Might have to give up my job...

[Alicew00]

I have a 9 year old and ive recently become single. Not with my child's dad.
Her dad works away and is barely able to see her.
I started my job 2 years ago and i love it
But in September my childminder for her stopped doing school holidays as she got a job in the school. I am now struggling whether i can keep my job. I have no one i know who can look after her.
I work odd hours. 5 hours a day 4 times a week. Sometimes early mornings and once in an afternoon.
Ive tried looking for another childminder or clubs but none work for us.
Im thinking of quitting i cant possibly leave her alone for 5 hours but im really worried ill be sanctioned.

What about holiday clubs?

Or if it's only 5hrs during school holidays, a student from a local college? You could advertise to the childcare students.

Absolutely try to keep your job if you can! Can you save as much annual leave as possible for the holidays. Ask to take unpaid leave too. Or see if you can put in a flexible working request for term time hours.

Why don’t holiday clubs work for you?

Have you spoken to work? Have you requested some flexibility? If these are possible solutions I would start there.

Holiday clubs. There are usually plenty around. Unless the child has SN (which you didn't mention) it should be easy.

Holiday clubs don't work. I work odd hours and they only open 9am til 4or 5pm i work before and after this time. 6pm latest finish

Could you see at work about standardising your hours during the school holidays so clubs do work? Or condensing them so you work more hours over fewer days but in a regular pattern? Fwiw holiday clubs around here usually have options to extend the day with early drop from 8 and collection til 6. You would only have to use something like that on days your shifts needed you to.

Have a look at information on all childcare available in your area. Holiday clubs operated from 8.30am until 5.30pm when we used them - Camp Beaumont, and PGL does residential. Add in some days with her dad, you take holiday and potentially a few days with grandparents or friends and relatives. If you don’t work full time perhaps you could play tag team with a friend for the odd day. What do other working parents do in your area? Remember you can take 18 weeks parental leave spread out before she is 18.

We use the local outdoor pursuits centre for holiday clubs, for some reason they aren't on childcare.co.uk or any other place you'd usually look for holiday clubs but they operate extended hours and even do emergency childcare during school term if there's a school closure or something, Cast a really wide net and look more extensively to see if you can find any other options.

Definitely speak to your work too about trying to set some better hours during holidays to allow for childcare.

Keeping your job will benefit you in the longer term, you're only a couple of years off of reduced childcare needs so this is a short term problem.