South West parents are still paying off the summer holidays

You’ve barely put the packed lunches away and the credit card bill from August is still landing. According to new research from The Children’s Society, you are far from alone. Nearly two-thirds of parents across the South West say this year’s school holidays cost more than last year’s, and the region is heading into the new term still feeling it.

What South West parents told researchers

The charity’s survey found 62% of parents in the South West said school holiday costs were higher than a year earlier, while 64% described the holidays as financially stressful. Activities were the bigger squeeze than food. 59% of parents said the cost of things to do during the holidays was hard to manage, against 42% who struggled with food and drink. The findings are set out in full in the charity’s report, Walking into Nothing: The hidden cost of the school holidays for families.

Nationally, the numbers behind that stress add up fast. Parents spent an estimated £50 on food and drink and £91 on other costs for their eldest school-age child, just for the one-week February half-term, roughly £141 in total. The survey polled 3,000 parents of school-age children across the UK between 25 February and 4 March 2026, with regional figures drawn from a smaller sub-sample and reported as survey findings rather than population counts.

How families are getting through it

Among parents who struggled with the costs, 30% put it on a credit card, 24% borrowed from friends or family and 17% used buy now, pay later. Further down the list of coping strategies, 27% skipped a meal themselves so their child didn’t have to, and 10% turned to a food bank.

A uniform change years in the making

There is one piece of good news landing just as the new term starts. From September, schools in England are limited to three compulsory branded uniform items, or four in secondary and middle schools where one of them is a tie, under the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026. It’s a change The Children’s Society campaigned for over several years.

Mark Russell, Chief Executive of The Children’s Society, called it “a genuine and welcome step towards fairer school-uniform costs, a change we campaigned for over many years, and it’s good to see it finally arriving.”

The gap in support that’s coming with it

Russell was less upbeat about what happens once term starts and the holidays roll round again. “The pressures on families in the South West don’t stop there,” he said. “Our research shows how expensive the school holidays are, with many parents borrowing money, skipping meals or relying on food banks to cope.”

From September, every child in a household on Universal Credit becomes eligible for a Free School Meal in term time. But the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, which covers the holidays themselves, keeps its stricter existing income threshold. The charity estimates around 1.3 million children nationally could end up eligible for the term-time meal but not for HAF support in the holidays that follow, roughly 39% of all school-age children in households receiving Universal Credit.

“We welcome the expansion of Free School Meals, but the Holiday Activities and Food programme is only open to families who meet stricter income limits,” Russell said. “Families need real, practical help to manage these costs, from affordable activities to support that reaches them when the pressure is greatest.”