Adobe StockEight in ten parents are relying on grandmothers to get through the summer holidays, exposing a severe shortfall in affordable childcare.
A new survey by Pregnant Then Screwed Scotland laid bare the financial and emotional strain facing families as schools break up.
Two-thirds of parents who use informal childcare admit they still don’t have their summer childcare in place while 52.2% state there is simply not enough provision available.
Around 60% of those surveyed report a severe toll on their mental health, while 67.5% say the summer juggle negatively impacts their career.
University lecturer Francesca Fiori has two children in primary school.
With the summer holidays just around the corner, she is putting plans in place to keep them busy.
But with no family to rely on for childcare and with both parents working full time, it’s set to be an expensive summer.
“We’ve never had help around us, it’s always been the case. In the past, the kids attended after-school clubs.
“We’ve got the children enrolled into the system relatively straightforward, ten minutes, they know the kids and staff, but it isn’t cheap. It’s easily a third of our household income.”
For families opting for summer holiday camps, the costs are staggering. A quarter are spending over £200 a week per child. Some 58.4% of respondents say costs are actively hurting their ability to afford basic household essentials.
But for many families, the financial pressures and work-life balance challenges begin when maternity leave ends.
The Early Days Nursery in Edinburgh uses a number of schemes that allow parents to pay for childcare through salary sacrifice arrangements offered by their employers, potentially saving them thousands of pounds in tax each year.
STV NewsStaff here have seen the impact rising childcare costs can have on working mothers trying to build their careers.
Director Maureen Crandles said: “Quite a few parents are professionals, and suddenly that is impacted when they have a baby.
“We want to make sure we’re providing parents with the opportunity, particularly mums, to be able to follow careers, because quite a few of my parents are professionals and suddenly it’s impacted when they’ve had a baby.
“The main incentive is that it gives parents choices – they can come back to work when they want to come back.”
The Scottish Government is now being urged to set out how it will deliver funded childcare from nine months old through to the end of primary school as soon as possible.
But there are also calls for employers to do more to support working families.
STV NewsAnna Semple is the founder of Halo Benefits, a tech startup which built a compliance platform allowing employers to partner with nurseries and offer workplace nursery schemes.
“For someone paying around £1,200 a month in nursery fees, they could be saving about £480 a month -which is a really significant saving over a year.
“Since childcare vouchers went away, employers have been removed from the equation. This is an opportunity for them to get involved and get mums back into the workforce.”
Francesca has just finished writing a research paper examining the barriers Scots face when deciding whether or not to have children.
She says structural change is needed, including affordable, flexible childcare and a huge cultural shift regarding fatherhood, such as extended paternity leave.
“Starting earlier with support for parents would reduce the time women spend outside the labour market,” she said. “We know there are consequences for mums later in life: the pay gap, particularly if family life doesn’t go to plan, if the parents break up and so on.
“Women are likely to be particularly disadvantaged in the early years of their children, and there should be provision that enables them to stay in the labour market and retire as they want to.”
Adobe StockCarole Erskine, head of policy and campaigns for Pregnant then Screwed Scotland, said: “The summer holidays are a constant headache for mums, who are more often than not the primary carer for children, and now this worry and responsibility is being shared with their mums and their parents’ mums too.
“While some families have the option of relying on grandparents, many do not have this choice and are forced to pay a huge amount for childcare or step back from work because of availability and cost. This matters because time and time again it’s women stepping up to help, creating a knock-on effect that’s spanning generations. Some mums have only had a few years between taking the lion’s share of caring responsibilities for their own children and then doing it again for grandchildren.”
Children’s minister Siobhian Brown said: “We recognise the pressures facing families during holiday times, that’s why we will deliver a new wraparound childcare system for every child from nine months old to the end of primary school for 52 weeks a year by the end of this parliamentary session.
“In the meantime, we continue to support the delivery of the Extra Time Programme, which already offers primary school children access to breakfast, after school and holiday activity provision.
“The 2026-27 Budget also provides £90m for employability services to help more people find and progress into sustainable, fair work, which includes £40m to specifically support low-income parents.”
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