flexible working bla bla bla

[Mytwobeautifulgirls]

hi all

I'm due to go back to work in Aug as that is when my 52 weeks r up. my smp finishes in April. I have asked my mana of I can go back sooner but on really reallyreduced hours until bubba is a bit bigger. I currently work 37.5 hrs a week's but want to cut down to 2.5 days a week. it does not look promising.
basically o want to know where I stand on my rights to flexible working. I literally have no one to have my baby my parents live far and dp works funny hours full time.
it's nhs I work for
any advice really appreciated.

thanks

[scottishmummy]

submit request they have to consider it,not necessarily honour it though
give clear rationale,consider how service won't be overly disrupted
do other colleagues have flex working?good luck

[Mytwobeautifulgirls]

thanks. well I have asked so will wait and see. nobody else has young babys/kids some do the hours that I'm after but who knows.

[CPtart]

Ha, good luck. After over 20 years in the NHS I had to leave because of their inability to comply with my request for set working days (in order to sort nursery places). You have the right to request flexible working and they have to look at it seriously, but ultimately the "needs of the service come first" I was told, and they are under no obligation at all to agree to it.

I now work in general practice, no weekends, no bank holidays and set working patterns.

[flowery]

They have to consider a request, but that doesn't include temporary ones- you don't keep the right to increase hours again.

Are there no nurseries/ childminders anywhere near you?

[Mytwobeautifulgirls]

cp thanks for that. it's so hard and as parents them selves surely they can remember how hard it is. I am considering just doing bank work if all else fails.

[Mytwobeautifulgirls]

it would not be worth while me going tp work to just fund child care costs we r not entitled to any tax credits etc

[CPtart]

I worked for nothing for two years as my salary was completely swallowed by funding part time nursery places, but to me it was worth it to stay working, maintain my pension (and my sanity).

I suppose it depends on the area you work in, but management in my case seemed scared of setting a precedent and of repercussions from other staff who also had young children but managed shifts with family members to help out with childcare. My argument was always that It was ridiculous to have to pay for five days of nursery when I only needed three.

I sympathise....good luck!

[annh]

Your situation is unfortunately no different to thousands of other people. You have the right to request flexible working but no automatic right to have it granted. There are only specific reasons which the company can use to refuse so it will help your case if you try to ancicipate whether they can refuse on any of those grounds and build a case showing how you can make it work.

Why can you not find a cm to look after your child/ren? Again, lots of people work for little money in the early years in order to keep their skills fresh, maintain pension payments, for training etc. If you still want to work, can you consider this time as an investment in ypur future?

[twinklytoes]

would you be better to use your accrued annual leave to reduce your working week whilst you adjust back into working? especially if in the long term you want to keep your full time contract? as flowery says if they do agree to reduce your contract then it's a permanent request, there's no guarantee you'd get it back to full time again.

you could also make use of achieving your KIT days now then you will have some TOIL built up that you could use in the first few weeks back in work.

[twinklytoes]

have you investigated the childcare vouchers - both you and DH can get up to £243 a month , that will make some savings.

[twinklytoes]

also, the only time we got child tax credits was the year after maternity leave (we're both NHS, band 6 and 7).... I got a year's worth of credits that I didn't really think I would get...it was all to do with maternity pay reducing taxable income or something? That made a slight difference and helped pay for the childcare.