Lone parents expected to seek work when kids are 5?

[champagnesupernova]

Just catching up on yesterday's news and saw this and was surprised there wasn't anything about this on here already

What do you think?

bigchris I thought schools were obliged to offer before and after school care these days so there shouldn't be any reason why a lone parent can't do a normal working day.

I don't see what the problem is. When you child is at school you should be able to find work. If the thought of wrap around care doesn't appeal, well tough, really.

My mother stayed on benefits until my brother was 16, as she thought she shouldn't have to work whilst she had a child. She thought my working when dd was a baby was outrageous.

They do MollieO I do think that a day from 7.30 until 6pm is too long for a 5 year old. My 5 year old had to 6.30-5.30pm in daycare and it bordered on neglect. It is my greatest regret as a parent although it was a situation I chose. I would not want to enforce it on anyone.

I think that's a good point about employers. The employer that structures a lot of their work more flexibly & around school hours is going to find they have a large pool of willing labour to choose from. Women looking after families are renowned for being loyal and reliable workers. I think some of the doom and gloom reactions are premature.

I really don't see how this policy is picking on single parents. If you child is at school, you are available to work, regardless of whether or not you have a partner.

I see no difference between a child of 5 at school and a child of 7 at school, so I'm glad they've lowered the age. I started working at a pre school when my youngest started school, I'd have been bored shitless otherwise. Why should the government support my income if I had decided I couldn't be arsed to go and get a job.

Obviously there aren't loads of term time jobs that will fit in with dc's, but at least now people will have to make some effort to see if they can find one instead of not bothering at all. This way people are being supported to find work that they can manage around a family, instead of being supported to MN or watch telly all day.

How many peopl on this thread know of evening or weekend childcare available in their area ???

I know I don't know of any. So that is a big range of jobs out of reach right away. Retail, hospitals, resturants, etc all usually now include weekend or evening work.

Like I said before, if you have help from family then this is fine, but what if you don't ??

I am not saying at all that single parents shouldn't have to work. What I am saying is that it is currently pointless trying to force them back into work when there are nowhere near enough jobs to go around.

Are you a single parent curlymama ??

In most circumstances it is easier having a partner around to help with childcare but not always. I never see dh at all in the week, he works in the arse-end of nowhere and this week he won't even be coming home at all.

The key word is "suitable" if the only job available means that you will hardly see your child or makes it impossible to arrange childcare you don't have to take it.

If the government want more women in the workplace and less families living off benefits they have to force encourage employers to consider alternative working practices. But that will never happen with a Tory government they will takes the country backwards when it comes to employment legislation.

MollieO - we have a breakfast club at the infant school, no after school care at the school (one or two activities that finish at 4 but nothing more).

The junior school also has a breakfast club, and again no after school care apart from the after school activities that finish around 4.

Both breakfast clubs start at 8am.

There is a after school club/holiday club which picks up from both schools, but it has a horrendously long waiting list (was over a year last time I checked). There are 24 places for 5-8yr olds it is incredibly difficult to get a place, let alone 2 > - don't know how many places for 8-11yr olds - but equally hard to get.

Holidays care is available until 5.30pm.

It also recently scraped a satisfactory from Ofsted, and several parents have seen them taking the younger children to the park using a ROPE to keep them all together

Ds does either 8am to 6pm or 7.30am to 6.30pm most week days and doesn't have a problem. Usually the first one there and the last one to leave - he gets cross when I occasionally collect him early. Not ideal but as a single parent the only other alternative is for me to give up work and claim benefits, which I don't want to do.

His hours are longer because I have a long commute (very specialised job and only one area I can work). Most normal people could get work within a 30 minute commute of home so that would limit the before/after school time.

Employers are free to set their own working patterns already, provided they are operating within the law. Flexitime and other flexible working practices are already operating in some companies. Most of the applicable regulations seem to come from Brussels via central government rather than initiated by government in isolation. If it makes commercial sense, companies will make it happen...

Before school club here starts at 8am and after school finnishes at 6.

I have to be on the bus and I my way to work at just gone 7, so before school club is no help to me.

Also, no childminders in my area will start before 7:30, so again, no good.

Getorf - it's not that the wrap around care doesn't appeal - it's that it often isn't there!

I can't take work that starts before 7,30 (at a push) or finishes after 6pm (again at a push - latest finish I have ever found for any childcare provider in my town was 6.30)

I once worked nights to supplement our income when I was still with exH. He would rock up home at 9.30pm. and I'd head straight out to work until 7am the next morning. Twas shite, but we needed the money and couldn't afford the childcare for the 2 children we had at the time for me to work "normal" hours.

Yes we needed childcare last year for my dd, I have to commute to work and need to be in for 8am for meeting. I need to leave by half seven there was noone willing to do it even when O offered to pay way over the odds. I had to go into work late.

@MaMoTTaT... I'd say that was a business opportunity. Set up a breakfast/after-school club to meet the demand that isn't being met at the moment, recruit staff and run it yourself. The one I use at my local school must make an absolute fortune!!

My CM advertised hours as 7.30am to 6pm. However she took me on and agreed to do 7am to 7pm so longer hours are possible, it just takes some searching.

I agree MaMoTTat I did childminding for a few years specialising in out of hours care for teachers, nurses , shift workers etc. I was never short of business

Am I missing something here, the article says from age 7 not age 5?

I'm currently studying with OU to qualify to work with pre-schoolers, so my job will work around my children once they're in school. At least that is my long term plan, so that I can work but also be around for them once they're both older. I accept not everyone wants to to do this though

MolliO I did search, I had advance warning as well, my dh was away on business and we had notice that he would be away. I phoned every childminder in the area, advertised in the local paper and in the children's centres. I offered double money and would have gone higher. Noone was interested.

Oh yes mollieo our school has breakfast and afterschool club . 40 places for a school of 300. Very helpful that is.

Yes longer hours are possible mollie, but not for everyone, you were just lucky.

Not one childminder in this area would agree to before 7:30, and there weren't many to choose from anyway.

My xp, could work any hours, any days, anywhere, but is he hassled to get a job ? No. He strolls into the jobcentre once a fortnight, has a chat with the person behind the desk, tells them he has applied for stuff and not heard back, and strolls out again.

Who wants to drop their primary school age kids off at 7am though
I spent years trying to get them to sleep past 6am
no way would I want to wake them up at 6 am , in the dark to get to a cm for 7am, surely that's not good for them.

No it isn't good for them and as I said I regret it now. But at the time I felt I had no choice.

When I worked as a childminder it tended to be nurses or other shift workers that dropped their children off super early and would then pick them up early.

The Government is going to hassle everyone who is unemployed nutcracker so I woiuld imagine your exP will have pressure applied on him to get a job. Just because there are some childless people who need to be got back into work doesn't mean that the government should ignore single parents that are not in work.

I kind of agree with curlymama - and I'm a single parent. Why do you want to sit at home when your DC are at school? It must be soul destroying.

I have always put my DS in childcare 8-6 and always worked so it's not impossible. Would it really take some of you 1.5 hours to commute every day?