Hanging by a thread over the summer holidays

Published: 28 Jul 2023

The advice given here is from one of our specialist advisers from Working Families’ free legal advice service, whose expert support helps over a million working parents and carers each year. Help keep this vital support going by donating to our Be a Lifeline Appeal.

The summer holidays can be a source of stress and anxiety for many families whose work situation doesn’t allow any flexibility to manage childcare and who can’t afford additional childcare costs.

School holidays are a pinch point for families with school-aged children because the usual pattern of care changes, but work demands don’t. Annual leave allowance leaves parents with a shortfall of an average 7.4 weeks to cover. This situation is even more challenging for single parents who can’t share the load with a partner. As it often falls to the parent on the lower income to take the leave, the burden of taking unpaid time off tends to fall more heavily on women due to the gender pay gap.     

Our research has found that four in ten families on lower incomes have gone into debt to manage childcare, nearly half have had to reduce their hours, and a fifth have quit their job altogether to manage childcare. The current situation is bad news for families, which is why we are calling for increased and more targeted financial support for childcare, and for more employers to offer flexibility so that parents can manage this particularly pressurised time of year. But for those parents and carers who need support in the here and now, here are some options that are available to you.

Family, friends, and holiday clubs

Many parents rely on a complex web of informal networks of friends and family to help cover the gaps in caring throughout the year, especially during the holidays given the cost of holiday clubs and formal childcare. However, with families often spread across the country, this is not an option for everyone.

Parents often group together with friends to cover particular days and then reciprocate in a shared care arrangement.

Your local council or community organisations may be running free or subsidised holiday clubs or childcare schemes. You can also search for childcare or your local Family Information Service (who should be able to tell you about any holiday schemes running in your local area) on the Family and Childcare Trust website.  

Check your entitlements

It’s important to make sure you’re getting all the help you’re entitled to.  For support with childcare you can use the Government’s online calculator.

It’s also worth checking you’re receiving the right amount of benefits and financial support. If you’re on Universal Credit, check out our advice on getting help with childcare costs.

To be able to offset your childcare costs, your childcare provider needs to be registered. You can check the types of childcare that you can get help with here.

If you’re entitled to 30 hours of free childcare (in England), you could stretch your entitlement so that you receive fewer hours each week but get the childcare during school holidays too. Check whether your childcare provider will allow you to do this. 

Your options using employment rights

It’s a good idea to know what your rights are when it comes to covering any shortfall between the holidays and the time needed to provide additional care:

Annual Leave 

Employees have a statutory entitlement to 5.6 weeks paid annual leave per year. Part-time workers must have the same entitlement as their full-time colleagues. This will be the pro-rata amount of the 28 days full time equivalent.  

You must give your employer notice of twice as many days in advance of the first day proposed for leave as the number of days proposed in total; for example, 10 days’ notice for 5 days’ leave. However, as many parents may want to have leave at the same time, it is best to ask well in advance.  

Employers can restrict the length or timing of annual leave as long as they give you sufficient notice, equal to the length of the proposed leave.  

Parental Leave 

Parents of children under 18 can take unpaid parental leave if they have been with their employer at least a year. Parents can take up to a four weeks per child per year, up to a total of 18 weeks per child before the child is 18.

Employers can require parents taking parental leave for non-disabled children to take it in blocks of a week. Parents with a disabled child (who is entitled to Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment) can take it in blocks of a day. Your employer cannot refuse you leave or penalise you for taking parental leave. However, there are circumstances in which employers can postpone parental leave. 

Flexible Working Request  

We have a wealth of resources on how to negotiate and make a flexible working request. If granted, a flexible working request is permanent, so make clear if you only need temporary support.

Types of flex to accommodate holidays can include:  

• Requesting to work term time hours only while you have school aged children – 39 weeks of the year.  
• Working on an annualised hours basis, where you do a number of working hours across a year, but work more hours during school terms so as to work less days in holiday periods, which combined with annual leave can then result in better cover without the same reduction in pay for.  
• Flexi time – working a different pattern to accommodate caring during holidays, depending on the nature of your role. Many did this during the pandemic, working early or late to fit around childcare.  

Flexible working isn’t just good for people, it’s good for business. Many employers report productivity gains, improved morale, increased engagement, and improved staff retention when flexibility is offered.  Flexible working can also help support equity, diversity, and inclusion objectives.

Emergency time off for dependants 

Given the complex web of arrangements that may be in place in the summer, if the childcare you have arranged falls through, you are entitled to emergency time off for dependants, but this does not apply to planned time off.

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