What to consider when going back to work part time, working hours, childcare etc

youwhat

Hi all

Thought I would tap your collective knowledge. I have a baby daughter and am making plans for returning to work following maternity leave (not going back for a while so planning is still in its infancy!). I intend to go back part time and daughter will go to nursery. Have not started looking for nursery yet.

My intention is to ask work to do three full days (22.5 hours) compressed into 2.5 days. I am not sure if they will allow me three days as it may be difficult to fill the other "half" of my post. They will definitely allow me to do 18.75 hours (2.5 days) and they will be pretty flexible how I spread those hours out between 7 am and 6pm mon -fri. There may be some opportunity to work from home at the weekend but would rather stick to mon-Friday working.

Boyfriend works full time standard office hours but employer can also be a bit flexible if e.g. he wants to leave early or get in a bit later one day.His working hours should allow him to do all nursery pick ups/drop offs if needs be.

I work in a team where everyone has their own caseload (dealing with members of public and other professionals. Can be working with people for a period of weeks/months). Working 22.5 hours I would get paid £19k pa before deductions. Working 18.75 hours I would get paid £16k pa before deductions. Boyfriend earns around £26k.

What should I take into account when planning my return etc ? Want to minimise work stress and have max family time.Have thought of the following so far:

1.) nursery will be closed bank holiday Monday. Can't work out if this matters to me or not. I won't work bank holidays but will I be losing out financially?
2.) due to nature of my job think it would be better to work consecutive days so as to minimise having to constantly tie up loose ends before going "off". Possibly better to work the beginning of the week so that if something crops up on my last day, I know there will be people around on my days off to deal with problems, rather then me having an issue Friday afternoon, and not being back in work til Wednesday to resolve it (office is closed weekends).
3.) we will get childcare vouchers and child benefit but don't think we will get any other benefits etc. does this sound right?
4.) how does this 15 hours free childcare work? Would it be at daughter's existing nursery when she is old enough or is it only at a select few?

Is there anything else you wish you had considered before going back to work part time, arranging nursery etc? Don't want to commit to a plan then realise it does not work so well in practice! Thanks for reading this mammoth post! Hope other people will find helpful!

pukkamum

The first 2 points only you can know depends on paying for nursery whilst shut etc and only you know which days work best for you.

Point 3 as far as I am aware all nurseries offer the free hours in the term after the childs 3rd birthday.

Point 4 entitledto.com is very good put in your details and it will tell you what you will get but child benefit is a definite.

Madmel

Go & visit nurseries now so you can get together a shortlist. The really good ones may fill up quickly, so you need to get organised. The nursery we used was wonderful, but to be sure of getting our second child in, we had to get her on the list before she was born - we wanted both children in the same place.

As someone who has just this month started working full-time after 14 years of p/t work, the things I think you need to consider are what happens if the child is ill? Which of you will take time off? Children in nurseries do tend to pick up everything going around, but the good thing is that they then tend to be more resilient when they start school. Some bugs mean that the child has to be clear for 48 hours before they can go back - conjunctivitis was my least favourite ailment as DD2 had it almost monthly. She was ok in herself but highly infectious, so not allowed into nursery. Do you have family close by as a back-up? Is it cheaper/easier to work 2 half days or are full days better for the nursery? Different nurseries have different rules about Bank Holidays so make sure you know exactly where you stand.

GobbledyGook

When I worked 3 days I did Tues, Weds and Thur. Public holidays (other than Christmas) are usually Mondays or Fridays and it was a pain originally (originally Mon-Thur) trying to work out how many hours I was entitled too and how many I had to make up. I didn't have the ability to make the day up on another day though so that might not be an issue for you.

whitewing

The nursery my DD goes to had a spate of being completely full on Wednesdays, presumably because that was the most popular day for part time workers. So you may want to consider that.

It probably isn't so frequent that it's a factor but our local GP surgery always does child vaccinations on the same afternoon in the week. It was such a pain to get the child taken to nursery, brought out of nursery, taken back to nursery and then picked up again. And such a pain to lose a whole working afternoon for it (esp if the child was ill on the day and couldn't have the vaccination).

If your child goes to nursery, they may well pick up lots of bugs etc. If your working days are clustered at one end of the week, you will potentially lose all those days. If you work long days you may stress yourself about the amount of work you're missing/need to catch up/needs to be covered.

minerva_windsong

The days you work might depend what industry you work in as well - my sister-in-law has been part-time for six months but she had to swap her day off from Friday to Wednesday as she works in PR and Friday was their busiest day for media queries, whereas mid-week was much quieter. Similarly I've known people working in public sector admin jobs where taking Friday off was discouraged wherever possible as that was when they got the most phone calls.

bossymoo

I work Mon - Wed 21 hrs a week and my youngest has just become eligible for the 15hrs. But I went back to work when she was 11mths. The thing I noticed (more with my eldest) was that children pick up a lot of bugs in the first month or so, so if you can possibly afford, start your child at nursery some weeks before you retune to work. It will give you a few hours to organise yourself, little one time to settle into childcare and their immune system time to get used to all the various bugs etc.

Childcare isn't cheap, but then these are our little lovelies that need looking after. I've now moved DD to the school nursery and use the wraparound care (my eldest also goes to same after school 2 afternoons each week) and the cost has reduced by a huge amount. So it's not forever. Just think, what they are not demanding in electronic gadgets and branded gear, you will spend on childcare

Enjoy your maternity leave! It passes all too quickly!

brockg

There are a ton of things to take into consideration when returning to work, and in all honesty it can seem like we are clowns trying to juggle everything all at once sometimes. I know I personally feel like a clown at times while trying to juggle everything. I recently made a shift to work from home because of demands on me from the family and such. My daughter has started school this past year which has made things significantly more difficult for us. I hope you can find a balance between all of the different demands on you in your life.

This_Year

You're planning to work 2 x 9 hour days and 1 x 4.5 hour day.
I think that you will be absolutely shattered at the end of the 2 full days. I used to work 3 x 8 hour days and that extra hour seemed never ending.

If your boyfriend works normal office hours anyway, why not cut yourself some slack and spread your 22.5 hours over 3 full days? That way you will be working 7.5 hours each day.

It is knackering working long days and then going home and being Mummy to a baby - don't under estimate how much you will want to be with your baby after you've been out at work all day. Make life as simple as you can. Don't be in a situation where your employer have agreed one set of hours for you and then you want to extend the number of days or reduce your hours as happened to a friend of mine.

She asked to do 2 x 9 hour days, they reluctantly agreed stating that she would get very tired, she pushed the issue so they agreed.
One month in she asked to spread her hours over 3 days as she was getting so tired. They were not best pleased as they had predicted this and they had rearranged the work so she did have something to do until 7pm!

Think about yourself, your home life /work balance and your relationship with your boyfriend.

It's a lot to consider but is so important. Good luck x

mummyroysof3

Some nurserys will want paying for a full day even if use only use some of it so it would be a good idea to get some details now of ones that have long waiting lists and opening hours etc. it's always good to have all the info early rather than making a rushed decision at the last minute

fluffnutter

Childminders are often more flexible regarding hours. I doubt they 'shut' on a bank holiday.