Changing part time hours

[Leah4]

Hi, my DD starts school this September. I currently work three days per week, from 9.30 am to 3.30 pm, and my journey home takes about 45 minutes. I have just checked with the after school club about vacancies, and they have an 18 month waiting list, and some parents have even put their name down in 2004!
She will be able to attend the breakfast club, but I am not sure what to do about after school part. She will only need to be looked after for about an hour. Would it be better to reduce my hours slightly in order to collect her from school, or should I look at Childminders? What do other people do? Any ideas as to when and how I should approach my manager?
If I reduce my hours, I will have to finish at 2.00pm and probably start at 9.00am (not great at getting to work at time), and I am not sure what my manager will think about this. I work for a very small company, and would reduce my hours by around 4 hours per week, which will make my pay quite a bit lower. My neighbour's daughter wil also be starting at the same school, and she will collect her, yet I don't know her very well, as have recently moved to the area.
Sorry for going on; just need to sort this out, quite a bit in advance due to my work. Any ideas would be welcome. Thanks

I would like to post a reply but must dash just now. I don't know if I'll be much use, but I'll try to come back to this later this afternoon.

If you have a child under 6 you legally have the right to request part-time or flexible hours. Your employer must consider the request fairly, but is not obliged to agree. However, the employer has to have a very good reason why the request cannot be granted.

If you don't want to actually reduce your hours, would you be able to suggest doing some work from home?

Even if it doesn't say that a childminder will do a pick-up from your particular school, still ask them as they may be prepared to do it. Information on the website may not be completely up-to-date.

You say you work for a very small company. A lot of the recent employment legislation, including the right to flexible working if I remember correctly, doesn't apply to very small companies. I can't remember how many employees they have to have to be exempt - maybe someone else can advise. In my experience after school clubs are very convenient, but a childminder may offer a more "homely" atmosphere which is often better for a child just starting school who will be exhausted at the end of the school day.

What about asking your employers for you to work 5 days a week from 9am - 2pm?

Thanks for the responses. I don't want to do more days as I will be paying out quite a lot for travel, on the same pay. Would love to work from home to get away from the office policitcs, but my Director is not really in favour of this. Most of my work cannot be accessed from my PC, but I will have to look into. I have looked at some childminders but they were not suitable or too far. Have to keep looking. May just start taking a packed lunch and reduce my hours!

Hi grumpyfrumpy, thanks for the suggestion. I have asked the School's reception yet they do not know of any childminders, so I am going throught the list sent to me by the Council. Only about 4 childminders who will collect from dd school.

Do you think it will be better to drop her to school, and then work a longer day, or let her go to the breakfast club (will only be there for 20-30 minutes) and then finish at 2pm to collect her? I am thinking about the best working hours to suggest to my boss, and need to come up with a couple of suggestions. Thanks

My dd is more of an early bird, Grumpyfrumpy, and is tired by 5/6pm. So have put her name down on the breakfast club waiting list, as also cheaper than a Childminder, especially when she will only be there for about 20 minutes. Will probably try to use childminder once a week after school, and for school holidays. Do you use a breakfast club, or arranged your hours to collect children from school?

I will be visiting childminders in the next couple of weeks, grumpyfrumpy. Do you think it is worth only looking at those with gardens? Thinking about the holidays, when I would need cover. I was going to use the school's breakfast club, and then childminder a couple of days after school. Do you think it would be better to use the childminder in the morning as well, so DD does not have to get used to two new environments? The breakfast club is slightly cheaper, and she would be there from about 8.15am to 8.45am, but would consider using child minder if better. How was your manager in amending your hours, or were they already in place? Still not sure if I should reduce hours to finish at 2pm on all 3 days i work so I can collect from school. Have to speak to manager after Easter, after her hols. She will hopefully be feeling in a better mood after all that sun! Or alcohol.