What do you do on holidays for childcare

[Robinthebird]

I have difficulties to find a holiday club for my 5 years old kid with sen. I got All in membership for him. Tried to find a holiday club in Actio website. There was only one club 6 hours a day. It was a paid club. I contacted them they said they are full. Then there are only horse riding sessions, swimming sessions on website.

I contacted to Shrewsbury sports club. I told them my kid has a flight risk and dysregulation problems. They accepted him. It was haf holiday club. There was not enough staff. No lock on doors. I didn't trust them. After I took him there I waited in the cafe. I sat there and waited. Then I saw they took the children in a room for an activity. My kid ran away off the room and nobody was with him. They didn't realise that my kid was out of the room. I took him in again.
On the second day we were there again. I waited for him in the cafe again. Same things happened. Then they said my kid needs 121 support and they cannot accept him.

What do you do on holidays? We haven't got an option.

Have a look at your local short breaks offer. It is also worth requesting social care assessments. A carer’s assessment for you and an assessment by the children with disabilities team for DS.

Some special/specialist schools have holiday clubs running on their sites. Worth looking because some are open to DC not on roll at their school as well.

Have you considered a childminder or a PA?

Obviously I don’t know what you said, but I think you need to go into more detail about DS’s needs. For example, if DS is a flight risk to the point you comment on lock on the door, I would ask if the site is secure before booking.

Is he at school? Some after school care providers also provide holiday care, ours did and that’s where my daughter went. Pricey though and a bit of a postcode lottery as to what is available in different areas. Some private nurseries also run them.
Culture and leisure provide sports camps but the hours can vary and not always suit working hours. Also will be variable in terms of capacity to meet additional needs.
Your best bet might be a childminder actually.
I knew a couple of folk at work who actually took unpaid leave over the holidays because the loss in wages was less than what childcare would have cost them!
Holiday childcare is a total nightmare with school aged children especially if you don’t have family to help.
I’ve got summer with a child starting high school to contend with soon! Too young to stay at home alone for too long really, yet no childcare available for young highschoolers and limited family options. I really hate the fact that there is very little for 11-13 year olds.

Child minder or after school care club

Have a look at local offer on your local authority website. Some nurseries have holiday clubs that are more secure. Maybe a childminder that has spaces because some children attend term time only. Also a nanny through an agency for the days you need.

I’m going to be brutally honest here as the parent of a SEN 9 year old auDHD who is in specialist school.

SEN childcare does not exist, not really not outside of specialist schools. Very occasionally some specialist schools will run holiday clubs but it’s few and far between. Many places will say they can handle it until the child disregulates and then it’s a no.

It is why I went self employed. I could never get the time required off in my old marketing job. No childminder can handle a flight risk child if they have other children to look after.

If you have the money I would suggest a nanny, but honestly, finding someone who only wants holiday work and who is adequately trained is like gold dust.

Don’t forget you (and the father of your child) have the right to take off one week unpaid a year for every year of your child’s life as unpaid parental leave. That means between the two of you, you have accumulated 10 weeks unpaid leave, it doesn’t expire so any of that you don’t use this year you can carry over to the next. If there is a chance your child’s needs will decrease overtime and you can afford it, I highly recommend you take this sooner rather than later.

I don’t need any as I’m a teacher but if I did, I’d use my childminder who does my school pick ups and after school care. Depends
on your child’s needs but DS is in a mainstream school with support from a TA (does sometimes run when dysregulated) and then goes to childminder after school. She often has extra space in holidays and DD is going next Wednesday just because she wants to.

As I understand it, unpaid parental leave entitlement is upto 4 weeks per year, capped at 18 weeks per child and is supposed to be taken in blocks of a week. It's also not accrued, you can take it all in the child's first 4 or 5 years of life. I think it's a great way to be able to spend more time at home with your kids of you can afford to not be paid.

even better than I thought!

Unpaid parental leave doesn’t have to be taken in blocks of a week if DC is disabled or the employer agrees.

More than 4 weeks per child can be taken if the employer agrees.

My four year old starts school this September. He is a flight risk and dysregulated easily too. He attends nursery but I cannot imagine dropping him off at a short-term childcare setting. I suspect I will have to ask for unpaid parental leave or reduce my hours to be more term time once he is in school. I also suspect I will have to somehow wangle leave to go on every school trip/outing. I have two slightly older children who I would happily send to a holiday club and had none of these worries with!

have you considered changing to a school term time only role? Can you retrain as a teacher (you have to really want to do this as it I NOT easy, or school support staff).

or I know some have paid over inflated fees for 1:1 childminder.

I think this is a massive challenge for send parents, and why so many can't work full time. My son isn't a flight risk in the same way, he'd just be miserable at a holiday club, he needs consistent people and routine and no holiday club provides that unfortunately. I work self employed and part time so he stays with me in holidays. I'd also consider a childminder or day nanny if you can afford it. Does he have his own TA at school? Would they want to pick up extra hours in the hokiday as they will know his needs and not be a change for him? I'm so sorry, it's another indirect discrimination issue (alongside so many others). There's nowhere we can just "drop" our kids. It does often impact work (alongside extra meetings at school, fighting for support, filling in fifty thousand forms, not being able to do easy trips or days out, paying more for holidays to get enough space for our kids.... it's hard.

My child isn't quite that challenging but it wasn't easy either.

She managed Supercamps a few times when 9-10.

I used holiday clubs at her school when little as it was a familiar environment.
Did swaps with friends (competent ones I trusted!)
Paid the adult son of a friend for a while.
Paid a neighbour for a while.
Found a cooking club run by a woman whose kids also have ADHD in her (secure) home.

Thank you for the answers.
I didn't know about unpaid parental leave.
I had to left my job in the cafe because there was not a summer holiday club for my son. And still looking for a job. I am waiting for a call from an agency about job opportunities in schools. Hopefully I can find one. Otherwise it will be a pain for us on holidays. Because we have issues with trusting people even if they are good childminders.

Thanks.