Help need a good excuse to call in “sick” to work

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My toddler is unwell - high temp etc. if i say I’m off to look after him I don’t get paid (and lose £130 a day!) but if I phone in sick I do get paid.

However, I’ve had to do it a few times this year and not sure what illness I can have this time. Advice? (I’ve had quite a few colds/ sickness bugs/ ruiner infections..)

no you won’t. I did it all the time. Our manager also advised it! She was a mum too!

Teachers are entitled to parental leave for a sick child like everyone else though. Just unpaid.

Yes..but as that says “your employer may pay you for this time off but they do not have to”

How many mum’s work through their own sickness to save their sick days for these kinds of emergencies? The fact is they are usually the most reliable for this reason others often less so and take sick days for spurious reasons. What are parents supposed to do if they have no alternative and if their workplace does not support them?

Yes, that's the whole point, isn't it?
In many schools - every one I've ever worked in - the rule is 5 days with pay, parental/carer leave.
Your HT has stuck to allowing such leave, but making it unpaid.

I would speak to your employer, about the whole situation and sickness for your child. Lying about you being sick won’t help, if called into investigation as to why you had so many sick days, is different to dependant days.

They may have some ways to support you, I.e swapping shifts, remote work, flexi time..

Lying won’t help and will get your managers back up.

Where possible (I know it isn’t always) get your father to cover some sickness, your job is just as important as there’s. Sadly with most the employees we have, it seems to always fall to the Mother.

She has no flexibility, she's a teacher.

What a lovely middle class idea. My dad worked bloody hard (no minimum wage in those days) and my mum stayed at home because she had no other choice (no granny to manage childcare and no free childcare hours), and we grew up in poverty. Like everyone else around us. When we were older my mum worked part-time and for essentials, not luxuries. We had a B&W TV until 1974 because we couldn't afford colour; we had day trips to the seaside because we couldn't afford domestic holidays, never mind foreign ones; we had a phone in 1979 because my parents wanted one for when I went to university. Times change but be aware that those "two parents working full time" are not "just surviving" when they are, by comparison, much, much better off and their expectations include luxuries like satellite TV packages, pricey mobile phones, foreign holidays....

Your view of recent history is highly inaccurate and very blinkered...

Ah, I didn’t read far back to be honest.

Most my teacher friends have to rely on their partners for their child’s sickness, granted not always possible.

@caringcarer
This. In a recession employers look at sickness records when deciding who will lose their jobs. Don't risk your job it's not worth it.

She is a teacher. Hardly at risk of unemployment when we have so many teaching and supply teaching vacancies.

More generally an employer who uses sick leave as the main reason to make someone redundant better make sure that the person does not have a disability/long term health condition or they will end in front of an employment tribunal...

They are not breaking the law. They do offer time off to care for dependents but it is unpaid. OP wants to claim she is sick so she gets paid leave.

80% for 120 days per child.

And, as people manage to keep forgetting, the leave is NOT to look after your dependant when sick etc. It is to make arrangements for their care. Some employers may allow leave (whether or not paid) to look after a dependant but that is not what the law says. What the law says is "reasonable time off" for an emergency, and what is reasonable is as long as a piece of string. Whether or not people like it, the fact is that an employer can say you have two hours to arrange for someone to look after your child (how you arrnage that is your problem) because I need you back in the workplace as there is no cover.

It is also the case that time off is only in cases of emergency - things like scheduled hospital / doctor appointments - anything that you know about in advance - does not qualify.

There is actually no statutory time off to care for dependants.

What often happens on these threads is that people either assume that what their own employer does is "normal" or even that what they think the law should say actually is the law.

This poster isn't even sick herself she just takes sickies when a child is unwell. She better hope the employer doesn't find out she lying about being sick herself again.

Part 2 of the teacher standards mention personal conduct - this would be a disciplinary matter in every school I've worked in, sorry op.

Unfortunately this is another un-considered cost of parenting. You are allowed time off but it will be unpaid. Lose £130 a day or face getting fired because you're lying about your absence.

I don’t work in a school but also hold those meetings. It’s to ascertain if you’re fit to work.

You do however have a pretty generous statutory parental leave www.gov.uk/parental-leave

Because she doesn't want to lose £130.

Yes, which must be taken in week long blocks giving at least 21 days notice and may be postponed by the employer for good reason. And is unpaid - the entire point of the OP is that they want paid "leave" hence lying about sickness.

Paid, yes. Generous, yes. ... As I may have said, distinctly civilised also.

-- Paid, of course, via taxation, the cost of civilisation.

That’s good. Yes, though I don’t like it when taxes go up obviously, I appreciate what they are used for!

What is a Bradford score and what is CF please

The responses on this thread make me weep for this country - honestly, you all sound so unbearable and heartless

https://www.bradfordfactorcalculator.com/

I've got a good idea; how about just being honest?