AFFORDABLE childcare, like summer schemes and out-of-school activity clubs, should be a legal right, ending the stressful and complicated "jigsaw puzzle" parents face during the school holidays, childhood experts and charities have said.

Research by the Family and Childcare Trust shows summer holiday childcare is more expensive in Scotland than anywhere in the UK with an average cost of £110.15 per week for each child. That means that during a six-week holiday a family with two children have to find an additional £1,321.80 unless family and friends can help for free. The Sunday Herald found many other childcare options – often a fall-back when out-of-school clubs are full – were far more expensive.

Oscars Childcare, which runs activity summer camps across Glasgow, Edinburgh and East Lothian, charges £34 per day (or £54 for excursions) with prices for three weeks starting at £540. The Excel Sports Academy in Edinburgh offers a basic package from £157 per week, and intensive language learning weeks at the capital's Institut Francais D'Ecosse are £225 for primary children and £275 for secondary. Though most accept childcare vouchers (a tax-relief scheme run by some employers), these are not available to all parents.

Ellen Broome, chief executive of the Family and Childcare Trust, said more than three quarters – 76 per cent – of local authorities have insufficient summer childcare options for working parents, with 90 per cent claiming it did not have adequate provision for special needs children.

"We know parents are really struggling," she said, claiming many dread the summer holidays and the complicated "jigsaw puzzle" approach they are forced to put in place. "We want parents to have the legal right to a childcare place for every child. Childcare is part of the modern infrastructure like roads and electricity. If we do not have accessible, affordable childcare parents cannot come to work."

Simon Massey, head of development at charity Children in Scotland, said the cost of summer childcare was a real and pressing problem: "For working parents, childcare doesn't stop being required in the middle of the year, so there is no reason that provision and entitlement should," he added.

Research shows the issue disproportionally affects mothers. Anna Ritchie Allan, director of Close the Gap, which campaigns for equal pay for women, said: "Women tend to shoulder the burden of ensuring childcare arrangements are in place, often with a complex web of informal childcare by family and friends, paid childcare, annual leave, and flexibility in working hours where this can be negotiated.

"A lack of flexible working compounds this problem with many women forced to take unpaid leave to look after their children, further reducing their income. Universal free childcare would have a transformational effect."

Others questioned the over-structured nature of the care on offer – from sports camps to circus schools – that fails to provide children with "downtime" for unstructured play.

Sue Palmer, author of Toxic Childhood and part of the Upstart campaign to introduce a Kindergarten stage for pre-sevens in Scottish schools, said: "Something like drama or circus skills can be great as a kid but the holidays are turning into all adult-directed time. We need a balance."

She claimed that the lack of opportunities for unstructured outdoor play meant children failed to develop resilience, storing up problems in teenage and adult life, such as poor mental health. "It's almost as if, in the last 25 years, the entire culture of childhood has changed and we have not thought about what we are losing as a result," she added.

Under current Scottish Government plans, 1,140 hours of funded early-learning and childcare will be made available to all parents annually by 2020. A spokeswoman said: "We provide local government with an agreed package of funding and it is the responsibility of each council to allocate that on the basis of local needs and priorities."