park when WFH and make up the hours in what would have been commuting time. Keep the long game in mind as it’s easy to get caught up in how stressful and squeezed things are when they’re so little. Go easy on yourself about parking him in front of the TV while you have a meeting - you do what you have to do when you’re on your own.
• weigh up whether it’s worth giving up a little bit of work against the cost of childcare/benefits
• ask your work for flexibility - is there any parts of your work that’s not suited to working from home or a bit in the evenings? (I know evenings aren’t ideal either though when you’re on your own) Could you do compressed hours in the school holidays so you only need to pay for 4 days childcare instead of 5? Think outside the box and don’t be afraid to ask work - they can only say no.

I haven’t made any friends in the playground as I use wrap around care, and to be honest the thought of having someone else’s kid to look after in my little free time with my boy isn’t attractive! I’ve definitely not regretted being away from all the playground politics and gossip too that I hear snippets of at birthday parties etc. You won’t be missing out on much!

Btw when I say don’t look too far ahead, I mean in an anxiety way! I’ve found most places tend to take bookings for summer holidays at the beginning of the Easter term, so right now I’ve got summer childcare all booked. So just think about two terms ahead, no further!

Another thing that’s helped - when my boy turned 8 it opened up more options as I found a local outdoor activity centre that does activity days for 8-14s (archery, canoeing etc), and my local university sports park does holiday clubs for 8+ too. So it really does get easier to find things as they get older.

Anither place to check - your local council website. Mine offers odd activity mornings/afternoons for 5-11s yr olds in village halls across the county so it isn’t ideal, but eg I could drop my son off at the village hall a few minutes walk away for the morning while I crack on with work and collect him at lunch and take an afternoon’s annual leave. Just another idea to google.

Barracudas is another option, I think they have holiday camps all over the country - they are pricey but Ofsted registered.

Stressful isn't it OP!

We don't even have "holiday clubs" here!! Covid stopped them all and they never restarted :/

I live in a weird part of the UK though

If you work from home, could you have some neighbours' children who might babysit in your house?

Lots is word of mouth. Keep eyes open eg notice boards, facebook, council website etc. Often hobby clubs run childcare 8.30-3.30 variety.
You can buy additional leave in some jobs or take unpaid parental leave.
Mine used to go in childcare most of summer as it was easier to access and use annual leave in half terms.
From 7 or 8 they can go away to pgl.
I used to pay childcare year round and save it for summer - was vouchers now it’s a different scheme.

His nursery may also offer holiday care or know who does.

If you have a spare room, you may have a look at the AuPair option. A friend, who is also a lone parent, had used AuPair for years until she could work from home (can pick up/drop off) & the kid is old enough (can entertain/study herself while mum is working). It helped her enormously

You'll sort it, don't worry.

Provision varies hugely by area, so you'll need to figure out what your options are.

Speak to his current nursery, they may be happy to keep him til Sept which fixes this year's problem.

Once in school, we have two after school clubs (one affiliated with school and the other with nursery) both of which operate throughout the summer holidays. You need to commit to certain days in term time and then the holidays are more flexible. If you can find anything like this you'll be sorted forever.

Ask your nursery what parents tend to do when the kids start school, and ask the other parents what they're doing. Once school starts, join the class WhatsApp group, holiday camps are a major topic of conversation in ours.

Bear in mind that as long as it is ofsted registered you can get help from uc or tax free childcare.

Contact your council. They should have a list of registered childcare in your area. Local nurseries often offer holiday clubs. Sometimes clubs at other schools will take children from different schools. Some childminders will offer holiday care.

There are some national club provider as well such as barracudas and kings camps.

Good luck!

Is it possible to work from home during the school holidays but have someone watching your child at home? Do you have a separate room you can go to work from? A friend in a similar situation had a local teenager (15/16 yrs I think) come to spend time with her reception aged child whilst she worked from home during the summer holidays. She would play with him, do activities and they would walk to the nearby park on a daily basis. Mum was always at hand if needed but otherwise her son was looked after. The following summer she had a cycle of three teenagers to do different weeks for her.

If he is in private nursery then keep him in as long as possible. Not all reception classes start ft day 1 some are staggered.
You’ll find it easier as he’s old for yr lots of childcare in hols starts at 5 making it hard for reception summer born.

Op, contact your council's children services and ask them.

My ds hated Supercamps (and it cost a fortune) but there was a council holiday club run out of a local senior school. Two thirds of the price, much less trendy, more relaxed, less regimented sport. Ds was much happier there.
I found the trick with holiday provision is to book as early as possible (6 months prior normally so start looking for Easter now) let everyone know you are interested a year in advance, and make friends with other single mums so you can back each other up.

You will work it out. 🙂

With my youngest, I carried on putting the maximum into childcare vouchers, Iguess it's tax free childcare account now?. But yes it cost a flipping fortune.

You can't WFH and look after DC.

Your DC won't be missing out because they have to go in to wrap around care and holiday clubs. Loads of us do exactly that. There's good advice on this thread about all the places to look for provision.

Also, even if you're not often at the school gates, take every opportunity you can to meet and make friends with other parents (especially those of your DC's friends). Because informal child swops - where you have theirs one week and they have yours the next, esp if there's 3 or more families involved - can be a great way to eke out your leave

It might be worth looking for a teaching or childcare student that could do some care in your home. Or a known reliable teenager. Even if they could do a couple of weeks in the summer it would help and at least it would be at home for him.

I struggled to find any childcare that would take my son before he had started school.

Tbh that summer was a colossal nightmare, I had to take annual leave or work from home with him around.

Maybe he has some friends whose parents could watch him for the odd day?

Mix of the childminder DD went to during term time and expensive holiday clubs.

Do not rely on childcare swap, I found that most parents do not want to fix things weeks/months in advance but if I didn't have a place for a summer camp than I wouldn't get one on short notice.

Check locally on a fb page what is in the area, I found there is a lot more, often only 9-3 but maybe you could juggle it with a childminder or some days leaving work early and making good later?

One issue we found is that the Christmas holidays are often not covered at all and the last week in August as clubs use school premises and they are not available as school prepare for going back.

Open a savings account and try to put money away each day as soon as your child starts school so you have some buffer for the expensive weeks.

We used nursery up until September the year DS started school, then by the next summer he was 5 so the school holiday club would take him. Our most local one is run by ‘junior adventures group’ which is a big chain and they take kids from any primary, not just DS’s one. £37 a day so that’s £30 with the tax free childcare, and generally we do 3 days a week of that, one day family, one day I work compressed hours.

I used to work 3.5/4 days a week so the day I wasn’t working, I’d look after a friends child and the day she didn’t work, she’d look after my child, so that was 2 days. Then some sports clubs or summer child care places. I also used childcare vouchers.
The local council used to do cheap childcare camp at a school.
One or 2 weeks, one of the local churches ran a summer childcare camp.
There's usually a big difference in price between the fancy kids camps and council run ones.

Op don’t panic (yet). I assume you haven’t forgotten most holiday clubs and after school clubs let you pay use your childcare tax credit which saves you 20% on face value

also maybe look at local churches whose volunteers often run little clubs for low cost at Easter and Christmas? Also a very supportive environment (if you don’t mind religion)

my local authority runs a cheap sports camp in the sports centre - my dd loved it. They basically just have fun and its only £30 a day.

I think the childminder idea is also excellent as provides continuity

and also don’t be shy with other mums and dads at school - trading childcare favours is a classic way to handle situations like strike days, inset days, or the inevitable “school has closed due to a swarm of bees” outage once a year in my area!