Photo: 123RF
While many of us have been back at work for a few weeks, the school holidays are only just finishing up and for many parents every year they roll around so does the stress of childcare.
The average price for 50 hours in a school holiday programme is $300, but some programmes charge up to $85 a day - that is excluding food and also does not cover the often extensive lists of what to bring.
For many families that cost is out of reach, some are changing their work hours or working from home, but many do not have that option or a grandparent nearby.
Zoe and her husband have two school aged children and already juggle things between them to get the kids to and from school.
She works from 7am to 3pm and he works through the night.
But when the school holidays arrive it is a whole other story.
"If it wasn't for my employer being more than happy for me to do a couple of days at home, we were facing a $3000 holiday programme bill.
"It is $70 a day then there's the likes of tomorrow, where they've got a trip and it's $102 a child."
Zoe said their school holiday programme was one of the cheaper options as they were based in Dunedin.
"It's out the gate, we've got no support here. All the grandparents have passed away apart from one, and he's still working.
"All of our friends are in very similar circumstances, like it's either work your butt off or pay someone else to raise your child."
Obstacles abound
RNZ reached out to families about the cost of school holiday programmes and we were inundated with responses.
Some parents said their kids were using pocket money to pay for a few days in a programme, others were working at night or from home.
In some areas the nearest programme was hours away and others were struggling to find one that accommodated their child's disability.
Kelly Club is a before and after school and holiday programme that runs in 60 locations around the motu.
Managing director Paul Jamieson said over the last few years more parents were enrolling their children in part-time only holiday programmes.
"We're finding that much much less kids are needing fulltime care now, and whether that's regular working hours or flexibility with working arrangements for parents and also cost of living, I think both of those have played into it."
Paul Jamieson says his business tries to stay affordable for families. Photo: Supplied / Kelly Club
The average price for its holiday programmes ranges from around $50 a day from 8am to 3pm and $60 for 7am to 6pm.
Once a week there is a trip day which is an extra $25, but for children who book in five days a week the trip is free.
Some programmes charge up to $85 a day.
Jamieson said it has been hard to keep prices down with a 20 percent increase in costs to run their business.
"What we wrestle with every day is trying to be affordable for busy working parents and sticking to our values as well as appreciating and understanding we are a business.
"We've got our own livelihoods and lots of people within our team, staff that we're trying to make sure we can pay."
In 2023, the government supervisor to child ratio of 1:10 on site and 1:8 off site was changed to a recommendation, meaning providers can set their own ratios.
Jamieson said Kelly Club keeps its ratio at one to ten, but some providers were stretching that out to 15.
Subsidy available for some families
John Kennedy Photo: Supplied / John Kennedy
John Kennedy is the managing director of the Out of School Care Network which is an organisation run by out of school care providers.
He said government spending and support for out of school care should be more in line with the early childhood sector.
"What we notice in countries like Australia, or if you look at some of the European countries, the same services there are much more on a parity with early childhood services, so they seem very much a part of the childcare sector."
Funding is available for low to middle income families via a Work and Income subsidy to cover up to 50 hours a week in a school holiday programme.
Kennedy said the subsidy was underused and encouraged parents to check whether they were eligible.
But for those not eligible, he said they were hearing of more parents opting to leave their kids at home alone.
"We are concerned that we're going back to the kind of latchkey kid scenario that we used to have in the 80s, parents are having to make difficult decisions about, well, my child's 10 technically, I'm not supposed to leave them at home alone, but I might with a device, just for three hours.
"It's the children ultimately that pay the price here."
