Day nursery fees

Raspberry_Swirl

My daughter's nursery doesn't charge for bank holidays. Seems mine is in the minority!

1trainer1

Our Nursery charges for Bank Holidays and that is the reason we take our daughter to nursery on Tuesday and Thursday only so far.

It was all in the paperwork they give you when you show interest

Jagraf

onlyroz wrote: »

How many jobs require full time commitment from one person? I would argue that there are very few jobs that could not be arranged as a job share. Even if you're a brain surgeon, or the Chief of Police, why couldn't you do Monday-Wednesday while somebody else does Thursday and Friday? Sure, you'd have to spend some time each week performing a hand-over to your co-worker, but that's not an insurmountable problem in most cases.


Only if your employer has exhausted all possibilities to find somebody to share the job with you can they legitimately turn down your request to go part time.

The problem is finding two people of the same calibre/qualifications whose preferences complement each other is harder at more senior levels. Brain surgeons / consultants already work the hours they prefer and the chief of police is just that - the chief of police. crossover at senior level can be complicated and take up valuable working time that is already being paid for by the state / shareholders/ business owners.

The flip side is a couple trying to negotiate the hours to complement each other also.

There are also senior roles where special tasks are carried out at certain times of the week to accommodate a team - for example it may be that all staff are in in a Monday so weekly team meetings are held then.

piglet74

My daughter is almost 18, so I am going back a while, but she she was in nursery we were charged for what is commonly known in N.Ireland as "the July fortnight", when the nursery actually closed for two weeks holidays

onlyroz

Jagraf wrote: »

The problem is finding two people of the same calibre/qualifications whose preferences complement each other is harder at more senior levels. Brain surgeons / consultants already work the hours they prefer and the chief of police is just that - the chief of police. crossover at senior level can be complicated and take up valuable working time that is already being paid for by the state / shareholders/ business owners.

The flip side is a couple trying to negotiate the hours to complement each other also.

There are also senior roles where special tasks are carried out at certain times of the week to accommodate a team - for example it may be that all staff are in in a Monday so weekly team meetings are held then.

None of the problems you mention are insurmountable, and ultimately a company (and the economy as a whole) will do better if all employees are able to strike a better work/life balance, and employers can provide roles that are equally attractive to both sexes.

duchy

heuchera wrote: »

What was her job? Was it admin (in which case yes it's pretty easy to get someone to job-share) or was it radiographer/consultant level medicine?

Some professions really require a full-time commitment rather than "I'll fit it in around the kids".

Plenty of people fondly imagine they are indispensable but the reality is that very few people actually are - I certainly know radiographers who work part-time - and certainly plenty of consultants choose to work part-time for the NHS and have a private practice as well so your examples certainly don't support your theory.

You attitude is a bit of a daft one - Most employers don't expect their employees to be constantly focused on work outside of work hours - what they require is focus and commitment whilst AT work. Surely you are not implying that motherhood changes women in some way so they are incapable of continuing to do this after giving birth ? My personal experience is that those who gave 100% during working hours before becoming parents continued to do so afterwards ( regardless of sex) but those who clock watched and did the minimum before having kids continued to do so after return from maternity/paternity leave.

duchy

Jagraf wrote: »

The problem is finding two people of the same calibre/qualifications whose preferences complement each other is harder at more senior levels. Brain surgeons / consultants already work the hours they prefer and the chief of police is just that - the chief of police. crossover at senior level can be complicated and take up valuable working time that is already being paid for by the state / shareholders/ business owners.

The flip side is a couple trying to negotiate the hours to complement each other also.

There are also senior roles where special tasks are carried out at certain times of the week to accommodate a team - for example it may be that all staff are in in a Monday so weekly team meetings are held then.

What happens on the five to ten weeks these essential people are on annual leave, or are sick, or are on courses, attending conferences etc ?

Pandering to egos of those who think everything will stop without their presence -is one thing - If there is a genuine will to offer flexible working then it's very do-able. The reality is many businesses don't have the genuine will to do so and merely pay lip service to the concept.

I was the second part of a job share when my son was a toddler- The company wanted to keep a senior member of staff but she only wanted to work two days a week so I was employed to work the other three days. It worked extremely well - clients were happy with both of us -although I suspect sometimes they didn't realize which one of us they were dealing with as we sounded so similar on the phone. It wasn't until I came in and worked some extra days to cover for someone else that we actually spoke face to face and discovered not only had we worked for the same companies in the same roles at different times but we'd also attended the same school and had grown up within a mile of each other . (Neither of us were local the job was in central London)There was a lot of handover and shared responsibility - but as we worked in a very similar way and our experience was similar -it really didn't matter which one of us was the face of the job. Meetings etc were attended by whichever one of us was in. It really was pretty much seamless.

GobbledyGook

heuchera wrote: »

Yes, state handouts may help towards it but wouldn't pay anything like the whole cost.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33224896

So roughly £3k.. 3 months childcare?

The element for child tax credit and the childcare payments are not the same.

You can claim help with up to 70% of your childcare costs through tax credits, up to a maximum of £175 per week for one child and £300 per week for two or more children in childcare.

So the most help a parent with one child would get would be £9100 over 52 weeks.

Scorpio33

Too many employers are stuck on the thinking that flexible working is not possible or is detrimental as that is always the way it has been. I doubt many of those employers have truly explored the possibilities of flexible working.


The truth in my opinion is that the better you treat staff, the happier they are, the more efficient they are and the lower staff turn over. This reduces recruitment and training costs, and also means that there are less staff that need to be employed, as the happier staff are more efficient. That hugely outweighs the benefits of not having flexible working, which is only the sight of people in the office, regardless if they are doing any actual work or not.


The reason why this stays the norm is that too many people accept it as "that is the way it always has been". This needs to change.


Anyway, rant over.


Back on topic - it is normal for nurseries to charge for bank holidays in my experience.

onlyroz

Scorpio33 wrote: »

The truth in my opinion is that the better you treat staff, the happier they are, the more efficient they are and the lower staff turn over. This reduces recruitment and training costs, and also means that there are less staff that need to be employed, as the happier staff are more efficient. That hugely outweighs the benefits of not having flexible working, which is only the sight of people in the office, regardless if they are doing any actual work or not.

The reason why this stays the norm is that too many people accept it as "that is the way it always has been". This needs to change.

100% agree. We hear all the time about gender pay gaps, barriers to women taking senior roles, barriers to men spending more time with their children, people spending more and more time and money commuting etc etc. If employers became more flexible then everybody would benefit. The problem is that this requires a cultural shift which employers will naturally resist.