Are the six week school holidays too long and should more help be given to working parents?

Transcript

00:00 Good morning, I'm digital reporter Claire Lark and today is the 1st of September,

00:04 which is traditionally the first day back at school.

00:07 Pupils have been off for six weeks but is it too long? We asked the people of Lancashire what

00:12 they thought and whether they think that more help should be provided for parents during the

00:16 school holidays. This is what they had to say. Yeah, we should be sort of more spaced out the

00:22 holidays. So they've not quite seen we have a few more blocks of time? Well the thing is you'll have

00:28 the school, you'll have the end of the summer holidays is this week for the kids. I think about

00:33 three or four weeks it's half term again. True, true. You know so it's just too many holidays for

00:40 parents to cope with you know and with the strikes, with the teachers and everything. We've got to

00:46 find childcare so. And do you think more help should be given to families? Oh definitely,

00:51 like you know because you know especially with the strikes you know they get a strike like one

00:56 of the parents if they're both working they've got to take time off work to look after them.

01:01 Six weeks is quite a long time to cover isn't it? Yeah you know this if the parents are both

01:07 working and got to buy childminders plus it's the cost of those holidays you know you know the kids

01:13 want to go to the Pledge of Allegiance in Armonale. Yes I do, I think this should be shorter. I think

01:19 this should be probably four or five weeks long and we should have an extra week somewhere else

01:24 like at half February half term or October half term or an extra week at Christmas. I think that

01:30 would be much more beneficial for the children but I also think they should start sooner so they

01:34 should start like the middle of June because that's when the nice sunny weather is. Rather

01:38 than doing it from July to September forward. Yeah June till beginning of August, middle of

01:43 August would be perfect so that the kids benefit from the sunshine. Yeah of course and do you think

01:48 more help should be given to parents you know during this time to cover childcare costs?

01:53 Definitely I think one of the big issues for us is there is no holiday clubs, no holiday

02:01 activities for children with disabilities especially children in wheelchairs. In the

02:07 country there's only something like two percent of all children with wheelchair who is wheelchair

02:13 using wheelchairs who can actually attend a holiday club this summer holidays and our children are

02:20 not in that two percent. So I think the government really needs to be looking at activities for

02:25 those families. It's expensive, it's a long time I think and children get bored. And do you think

02:32 more help should be available to families to support them during holidays? I do because as I

02:37 say it's very expensive if you have to come in childcare or any other things. I can't rely on

02:42 and grandparents do things with a lot more support.