Well it *was* all systems go here last week; I was supposed to be at a hearing this week so I was in full preparation mode for that with my kitchen table being taken over for bundles and various other documents and stationary. It’s such a change from the norm as normally I work paper free, but the employment judges don’t have the same ethos unfortunately! But then at 4pm on Friday it was postponed! I couldn’t believe it, BUT it has freed me up somewhat so I’m not going to complain too much.
Next week we’re off to Cornwall on our family summer holiday, it’ll be us five, my mum, dad (their dog, Grace) and my brother, sister-in-law and my little 5 month old niece, it may be a tad hectic but I’m sure it’ll be a lot of fun too. BUT I may need another holiday after this holiday – as I’m not sure how relaxing it might be!
I’m really hoping this nice weather sticks for us, please keep your fingers crossed for us. I’m most looking forward to getting in the sea, cream teas, Cornish pasties and maybe a pint of Rattler cider or two!
We spent most of our childhood family summer holidays in Cornwall and I haven’t yet taken our boys down there (that far anyway, we’ve done Devon), so I think it’s going to be very nostalgic for me, and no doubt my brother, mum and dad too.
And after that, well I better buckle up, as the kids are now finished with school for 6 weeks, so here comes the juggle of childcare and work for us, and many people, and if you’re thinking about how this will affect your workplace and your employees or colleagues, then this article is about just that!
Now ours are getting a bit older it is getting a lot easier as they are much happier to entertain themselves with the PlayStation on rainy days, or going out with their friends when the weather allows (which I hope will be most the holidays now given how awful a start to summer we had!). But it’s not always been that way, and I completely sympathise with those with little ones who constantly demand your time (and snacks)!
So, as an employer – how can you help?
- Flexible working – hours
This doesn’t have to be in the form of a formal flexible working request, but over the summer you could look at allowing your employees more flexibility to work around childcare obligations. You could allow them to start early, have a longer lunch break or look at whether they could complete some work later in the evenings once children have gone to bed. This may need to be monitored, both from the perspective of ensuring that the work is being completed that needs to be, and also from a welfare point of ensuring employees don’t burn themselves out. You will also want to be really clear that is a temporary and informal arrangement – you don’t want anybody trying to argue their contract has changed to allow this.
- Flexible working – location
If you have office workers who can work from home, you could look at allowing your employees to do just that. Obviously that isn’t going to work for all types of work or workplaces but it could be an option to consider which could really help employees with the costs of childcare. Again, if you are considering this then you would need to make clear that it was just a temporary change.
- Holiday purchase scheme
You could look at whether it would be option to allow employees to purchase additional holidays so that they can take more time off over the summer.
- Have a strong support network
Make sure you are checking in with those employees with children over the summer, we all know how hard it can be to juggle everything and ensuring that employees know they can talk to their employer about any issues they may have can really help. Ensure there is an open and honest culture, and employees feel supported by their managers.
- Setting manageable targets, ensuring meeting requests are open and flexible to suit the needs of parents
Ensure workloads are manageable over the summer, look at if targets can be reduced for the period and look at meeting times and locations. For example, meetings can be moved to Teams for people who are home working (and ensure workers are understanding of gatecrashing children) or look at the times that meeting requests are sent to suit all employees.
- Remind employees of their right to parental leave
Parents have the right to have unpaid time off work to look after their children. To be eligible to take the leave a parent must be an employee and have worked for the employer for 1 year or more, they also need to have parental responsibility for the child and this can also include step parents where it’s agreed between all parents.
Each parent can take up to 18 weeks of parental leave for each child until the child is 18 years old, it must be taken in blocks of weeks (unless the child is disabled) and there is a maximum of 4 weeks leave a year for each child. Employees need to give their employer 21 day’ notice before the date they want to start a block of parental leave (but of course you can agree to receive less notice if you want your employees to utilise this for the summer break), and give employers the exact dates they want to be on parental leave.
Employers cannot refuse or completely cancel parental leave, but you can postpone it, if it’s going to cause problems at work.
If employees want to take less than a weeks block of leave and the child is not disabled, then they would need to do this instead as holiday or time off for dependants (where there is an emergency).
And be careful because It’s against the law for an employer to dismiss someone or cause them detriment because they have asked to take parental leave.
- What about those without children?
You will also need to ensure that those employees without children don’t feel like they are being unfairly put on or additional pressures added to them to pick up the slack. Again, having an open and supportive workplace will really help here to ensure that all employees feel like they can voice their concerns or worries.
Let us know your thoughts on all this and what you’re doing to support those with childcare responsibilities during the summer holidays.
If you’re not sure and this blog has generated a lot of thought then pick up the phone and give us a call (we’re still here, we don’t get the summer off!) Precept are happy to help.
Otherwise, good luck with the summer holidays… and may the odds be ever in your favour.
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