Network Journal 2005 Issue 3

Supporting working parents in the UK

Parents in Usdaw with children aged over six are under intense emotional and financial pressure as they seek to juggle work, childcare and parenting, the union’s own survey has revealed. Network takes a look at the problems and the limited amount of legal help available.

School holidays/opening hours and term time working

More than a quarter of all survey respondents said that school holidays put them under the most pressure. Below are some of the comments from the survey:

"I would like term time working as I don't have childcare during school holidays and I'm unable to spend time with them in term time as I work evenings. My children are over 6 so I don't qualify."

"School holiday clubs operate for limited periods of time. There is no supervised care for children aged 12+ and at that age children are still too young to be left alone."

A significant number of members (more than a fifth) told us that they felt most under pressure trying to fit working hours around school opening and closing times.

Parents with children aged over six have no right to request flexible working (unless they have a disabled child) and so are often stuck with hours that don't suit them.

Additionally, a large number of our members (both men and women) tell us that school closure days (inset days/training days) cause real problems for them at work.

Financial worries

After-school clubs and school holiday care is thin on the ground. Even when it is there, the costs can be too high for many of our members.

"The cost of school holiday and after school clubs is prohibitive. I pay £18 per day per child. Clubs generally operate in the summer but there is no cover at Christmas when we are at our busiest and little cover at Easter."

Statutory Rights for parents of children over six

All employees have the right to take a reasonable amount of time off work to deal with an emergency involving a dependant. In effect this right enables employees to take a short amount of time off work to deal with an unexpected or sudden problem.

There is no legal right to paid time off.

Parents of disabled children (where the child receives any element of the social security benefit Disability Living Allowance) have the right to request flexible working up until the child's 18th birthday. You have to have worked for your employer for 26 weeks at the time you make the request.

Where parents of disabled children have worked for their employer for one year they also have the right to 18 weeks unpaid parental leave. They must take this before the child's 18th birthday.

What are we campaigning for?

• The extension of the right to request flexible working to parents of children aged 17 and under.
• We want to raise awareness of the right to time off for caring for dependents. We have produced a leaflet - Time off for family emergencies - to help us to do this. Ideally we want parents and carers to have the right to some paid time off for family emergencies and we continue to make the case to Government and employers for this. Paid family leave is one of the bargaining priorities of our current campaign.

It's a fact

• Across the UK there are more than 12 million parents.
• There are 6.8 million women and 5.4 million men aged between 16 and 74 with dependent children.
• More than three quarters (78 per cent) of women with children aged between 6 and 13 are in work.
• Only 12 per cent of women with dependent children are employed on term-time contracts despite evidence of a demand from parents in work.
• Fewer than one in ten employers provide any specific support for parents of school age children.
• The average weekly cost of a play scheme is £73.71 a week.
• British parents pay around 75 per cent of the costs of childcare, compared to an average 30 per cent contribution by parents elsewhere in Europe.

• Click here for more information about Usdaw's Supporting Parents and Carers campaign.

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