Self isolating daughter

[Elton123]

Hello all

This is my first post ever but have always had a keen eye on all the threads.
I am a full time single dad (with every other weekend and half the school holidays) to a 10 year old daughter.
Yesterday I had a message from school to come and pick her up becuase there has been a confirmed case of corona virus within her bubble at school and track and trace has decided that she has been in close contact with this other child so now has to self isolate at home.
I work full time. I obviously called my boss and advised him of the situation and that I will have to stay at home.
My question is about pay. I know my boss wouldn't have all the answers straight away and he has gone to the HR department to see what they have to say about the situation.
Anyone else been in this situation even though the kids have only been back in school for 10 days this was bound to happen at some stage. This also might be the first of many self isolating neccessities for the next couple of years and I wondered if there was any law surrounding the need for single parents to stay at home to look after their little ones and be paid for it. I only have 5 days of AL left which will not cover this if needs be. I cant do my job from home. There aren't any family members able to look after her just in case she is incubating the corona virus it would end up taking out another house hold and perhaps another year group at another school. I'm just looking for advice. Thanks.

If it was you who was self isolating then you could claim SSP. I dont know how it works if you take time off because your child needs to isolate - unpaid leave? Its crap

There's no right to pay (SSP or otherwise) in these circumstances. You may be eligible for Universal Credit if your pay is sufficiently low over the assessment period.

There's not officially a right to leave for the full two weeks. You can take emergency dependants leave in order to arrange care (so a few days at most), extended parental leave can be taken but you have to give notice for that, so not appropriate in these circumstances.

We have to hope that employers are more generous and will apply common sense, rather than sticking rigidly to government provisions.

Is your dd's mum available In any capacity?

Also have the school confirmed when the child was last in that she mixed with? It's 14 days from the last time they were together- and it's usually a good few days after symptoms start that the test and results come back so it could have been up to a week ago the child started showing symptoms and was kept off school

In my work place in this situation its work from home, use holiday or unpaid leave. Sick pay only an option if its the employee been in contact or ill. It sucks but companies cant pay people to be off several times looking after dc who are isolating. Either quicker/more tests need to be offered or Gov cover pay in these cases.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

Is your dd's mum available In any capacity?

Thanks for your question. This was of course my first call. She has 3 other children of various ages and if DD was to come down with symptoms then they would all have to self isolate. On this occasion it was a no go. I will say that she did help me out when lock down happened as I am a key worker and did a good job with the home schooling.

I find it mad that so many businesses haven't yet come up with decisions on how to handle all the different scenarios. My company is the same, I tried to ask what would happen if a similar situation arose and was just told they'd have to assess it at the time?! Surely you would just come up with a plan now rather than trying to deal with individual cases as they come up.

Unfortunately a lot of private companies just won't be able to afford to pay staff in these circumstances
Obviously different in public sector

It’s a childcare problem, so your company’s normal policy on that. Can you use annual leave, swap some shifts, make the time back?