More than half of parents in England struggle to find accessible holiday clubs for their disabled children, with the shortage hitting family finances and forcing many to quit work, according to a survey by the national disability charity Sense.
Postcode Lottery Leaves Thousands Without Options
A “stark postcode lottery” dictates who can secure a place, the charity said. It found an estimated 60,000 disabled children live in areas of England with no holiday club provision. Sense sent freedom of information requests to every local authority in England; of the 114 that responded, 11 (10%) offered zero holiday club provision, leaving 61,415 families scrambling for help.
In total, 57% of 1,000 parents surveyed said it was difficult to get a place. One in three (32%) said the situation left them financially worse off; of those, a third (32%) had to reduce working hours, and almost a fifth (16%) left employment. The struggle also affects wellbeing: a third (34%) of parents reported poor mental health.
Personal Stories Highlight the Struggle
Melissa Mould, 44, and her husband Andrew Mould, 42, from Merton, south-west London, work in TV production and are parents to six-year-old twins Frankie and Otis, and two-year-old Remy. Frankie has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair full-time. “The logistics of organising summer holiday childcare are so complicated when you have a disabled child – it exhausts me mentally,” Melissa said. “There are endless holiday club options for Otis. For Frankie, there is nothing obvious that he can go to.” She works part-time and relies on her mother for help, adding, “I know many families don’t have that support and I can completely see how people end up giving up work.”
Natalie Thompson, 39, a single parent from Birmingham, works part-time as a freelance HR adviser. Her son Azuriah, eight, is autistic, non-verbal and has global development delay. “There are so few holiday clubs that can meet his needs because he requires one-on-one support,” she said. “I’m with him throughout the holidays, from first thing in the morning until last thing at night. I can’t work full-time because of my caring responsibilities. The way school holiday care works for disabled children with complex needs is absolute madness. There should be a national framework.”
Calls for National Framework
Harriet Edwards, director of influencing at Sense, said: “Every child deserves the chance to spend the summer with friends, learning new skills and having fun. Yet too many disabled children are missing out simply because accessible holiday clubs aren’t available where they live.”
A spokesperson for the Local Government Association said: “Councils recognise the shortage of holiday childcare options for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send). We want to continue to work with government to ensure children get the support they need in the Send reforms, which must ensure those needs are met out of school as well as during term-time.”
