I am in full time employment and I care for my 8yr old non-verbal child who is diagnosed with Autism. His needs change day to day and can be very demanding at times.
I start my shift at 08:30am and finish at 16:30pm however on occasions I have to drop my son off at school by 9am and collect him from school by 3pm which means I have to start 30mins late in the morning and finish 1.5hrs early meaning I owe my employer 2hrs back for that day.
I get flexible working meaning I can start my shift 45mins early each morning but this is no use as I have to get my son ready for school and employees are not permitted to lone working in the office after 16:30pm unless a manager is working after 16:30pm, however this is not appropriate as I need to care for my son after 16:30pm.
Making hours back is becoming impossible and is really taking a toll on my health and worrying about getting into trouble with my employer.
The only sensible thing I can come up with is to reduce my hours so I start at maybe 09.30am and finish at 14:30pm but I rather not do this due to the pay cut.
I was talking to a colleague who has similar caring responsibilities and they seem to think that as I have a carers passport, I would not need to make the hours back…Is this true?
Any advice regarding this would be great from anyone who has had a similar experience.
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@alin05 welcome to the forum . I don’t know the exact answer to your question . But I have just looked up the carers passport and it says helps with flexible working hours to help balance work and care. It does not say anything about not making hours up. So I don’t know the only thing I can think of is like you have said to just work the hours that fit in with caring for your son, which I think is what other people do. As you cannot make the hours up which I understand. Carersuk.co.uk have an advice line they are open Monday to Friday 9am -6pm phone number 0808 808 7777. I would give them a ring about your situation ,and see what they have to say. You can come back here anytime and ask any questions you want to do. I hope that you are ok.
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As a carer your employer has a duty to make reasonable adjustments for you. If they refuse and you have to leave it counts as Constructive Dismissal and if you have been there a while, would be entitle to compensation. See the Coleman case. Have you raised this problem during your Carers Assessment?
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@alin05 but the employer has given her flexible working hours and that is all the carers passport says that they have to do.so they have made adjustments that is why I said to ring the advice line. Another thing I thought about alin05, I don’t know if this is any good on occasions you have to take your son to school for 9am and pick him up at 3pm. So what happens on the other days. Does he go to school everyday. Is there someone a relative you could ask to take your son to school on these days and pick him up for you. Was just a thought
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Hi @alin05
Welcome to the forum.
Carers Uk have a section on their website with information for working carers Work and career | Carers UK
I would look at your employer’s Carers Policy.
You wouldn’t be able to make up the time remotely e.g. working from home when your son is in bed?
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A Carers Assessment is supposed to look at the support someone needs in order to work full time. So an alternative to fewer working hours might be an after school club funded by SSD, or after school child minder. So much depends on what is available locally.
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@bowlingbun yes thank you I understand. I mentioned relative. She said a colleague said if she had a carers passport she would not need to make the hours back. No I don’t think she has to but she won’t be paid for them that’s what the carers passport stated. Not easy juggling everything is it. I know people who’s children go to after school club cos they work full time. But they don’t start work till 9am so can drop them off first. And like you said after school child minder,would she have to pay for that. I wondered who did it the other times cos she said occasionally. We have to see what she says.
Hi, Thank you for all the advice - On other days I have managed to get a relative to do the school runs and to manage my son until I normally get home. It is only when this relative in unable to do the school run I have to manage myself.
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@Melly1 Working from home is not an option unfortunately, but this would help massively if it became an option in the future. Thanks
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@bowlingbun After school clubs/minder is something I am looking into to see if it is viable for me. Thanks
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As I said before, councils are supposed to be supporting carers to stay in employment. It may be possible for after school care to be funded after a Carers Assessment.
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@alin05 thank you for your message.Is it the same days each week that your relative cannot help. And is it both the taking him and bring him home. The other things is like bowlingbun suggested. Like after school club or child minder after school. My niece works she starts work at 9am so she can take her son to school and then after school he goes to after school club till someone picks him up. That’s how she works it. But I suppose it depends what’s available were you live. She is a SS so sometimes she can work from home. The job you do I don’t know if it can be done remotely or not.and on the days when your relative cannot pick him up if you could finish at a time you could pick him up and then like Mel said do those hours when he’s in bed. Are you able to have a chat with your boss to see what can be done.
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@bowlingbun im not on about school club .i was on about child minder. And what councils are supposed to do and what they actually do we all know are two seperate things.
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@bowlingbun This is an avenue I shall be exploring.
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@Teddybear No, not the same days its only when the relative cannot do the school run - I don’t know what I would do if this support from my relative was not available.
Unfortunately, I am unable to work from home which does not help.
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@alin05 you could also try ringing your local citizens advice bureau and seeing if they know about things in your area. They have a lot of knowledge about things, they may know of child minders who could help you , or after school clubs. Do they have one of these where he goes to school. Then you could ask the council to pay for it.
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@Teddybear Yes, will be trying these options. Can I ask if the council will pay for this service based on my earnings?
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@alin05 have you had a carers assessment for looking after your son from the council. If not I would ask for a carers assessment and when you have one of these ask these questions in your assessment explain to them your situation and ask what is available if funding is available for after school clubs or child minder to look after your son the hours your relative cannot do. these things may be based on people’s circumstances I’m not sure. But you can have a carers assessment and ask all these questions like bowlingbun has said they are supposed to help, you could always ring your local CAB to as they may have info to.also carersuk advice line I wrote the number above you could give them also a ring.and melly as left a link above for you to look at about work/careers. You could see if any of these help.
@Teddybear No, I have not had a carers assessment from the council but will look into arranging this. Again, thank you to all for all the advice and suggestions.
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@alin05 you are very welcome. I hope that you have a nice day and a nice Bank holiday weekend with your son.
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