Work refusing to let me leave

[Summerreid]

This has happened twice now where I have needed to leave during the day and work have refused, saying there is no one available to cover (secondary school teacher.) Just wondering if anybody knows what my legal position is.

This is ridiculous. No childminder is on call "just in case" a non client needs a sick kid collecting.

Op I'm not a teacher but my god some of the replies here!

Like what?

Well, you need to put a back up plan in place.

Surely the person named after you on the contact list can collect your child?

I'd be annoyed if my doctor left half way through my appointment or an airline pilot mid holiday flight so why is it any different when it's our childrens education that's being disrupted. You should have back up support in place

This is ridiculous. No childminder is on call "just in case" a non client needs a sick kid collecting.

Not to mention that no cm would want an infectious child in their setting either. Schools don't really ask parents to collect for sniffles.

You need to build up a network of support. I have friends who are surgeons and anaesthetists and there’s absolutely no Way they can be available to their children no matter what’s occurring and so they all network with each other to support each other and lend each other childcare if need be.

Like their other parent, a family member, a friend etc. My parents were both doctors, our school emergency contact was Grandma. when we had to be collected early by Grandma, Mum used to frequently say "if it wasn't for Grandma I'd have to work in an office!"

You can't be a teacher (or a doctor or a nurse or a train driver or etc etc etc) without backup childcare.

Ok so, for example. My friend is single. No contact with father of child, both parents dead and has no other family.

So she should just not be a teacher?

It's not like you're an office worker who can pick up later. You're a teacher. A job well known for its lack of opportunity for wandering off to do chores.

You get that, right?

You need to build a support network when you’re a working parent - you offer to look after their children for days in the school holidays and you ask them to collect your sick child when you can’t in return.

Still more info needed OP.

How sick were the DC?
What happened to them?
Is their other parent alive and in the same country?

Well, yeah. It's not a job you can just leave for anything short of an emergency. She also shouldn't be a surgeon. Or a bus driver.

You have to use your common sense in situations like this - there are some careers that simply aren't open to people genuinely parenting completely solo. Teaching is one of them. Especially currently, with dire staff shortages and no agency cover available for love or money. DH's school had to close for a day before half term because they simply couldn't staff it.

I guess so, yeah. If she cannot make a single friend or make any form of arrangement for collection of her child in the event of an emergency, then she's probably not organised enough to be a teacher either. And she wouldn't last long scuttling out to collect for every little sniffle.

The reality is that being a working parent can be really difficult.
Even teachers and doctors sometimes have sick children, and emergencies do happen.
Just as in an ideal world the OP would have someone else to collect and look after her child in an emergency, the school should be well enough staffed to cover staff absence due to emergency.
As a working parent you can try to cover all eventualities, but in the absence of family/partner/non-working friends being available 24/7, what are the OP's options? Not to work because her child might occasionally be ill?
Not that many people are actually willing to look after someone else's sick children, and you can't just farm them out to strangers ( eg agency staff).
I was lucky, not a single parent and my Mum lived close by and was senior enough in her own firm that she could take time off to help out, but not everyone is so fortunate. I'd have hoped people posting on MN would be more understanding, especially being as they most likely parents themselves.

I am a secondary teacher too, though not in England. By me it is expected that you have a backup plan for such contingencies because you really cannot just leave.

Is it me? Of course you can't just up and leave your class. Why would you think you could? Get back up through friends, family or pay someone.

You know that it's an inflexible job. If you leave, what happens to the 30 yr9s in your classroom? Supply has been incredibly difficult to get this year, and budget pressure is increasing.
Was it an emergency? If it's an emergency, you have to go and someone senior will cover.
Who is next on your contact list?
Is there any other support you can get?.

Ok so what did you do? Stay or go?

@TreePoser paid childcare for school aged children during the day in term time. What’s that then?

I really am not posting for an argument about whether I am reasonable or not in leaving work. I don’t intend that to sound abrupt but I have posted in employment issues, not AIBU.

The point is that I get a phone call saying that I need to pick an unwell (preschool) aged child up (and it isn’t always me) I don’t know where I stand if the school refuse to let me leave.

That is why I’m posting, not to be told I’m unreasonable in wanting to leave the school at all. I think people probably realise most nurseries have fairly strict procedures regarding what happens when a child vomits.

Tbh yes. If she can't find a support network then yes. She shouldn't be a teacher, or a surgeon etc.

I’m curious what you actually did

• Ok so, for example. My friend is single. No contact with father of child, both parents dead and has no other family.

So she should just not be a teacher?*

She would presumably consider these factors when deciding on a career, or returning to one. The same as a doctor, surgeon, pilot, cabin crew etc would consider their situation before committing to a job that offers so little flexibility.
If there's no one to cover the class then there's no one to cover the class. The school can't create staff on demand, but OP can think ahead and ask a friend or relative if they would be able to collect in an emergency.

I feel this is one of those comprises for term time working- no extra cost or stress for holiday childcare but you can't just swan off for every headache and bumped knee.

Ex teacher here. In the school culture it’s not normal to have to leave school and usually would mean something very serious has happened rather than routine illness. Usually teachers will either have another parent ‘on call’ or grandparents or relatives.

On the flip side we were always very accommodating at finding a quiet place with the headteacher to keep an eye on a fellow teacher’s sick child until home time if they couldn’t get anyone to collect them.