Nursery / work problem

[buddhasbelly]

I work in an FE institution and my dd goes to the nursery that I part of it. The staff and care she received there is excellent, no complaints there.

However in 2 weeks time it will be closed for 2 days for instition wide staff training. As I am a single parent (no involvement from dd's dad) I have nowhere to put dd so will have to take the 2 days off.

Suggestions from colleagues have been to take unpaid leave it holidays but AIBU in thinking that the insitution isn't providing childcare so I shouldn't be out of pocket or using up leave?

in previous years that have operated a skeleton staff in the nursery and rotated so that everyone can attend a couple of the training sessions (which are repeated across the 2 days) but this year that have decided to close completely.

I have tried alternate childcare arrangements but not been able to find anything. I've reported to my line manager and asked to work from home but am awaiting a respone. It also means I can't undertake any training myself.

Apologies for the typos!

Bump

The fact that it’s on site is a red herring. You have no childcare available, therefore you’ll need need to WFH, take annual leave or an unpaid day if you can’t get an emergency nanny or babysitter.

Talk to ACAS, I dont know if you are protected by the Equality Act, but there must be a way to get them to accommodate you.
You;d think in this day and age they'd have it sorted.

www.gingerbread.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Working-life-%E2%80%93-a-guide-to-your-rights-in-the-workplace.pdf

Unpaid leave or holidays - being on site is irrelevant.

It's irrelevant that it's on site, and they've given you notice to make alternative arrangements.

Thanks for the responses. Guess I'll need to use holiday.

When I say on-site I mean we're all employed by the same organisation. Just a bit odd that up until now they have kept the nursery going on these days and rotated staff over the course of the two days so everyone gets to attend the sessions on one or the other day.

We're in quite a small location and have checked for ad hoc babysitters but none that will do 1 or 2 days. Will hopefully be able to access the presentations from the day through our intranet system.

Thanks again

Is being a parent a protected characteristic for the Equality Act? No. If you can't make alternative arrangements you need to take annual leave or unpaid leave. If you were given paid leave or allowed to work from home that wouldn't be fair on others. Like it or not, having a child is still ultimately a personal choice.

I had this situation- ds went to the nursery I was employed by.
As a lone parent I had no option but to source care for the time or call in sick- which would have been so obvious. I had meetings with managers about it and ultimately, their line was simple- you’re paid to come in, so in you must come.
A friend ended up stepping forward when it became obvious it was leave or do training. Thank goodness she did. As a lone parent, they see it as your responsibility to sort care- their bottom line is the need of the business.
I no longer work, so don’t have that issue because with two kids it would be an absolute nightmare