Does anyone work flexi, part time from home - What do you do?

[PanannyPanoo]

I had to give up work 5 years ago to look after my son who has medical needs. this cut our income in half.
He attends school every morning and I then give him medical treatment at home and home school core lessons missed. I have 2 other children, 1 at secondary, 1 at primary. So am doing 3 school runs a day. I have 2-3 hours free in the mornings, providing he is well enough to go to school and 2 after school, but this is often when they are all in bed. He often needs support in the night so working nights is not possible.
I receive carers allowance and DLA for his needs. My husband works, and we are Ok financially, if we budget and are very careful.
I could work a day at weekends in theory, but would rather not.

2 years ago I inherited £5K. The difference in our lives has been considerable. We had a holiday in a cottage. I have been able to buy all Christmas/birthday presents without thinking. The boiler broke and we could get it fixed without bother. Things like, buying the coat in the colour that they like rather than the cheapest, has been lovely.

Is there any work out there that I can do from my home, doing hours that could differ each day. I used to be a Senior Manager in a respite home for teenagers with life limiting conditions. So my skills are not easily transferable. I am educated to degree level.

If I could earn in the region of £50-£100 per week it would improve our quality of life considerably. Any ideas would be great.

What’s your degree in? Could you be a distance-learning tutor, perhaps? I do this, due to very similar reasons as you, and it’s very flexible.

My qualifications are in Social Care and I have a Registered Managers Award, so pretty specific. Thank you so much for your thoughts though.

Do you have any craft skills? I run a craft business and it's really flexible around my dc. I do work some weekend days and evenings but I can decide when they are and it's not every weekend.

what about advocacy for young people in care, given your experience? https://jobs.coram.org.uk/vacancies?_ga=2.116713286.1388324905.1568877949-757461595.1565178114&_gac=1.50140244.1568884673.Cj0KCQjwzozsBRCNARIsAEM9kBPDWiLJm_bykqdWL4BpR1VeX0Fn0LjbWKKyjcX_Nq3UfTr7uW3-lk4aArUuEALw_wcB&_ga=2.116713286.1388324905.1568877949-757461595.1565178114&_gac=1.50140244.1568884673.Cj0KCQjwzozsBRCNARIsAEM9kBPDWiLJm_bykqdWL4BpR1VeX0Fn0LjbWKKyjcX_Nq3UfTr7uW3-lk4aArUuEALw_wcB

You could also possibly look at Reg 44 visitor roles depending on where you are and your ability to travel to visit homes.

Transcription / summary writing? I’ve done this for years and am freelance, completely work when I like. You could easily earn 100 without much hassle. A lot of it is producing summaries of meetings which doesn’t need you to type super fast.

As you have social care experience have you considered registering with an agency for bank work? You could specify the hours and days you are available and turn down work if it doesn't fit in with what's happening in your day.

I'm a funding manager for a local charity, I work 17 hours week from home when the kids are school or in bed. It's not the best paid role but I get just under £1,000 a month. It could be worth looking on charityjob.co.uk to see whats available.

I love crafts and can sew, paint do pottery all to a very low standard! No one would pay me for my objects d'art! Would be a lovely, lovely thing to do if I had some talent as well as inclination.

I would love this, but need to be within 20 minutes of my son, in case of crisis, so really need to be at home, going to dentist is like having a spa day at the moment!

It's probably nothing like what you used to do but I've seen a few adverts for virtual pa's that are like 5-10 hours a week as and when type thing, working remotely..

This looks possible, thank you so much for this, do you have specific training? I'm wondering how I would get experienced enough to secure initial work.

This is what I have been considering, but realistically I don't think it could work at the moment. I would hate to be in a situation where I am working with a vulnerable person and am needed by my son. I would have to be 100% certain I can give all my attention to the person I am working with and at the moment I can't commit to that.

This could definitely be an option. I have worked for charities before, but only in a voluntary capacity. Thank you so much for the link. That is well worth a look.

You could absolutely do my job - an admin job for children’s services. So long as you get the work done, it makes no odds how you spread the hours across the week. Your background in respite home would be an advantage

That sort of thing would be perfect. Thank you.

That sounds right up my street too, thank you. I didn't realise this sort of job was possible at home.

I should have specified it is a WFH job with the option to go into the office if you want to. I’ve done it for a year and there’s only been one face-to-face meeting, but if you couldn’t make it due to the situation with your child, it absolutely wouldn’t be an issue (people in Children’s Services are pretty sympathetic about that sort of thing!).

@PanannyPanoo a poster put this thread on the Money Matters thread. It has some different ways to supplement your income. www.mumsnet.com/talk/money-matters/4759761-ways-to-supplement-your-income

Could you do a couple of sleep-in night shifts a week? The pay isn't great but it means you don't lose the weekends with your dc.

How do you get into that? And where are the jobs advertised? This is something I would be Interested in.

Would looking into the areas of your expertise that are can be outsourced - writing policies, research projects, while lecturing or training others in a related space may not be practical how about external examiner/assessor - you would be a subject mater expert.

I know you said you'd rather not work weekends, but a part time evening job on a Friday and Saturday evening might be really good for you. You'd get tips, plus 2 evening shifts would give you around what you are looking for. The jobs would potentially be more accessible than WFH jobs.

I WFH, it's flexible in that I can choose my working pattern to suit me and they are great with agreeing to reduced hours, but I started this job in office. Admin jobs are good for this especially if you can find a company that's embraced post Covid WFH.

Most jobs will be similar in that while you can agree a flexible pattern it will still likely need to be a consistent pattern.

Similar to other PPs the only other option would be to work as agency or bank staff, taking on days that suited you, or freelance work/self employment is the real option in terms of dictating your own hours.

My last more out of the box suggestion would be to pick up ad hoc jobs like dog walking or dog transporting, or other pet related jobs like small pet boarding. I'm not joking, I have a local small pet boarder and was so grateful for her existence, I can board my pets while going on holiday, and she was fully booked when I made a short notice enquiry!

Sign up to Neevo, I can make 100+ a month for less than an hour a week doing their Data collection work. Easy peasy!

Could you look into NVQ assessment? You could fit in visits if needed round school hours ?