Shift work

[lashely]

Hi I hope ou are all enjoying this lovely wednesday.

I have had an enquiry for a 1yr old boy whose parents work shifts. They need two days a week but not the same days and sometimes will be a half day for one of those days.

How do you go about this contract wise etc as obviously this takes up an early years space?

[moggy]

Contract wise- if you use Pacey contracts there is space for shift patterns or minimum hours per week- which is really what this is, as no days are fixed.

I would ask yourself if 2 days + 1.5 days a fortnight is worthwhile for you, you might want to make it a minimum of 2 days week whether they choose to use it all or not.

It will block one of your EYFS places for the whole week- that's one third of your EYFS income. That is why I would not do it myself.
But if you really want the work then you can either just live with it, or charge a higher hourly rate to compensate.

[mummyMia]

I've had a few shift workers but I always choose them carefully. My normal hourly rate is £5, and I won't block up a fulltime space for any less than £150 a week. Depending on what hours they want, I either quote a much higher hourly rate or charge a minimum number of hours per week, to make sure that I earn my £150. I think you need to carefully consider how much you would be willing to block the space for and then quote accordingly.

[tulip0803]

I have had a shift worker before and they paid a retainer for the days that they did not use. I explained to the parents that I have limited spaces for children under 5 and if they did not want to pay the retainer I would not be able to guarantee the space for their child if a permanent contract came along. The parents were happy to pay the retainer and gave me a shift pattern a month in advance. We compromised on a retainer of £10 which was slightly less than half a day session but I had ad-hocs who would sometimes take a day.

[lashely]

Thanks for your replies. She has been in touch again and decided her friends can look after him. I seem to be attracting lots of requests but no one signing up ATM with me I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

[watford wizz]

Nothing wrong with you, give it a few months with "friends" and she may well be back. Friend care is very different to professional child care and often not thought through properly x keep smiling x

[lashely]

Thank you :-) I've actually just signed 3 boys for before and after school care 5 days a week I'm in shock it happened so quickly!!