Childcare after maternity leave

[Trying4one]

I know I am thinking way in advance here but I am trying to be organised. I will be going on maternity leave in June and only taking 26 weeks due to financial reasons. Instead of taking all my annual leave before or after maternity I want to use it to work shorter weeks for awhile after I go back to work to ease myself back in. My question is in regards to nurseries and childminders as we haven't decided which route to go down yet but if I was to work 4 days weeks for say 6 weeks after I go back to work and then go back full time, will childcare be able to cater to this or will I just have to pay for full time care from the start?
I am trying to work this out so I can work out what I am doing with my annual leave as my annual leave runs from April to March.

Depends on the contract but I paid for full time childcare for part time usage for a while. It means you keep the space.

It depends on their availability. They may be happy to take your baby PT, but you then may have to wait until a FT space becomes available.

Might depend on the setting. Our childminder is amazing, we have a flexible contract. Some nurseries cater for similar, e.g shift workers but not many, like pp said it will depend on their availability.

Like you I was ringing around a year in advance and was asked to contact them nearer the time. Nothing wrong with making a few enquiries to get a feel for places and what they might be able to do.

It will very ,depend on the setting you may find you will have to pay for all 5 days from the start so you have the five days to use. If you only pay for 4 the other day can be given to someone else who only wants 1 day or an extra day then then you won’t have the full time space you need. I am a childminder and I would be happy for you to start on 4 days as week and after the 6 weeks go to five days but this would be written into the contract so after the 6 weeks you would then have to pay for the full week whether you were using the space as per all my contracts.

My nursery let me do 1day a week for a month before then moving to 3 days per week, they seemed ok with this as it helped him settle over a longer period.

It will depend on the setting and how busy they are, how much demand on places, how many siblings and how much notice they need and what days you need. Fridays are usually easier to get a place for with Wednesday being the busiest days.

In my area you are looking at around 9 month wait for a private nursery place, so you would want to be on the waiting list pre-birth or soon after they're born depending on how much mat leave you're taking.

I'm a childminder. I never keep a space without payment for longer than a month. So I'd let you do shorter week for a month but would make sure you had paid a deposit for the month you were starting full time. Unfortunately, I've held places open for longer for people who have suddenly decided that full time work isn't for them. For a childminder this can be quite a big loss in earnings. Good luck with everything