Families face £1,045 bill for summer holiday clubs

At pick-up time, John and Katriona Virgo say the holiday and after-school club in Harborne has been “fantastic”, particularly on election day, when the school turned into a polling station and it ran a last-minute holiday club.

Their summer will involve clubs, annual leave and grandparents happy to help – “with a little persuasion”.

Across Great Britain, the average cost for a child in full-time holiday clubs for six weeks was now a record £1,045, Coram found.

Compared with last year, the data suggests, prices have risen:

“Too many families dread the onset of the summer holidays,” Coram Family and Childcare managing director Ellen Broomé says.

“Finding a place will be a challenge this summer, particularly for children with special educational needs and disabilities.”

Event manger and public-speaking coach Dani Wallace, who has three children, describes the summer holidays as “organised chaos”.

Holiday clubs are unaffordable. “It’s just not feasible when there’s three of them”, Ms Wallace says.

None of the clubs caters for her eldest son’s additional needs. In the past, he has found them “noisy and quite intimidating”.

And she has to rely on family to help out.

“It’s been a real struggle over the years to find what works for us,” Ms Wallace says.