Holiday Childcare Survey 2026

Most parents need to work during the school holidays at some point, and not all will have support from other family members like grandparents. Many will need formal childcare for at least some of the school holidays.

The cost of that childcare continues to rise. To cover the full six week summer holiday, families in Great Britain will pay an average of £1,145 this year, per child.

Parents relying on childcare support through Universal Credit will have to find and pay the full amount in advance and wait a month to receive help (up to 85% of costs), as this is paid in arrears.

This year’s survey finds that holiday childcare continues to cost almost three times as much as after-school childcare during term time.

Across Great Britain, six weeks of a holiday club costs families an average of £726 more than six weeks of after-school childcare.

Finding childcare may also be a challenge. As in previous years, when asked whether there is enough holiday childcare in their area, the most frequent response from local authorities (LAs) is that they do not know. ‘Data not held or cannot tell’ made up over half of all answers in England, and the rate of this answer was so high in Scotland that there was not enough data to report on. Only Wales had more than 50% knowledge of their sufficiency, and not for all categories of children.

The absence of a statutory duty to monitor holiday childcare sufficiency is a likely driver of this in Scotland. The same is not true in England, where the duty applies equally to all ages but where much more is known about early years childcare than is known about school-aged childcare. When information about holiday childcare is lacking, parents have the extra task of extended searches to find out what, if anything, is available near them. That is before they get to the equally important questions of whether the provision matches their work hours or whether it is suitable for their child. This is particularly crucial when children have additional needs.

Only 9% of LAs in England said they have enough childcare for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and only 5% of LAs in Wales said the same for children with additional learning needs (ALN).

When searching for holiday childcare, families may find a childminder is their best chance of securing a full day as our report shows that 79% of childminders in Great Britain are open 8am-6pm, compared to only 57% of holiday clubs. That said, parents will need to be able to pay more for a childminder, with the average cost coming to £61 per week more than for a holiday club in Great Britain.

The Holiday Childcare Survey 2026 finds that school holidays are an increasingly expensive time for families who rely on childcare for work, with the long summer break posing the biggest challenge. If we are to ease the annual summer stress for families, there must be an acknowledgement that childcare is a year-round requirement, and action must be taken to ensure holiday childcare does not remain the poor cousin of early years childcare. Holiday childcare is essential for parents to take work and stay in work; and it gives children and young people fun, secure activities and opportunities while school is out.

Coram Family and Childcare is calling on governments to:

• Reinforce the statutory duty to secure sufficient holiday childcare, ensuring provision is properly understood and planned in England and Wales, and introduce a duty to monitor sufficiency for school-age holiday childcare in Scotland.
• Allow upfront payments of the childcare element of Universal Credit during school holidays.
• Encourage increased holiday childcare provision to improve parental choice and address gaps in availability.
• Extend the Experts at Hand inclusive practice training and coaching offer to holiday childcare providers, to improve access for children with SEND.
• Support an increase on childminders so families have access to flexible holiday childcare.

Download the full report

Download the press release