Parents of primary school-aged children need childcare in holiday time, not just before and after school. The long summer holidays in particular can be a nightmare for working parents trying to patch together visits to grandparents and annual leave with days round at friends houses. Running a holiday club or playscheme, whether for the whole holidays, or just for a week or two, will provide working parents with the high quality childcare that they desperately need.
The requirements for running a holiday club are very similar to those of an after-school club, but the steps you need to take in order to set up the club differ according to whether you are already running an out of school club in term time and just want to extend the provision to cover the school holidays, or whether you plan to operate the club in the school holidays only.
We provide more detailed information specific to setting up and running holiday clubs or playschemes on the following pages:
- Adding a holiday club to your out of school club
- Setting up a holiday club or playscheme for the holidays only
- Information and ideas for running a holiday club
In addition, much of the general information on this website relating to setting up and running an out of school club will also be relevant to holiday clubs:
More about setting up an out of school club >
More about running an out of school club >
We also supply a set of template documentation—policies, procedures, forms, risk assessments, etc—specifically designed for holiday clubs and playschemes. The templates are provided in Word format so that they are easy to use, and delivered via email so that you can start customising them straightaway.
More about the Holiday Club Pack >
