‘Summer can be anxiety-inducing’: how parents cope with childcare

Getting through the summer holidays can be tough for parents and children, but help is available. Photograph: Darryl Leniuk/Getty Images

While millions of children relish the summer holidays, many parents are frantically worrying about how they will get any work done before the schools open their gates again in September.

The children’s charity Coram Family and Childcare’s last holiday childcare survey showed that parents paid more than twice the weekly term-time cost for childcare in the summer. Meanwhile, a third of councils said they did not have enough places for children whose parents worked full-time.