Should this be reported?

Errata

This sounds an utterely bizarre situation. The owners of the business, the managers, the staff and the young lady all need to understand their respective positions regarding insurance before any of them can make an informed choice about what can, and can't, happen.

SandC

Are they even getting around the situation by having her sign in as a visitor each day?

clb776

in relation to your previous question that if was an able bodied child there would not be an issue, of course there would. These people have gone into the office to work.

Say, it was a sales office and they had to cold call people to sell something to earn commission. If they need to spend part of their day caring for someone elses child (disabled or otherwise) they are not being able to do their job properly and will lose money, chances of promotion and recognition.

On the other side of this would the employer allow an able bodied child into the office?

This poor child needs stability and to be looked after by people that have been properly trained and care about her, people that want to look after her. Not people who are told to. It is not the office staffs responsibility to provide day care facilities whilst her father gets a rest. There are very good homes that offer this kind of respite care for a few days to give parents a rest.

It is not part of the 'friends' job description to be responsible for another person, nor could it be considered reasonable to expect her to do so.

With regards to her coming into work with her father, I think its great that a company allows this, and they are very open minded, but I still doubt it is as innocent as seems because I cannot see how a company would allow this.

I think as a first port of call your friend needs to speak to her manager, if she is still not satisfied, then to go to perhaps even the social services (it is unfair for the child to be stuck in the office all day, looked after by strangers with no stimulation etc ) and I think that they could probably look at ways to offer support to help the father care for his daughter.

mjm3346

smartpicture wrote: »

It sounds like your friend and colleagues are happy for the girl to be there when the father is there, but not otherwise.

In that case, I wouldn't report it to anyone externally because there's a good chance that the end result would be that she can't go there at all. The correct response is for your friend or one of her colleagues to speak to the father when he picks her up, and say that they want to be supportive, but everyone is uncomfortable with being responsible for her care when the father is not around. If he cares for his daughter (which is certainly sounds like he does if he's willing to be her carer 24 hours a day under normal cirumstances), then he should take this on board and deal with it. If he chooses not to - that is the time to speak to external agencies, not before.

Best suggestion by far.

SandC

Yeah, I was given a telling off and told to 'be more careful' one time when I walked into my bosses office, only to almost knock over the MD who was right behind the door playing with her toddler neice (the boss was her father the chairman).

Yeah, there's a small child in the building and I'm the one getting into trouble! Tsk.

shellsuit

I'd report it, the most important thing is the welfare of the daughter!

If the management are stupid enough to have her there and the Dad is stupid enough to leave her there, that's their fault!

What is the Dad doing anyway when he isn't there and his daughter is?

If it's reported and it materialises that nothing is untoward, fine, nobody gets in trouble do they?

doodlesmum

This should not be happening anyone who is looking after a vunerable child or adult apart from family members should be CRB checked that is the law pure and simple it is there for the vunerable persons protection.
What happens if she is suddenly taken ill who would take charge could they cope if it was serious :eek:.
A better situation would be a day centre where she would get qualified supervision not knocking the fathers co-workers but looking after his daughter is not their reponsibility.
I agree with previous posters a social worker could sort out a suitable day centre placement for the dad to use as and when needed.

Doodlesmum.

Savvy_Sue

Insurance? I might casually ask my line manager if whoever provides the company's Employer's Liability Insurance was aware that there was a severely disabled adult on the premises throughout the working day who was NOT on the payroll.

Errata

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Insurance? I might casually ask my line manager if whoever provides the company's Employer's Liability Insurance was aware that there was a severely disabled adult on the premises throughout the working day who was NOT on the payroll.

That's an extremely important issue, as is the owners/management carrying out a thorough risk assessment. This is an absurd situation which places everyone in the work place at risk.

zarazara

Are you sure the person isnt on the payroll?