whats the best solution for emergancy services /irregular shift pattern?

[pippa251]

Hello,

Please help as i'm worried i'm not going to be able to return to work.

I have 1 dd and she will be 11 mths when i return to work. DP works runs a restaurant and therefoere works shifts and weekends- he would know his rota a month in advance but usually always works mon, tues and 3 out of every 4 weekends- he rotates his days off between wed- sunday. I am a Police officers and do a range of shifts usually varying month to month- however i can not be relied on to pick up from nursery etc my days are really unpredictable and I may have to stay on without notice etc.

We could probably get the weekends sorted but i'm really worried about the mid week- I have been led to believe that i will have to pay mon- fri weather I use the days or not as they can't be flexible on a month to month basis.

What would you suggest?

sorry for the bad spelling I'm currantly bfeeding and typing with 1 hand

I would probably charge you Mon-Fri, because you would be paying for my availability, but there are some CM who specifically work around shifts and can keep dedicated spaces. Keep looking and you might be lucky. You and your DP can obviously still use a full time space even when you are not working, if you want to. Alternatively, a nanny might be able to work around your shifts, but may be more expensive than paying for a full time childminder space(???????).

Sorry ... not much help.

Have you looked at hospital nurseries? Some of those offer flexible places for shift workers.

Is there no way your employer could grant you regular shifts?

I am a nurse and do shifts so realise the difficulty (Hospital nurseries,4 arms??Wish ours had one lol)

As an employee if you have children under 6 your employer has to look at accomadating your requests (Tho sadly this is not legally binding)

I do permanent nights and dp looks after dcs at night and the do nursery/school on daystimes.Would nights be an option?Poss not given your dhs job.

A real tricky one.

i look after a 18 month old girl whose parents both work for the police force, so they both work shifts!
I was a bit unsure to begin with how it would work but thought would give it a go anyway and am pleased to say that its working out really well!
I did decide that i would have to charge a minimum of x amount of hours a month as she does take up a full-time place, but the minimum amount i decided i needed is less than the amount a full-time child would be.
This way if her parents have lots of rest days or can cover for each other regarding childcare one month i still get paid a reasonable minimum amount without actually looking after her, then other months they require more than the minimum amount of hours so i get paid well for that.
All in all it works out very well as they can send her in on their rest days if they want a break as they have a hours to use.
I get a 1 or 2 month rota of her hours required in advance so know when she will and wont be in.
Hope this helps and gives you some hope that you will be able to find flexible childcare.
I would definately offer this to other parents who work shifts now having experienced how well it can work.

could you use a nursery for so many days a week then have an ad-hoc nanny who could collect from nursery on the days you would be working late. I have done this in past for families who have to work late as I only do evenings and weekends.

I would agree with asking your employer if you can have set days, as a nurse I know many parents who work set days such as mon early, tues late and sat long day for example so they know when working.

I would suggest a CM and I think several would affectively want a flat rate of x per week and then extra for when they look after your dc more than usual. Def worth phoning local cms and discussing it with them.