Shift work and childcare

[Fortgeloveofsleep]

Does anyone have any advice/experience for how to navigate childcare (for <2yo) when working shifts that have unpredictable finishing times? Like if I finish 2 hours late and don't find out till 30 minutes before anticipated pick up, I can't be expecting external childcare to hang onto my child. Also, what childcare is available from as early as pre-6am? Genuinely don't know how the situation is feasible?

I'm divorced from my boys father so he has them when I work shifts,

There is generally early morning,late evening childcare on hospital sights or nearby,

A childminder or nanny would prob be your best bet. Or an au pair

If a single parent with no family help I’d say realistically shift work is totally incompatible with childcare and you’d be better requesting flexibility in work patter to fit with childcare or looking for another job.

I know that probably shouldn’t be the answer but IME it is

There isn’t any except family I’m afraid. Unless you have the money for a nanny.

I think we need to know what other support you have childcare wise? Are you a single parent or is their dad going to be able to look after them if you are working early/ late shifts? I'm a nurse, and now a single parent. Shift work wouldn't work for me so I have a 9-5 role now a days. Everyone's situation is different though.

I wish i knew of a childcare setting that could cater to it

Not quite the same but Dp has a job that never has a set finish anywhere from 4pm to 8pm between march to the end of october even the other months its not a set finish but easier to guess
He also gets called in with little notice on days off

I have just had to find jobs that work around this, schools and part time jobs that have set hours.
It's taken a huge toll on our finances and put alot if strain in us

I would suggest local childminders and explain the situation to them buy I expect they would want additional pay to cover maybe hours

Are you a HCP? I've seen nurseries based at hospitals/catering for hospital staff that open at 6am, but that's far from universal. For the finishing late realistically you'd need to find childcare that covered the latest you might be and then suck up having overpaid if you finish on time - you're not going to find anyone who is happy to regularly accommodate this otherwise. Unfortunately you're going to find it really hard unless you have either a partner who will be sharing it or a lot of family help.

It is hard if you have no family nearby, but not impossible.
Childminders and nannies are the best options. Nannies offer the most flexibility, they work in your home for the hours you pay them to, but it's expensive (unless you have several kids) and you're their employer. Unlike childminders they don't have to register with any official body.
Childminders are self employed and work in their own homes. They are officially regulated and a more economical option. But there are only a few who will be flexible enough for what you need.

We had a childminder who was very flexible and could accommodate early starts and late finishes. She was also happy to accommodate different days each week. Of course we paid her more than her normal fee for this.
Having experienced us both working shifts, and one doing 9-5 Mon-Fri the latter is the easier option to get childcare for.
We found our childminder through childcare.co.uk. I paid the fee and messaged any who seemed suitable regardless of their advertised availability. I found people are open to discussion, and of course being willing to pay more than their normal fee helps.

What hours does your DP/DH work? Work out what cover you'd actually need in a standard month and use that to form the basis of discussions with any potential childcare provider.

Thanks all. Yes I'm a HCP but not hospital based (or anywhere near to), and there's no on site childcare. Not a single parent but DP also works similar shifts except he has a hour's commute to and from so he's out of the house 14.5 hours a day. I've already reduced my hours to cover 5 days of the week but my employer won't be any more flexible so we will have overlapping shifts 6-7 days a month. Nearest family is 2.5 hours away. I'm yet to find anyone who will accommodate up to 14 hours a day on weekends. Unfortunately we cannot afford for me to give up work completely.

We have 1 of us who works a standard 5 day week, and the other on a rolling shift pattern.

The only way we have been able to do it is to arrange childcare (formerly nursery, and now before/after school club) around the 5 day standard working week, it does mean we are paying and often using childcare when we don't need it, but I found there wasn't an alternative.

I know it isn't the answer you want, but it may be the only solution if your set up if similar to ours.

Sorry, cross posted.

It is awful that paid childcare doesn't effectively exist for long days/shifts.

Would a Nanny even for the weekend next an option?

It’s hard op but realistically I don’t think two parents doing shift work like this is compatible with have Dc, unless you have excellent family support or money for a nanny. One of you may have to look for different work with more regular, weekday hours.

We have HCPs in custody (Police) they are a much wanted part of our team so we try and work around booking the HCP to ensure they leave on time. The HCP team are also great at helping each other out with hours I don’t know if that’s something you could consider, they are desperately short staffed across the UK.

My DH is a HCP and I was previously a swimming teacher working late and weekends. Childcare quickly became impossible for us, so I set up my own childminding business. Fixed the childcare problem!

You'd have to pay through the nose, either for a very early start CM or a Nanny. Shift work and dc just doesn't work in my experience.

No childcare provider is going to flex for that amount of additional care on a regular basis. They have to know child numbers for safe staffing levels, food provision, etc etc. I don't think you'll get any childcare pre 6am, the earliest we could find was 7.30. Speak with your employer and agree a flexible working contract that fixes your working hours (assuming you're NHS).

It's difficult doing shift work and having children. I had to cut my hours, demoted myself and requested a flexi working contract. To start half a hour after everyone else as I couldn't find childcare before 8am and also set days for the nursery. Thankfully my work were ok with this but it does mean i miss handover which bugs me as the other nurses dont ask the same question I would and I feel like I'm rushing for the first 4 hours of my shift. But I need to make it work as we have no other choice.Pick up is fine because my husband doesn't finish any later than half 3 and he can stay in nursery until 6pm.

Unfortunately cutting my hours down was the result of my flexible working request. My hours are fixed technically, but I'm simultaneously contractually obliged to do emergency overtime when necessary, which is 99% of shifts.

The NHS refused to give me set working hours (after 13 years) so I left and found a similar healthcare role outside of it that did. 'The needs of the service' came first. I kept the pension but took a pay cut and got less annual leave and sick pay but DH was a much bigger earner than me.

Similar situation to the poster above, I had to leave my job after over 20 years because my NHS employer refused to be flexible with my working hours. I was forced out.

I found something that fitted in with my long awaited baby. It was a huge wrench, I had worked a very very long time to get to the level I was at, but it just wasn’t doable.
Surprise surprise, they never replaced me either.

You have to do what you have to do, I hated every minute of my new job, hated it, but it meant I was not worrying about how we would manage week in week out. As soon as I was able, I changed job.

Does your dp also have to do emergency overtime? If not, it would make more sense for him to go part time and put it a formal flexible working request for family friendly hours as at least when his are set , they wont change.

@Fortgeloveofsleep I'm a paramedic and I had to give up ambulance work for all the reasons you describe. I got a job with 111 then disability assessing. Both have good hours. Now I work for the NHS as a trainer and it's 8-4 so perfect for family.

Has your OH/husband spoke to his work re flexibility etc?
I never understand why it has to only be the woman a lot of the time!
I'm a HCP covering a 24/7 service and not always guaranteed a finishing time as if I'm in someone's home waiting for an ambulance and if they're unstable then I can't just leave them!
My husband has a job with flexible starts and finishing times and doesn't work weekends.
This is a lower paying job than he could currently have but for flexibility and childcare it's best.
I have friends who are both shift workers and they work mostly opposite shifts and sometimes have to split nights (so working 1 night shift rather than 2) and they hardly have time together.

I would really struggle if me and my husband were in a similar role and similar hours!

With no,support, it isn't manageable. Unless you go down the au pair route you'll never find anywhere that will start or finish early or late enough, or accept massively delayed pickups because you can't leave