Holiday Club & Camp Safety
Ensuring children are safe at holiday clubs, summer camps, and activity programmes.
What is this?
Holiday clubs, summer schemes, sports camps, and activity weeks are a lifeline for many working families and often the highlight of a child's school break. Quality, however, varies sharply between providers — from Ofsted-registered settings with full safeguarding leads, written ratios, and trained first-aiders, to ad-hoc 'pop-up' camps run on park land with little oversight. A short, calm checklist before enrolling — Ofsted status, designated safeguarding lead, DBS-checked staff, written collection policy, phones-and-photos rule, allergy and medication plan — usually tells you within ten minutes whether a provider has thought about safeguarding or is improvising.
How it works
Most concerns come from a small handful of recurring gaps rather than one dramatic incident. Common patterns include: no named designated safeguarding lead on site, supervision ratios that are advertised but not actually staffed once illness or no-shows hit, gate or pickup policies that let any adult collect, water or off-site trips with no risk assessment, and casual photo-sharing of children onto a club Instagram or WhatsApp without written parental consent. KCSiE 2025 and Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 set the expectations schools and statutory partners follow; many holiday providers operate to a lower bar, which is why parents have to ask the questions that the school would normally ask on their behalf.
Warning signs
In your child's behaviour
- • Reluctance to attend after initial enthusiasm
- • Reports of poor supervision or inappropriate behaviour
- • Descriptions of activities that seem unsafe
Prevention steps
Check Ofsted registration
In the UK, holiday clubs caring for under-8s for more than 2 hours should be Ofsted registered. Check their rating.
Ask about safeguarding
A reputable provider will have written safeguarding policies, DBS-checked staff, clear ratios, and emergency procedures.
Visit before enrolling
If possible, visit the venue and observe the setup before committing. Trust your instincts.
What to do if it happens
- 1Remove your child from the setting if you have immediate concerns
- 2Report to the provider's management and ask about their complaints procedure
- 3Report to Ofsted or local authority if safeguarding standards are not met
Related topics
If you need to report this
In immediate danger: call 999. For non-emergency police matters, call 101.
Concerned about a child but it's not an emergency? NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000. Childline for young people 0800 1111.
This is practical educational content to support families. For case-specific concerns about a child's safety, contact the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000 or your local safeguarding team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Resources
Was this page helpful?
Last reviewed: 2026-03-29