Child going to nursery

[jamesopen]

I'm an employer who has a single mother working for him. Her child is going to nursery soon (from a child minder) and I would like to know what flexible arrangements other people have in this situation. She is a very good employee and I have the support of the MD to make her working arrangements suitable but I would like to know how other people have dealt with this situation.

At present she works 8.30 - 4.30 four days per week with one day working from home. Her child minder works four days per week so this arrangement is working well. Moving forward her child is going to nursery where they have long holidays that she needs to cover. I know she could let her take this time as unpaid leave but this would leave her out of pocket and would leave me with work that is not getting done. She doesn't really have family to rely on so arrangements she makes will need to be on a proffessional footing.

I'm in a very lucky situation where I can specify what terms she works under as long as they work for the business. She is a very valuable member of staff so I want to make sure she is happy to stay with our organisation. Does anyone have any suggestions how to proceed in this situation?

Thanks

James

She could find a childminder who does wraparound care, or use her 15 free hours at a private nursery, who deduct this from the bill. They would do an annual figure, deduct the hours and divide by 12, giving a reduced monthly figure. Should work out less per month than she was paying the childminder. She can then still claim from Tax Credits for the childcare element.

Can she not use the cm to cover the holidays ? Assuming the reason for the move is to benefit from government funded hours could she use that money for that and/or take holiday. Otherwise you could you make her role termtime only ?

Are you really an employer?

Surely it is up to her to sort out childcare and put in a request for more flexible working if she needs it? You don't need to pre-empt her.

Private nursery wouldnt have the issue of long holidays.
I appreciate that you feel she is an excellent team member, but it does seem unusual that you are having to look for a solution to her deciding to change her childcare provider.

Agree with Betamax.

Surely these are considerations she would have taken before changing her child care arrangements. Surely she wouldn't be changing her childcare arrangements if it was going to make her working life difficult??? Also what nursery 'takes long holidays'?? Or are we talking about pre school??

Unusual for a nursery to have long holidays.

But to answer your question, I think the best way to proceed would be to wait until she submits a request to change her working arrangement and then decide whether it suits the business and what financial impact it would have.

Her childcare arrangements are not your concern. Don't try to pre-empt her. If she decides that she would like to negotiate a new flexible working arrangement, she will ask you for it, and you can consider it at that point. Until then, assume she is perfectly capable of sorting out holiday childcare herself, and give her enough credit to realise that she presumably wouldn't have decided to remove her child from the childminder without addressing the holiday care issue.

I think some of the other posters are being slightly harsh - Jamesopen seems like the ideal employer - he is concerned about his employee. She could well be putting her child in a school nursery in which case there would be long holidays?

Jamesopen - I would speak to her and just understand what would work both from a business perspective and also from the employees perspective.

Just wanted to say that you sound like a lovely employer James

Me too, wanted to add that such employer's are hard to find! Being valued as an employee always brings out the best!