Disabled mum of disabled child needing to reduced working hours.

[Auiti]

I work in the NHS and need to reduce my working hours.
I've recently returned to work after months off with stress, on return the hours now seem too much to cope with.
My DC's condition is becoming more challenging by the day and I'm still stressed to the eyeballs.

Today I broke down wailing at work after told they were unlikely to grant my request.

Any advice?

I feel I might break down completely and be unable to look after my DC who needs me. :(

Hi OP, I'm so sorry to hear about your troubles. Couple of things to think about....

-Who told you they were unlikely to agree your request, is this the person who actually has decision making power? Don't despair until you hear back for certain, I do know some managers who like to pretend flexible working requests will almost certainly be declined until the last minute before eventually agreeing (sometimes when pushed by HR or more senior management) on the rationale of 'If I acted like it was no problem everyone would want it'

-Have you been to OH recently and have they recommended the reduced hours as a (reasonable) adjustment for your disability? If not get onto this asap as it will add a lot of weight to your request. If so and your management do say no make sure you request detailed (written) reasons why your request is not reasonable as they are doubly obliged to give you a good reason both under flexible working and disability discrimination legislation. Look up flexible working on ACAS for some of the legitimate reasons they can refuse...

-If their reason for saying no is something to do with not being able to cover your work or needing someone full time, can you ask them to consider advertising the hours you would vacate as a job share/part time opportunity? They may say they don't think they'd find anyone suitable but you could ask them to advertise anyway, they have nothing to lose by doing so. Part-time jobs especially in admin (sorry you don't say what you do) are often surprisingly popular and job shares can work really well. You should emphasise your willingness to be flexible about what days/hours you work to fit in with the job share partner's preferences (if you can offer this), your willingness to occasionally change your working days, your willingness to train up the job share partner or someone else to cover your workload, your willingness to do a trial period to see if it works out, basically try and think of their objections and counter them with whatever you can do to mitigate that.

Your trust should have an appeals process for if your flexible working request is turned down, where your request can be considered by HR and a neutral manager. IME many of these succeed at least as far as getting a trial period agreed, if the manager does not have robust reasons for turning down the request. I would strongly recommend putting an appeal in and putting as much evidence as you can in both about your health and why you need the adjustment and also why you believe the change in hours won't have a negative impact on the service/patients. If you are a union member absolutely involve your rep in helping you present your evidence and case...

Good luck!

Thanks that is very very helpful x