The Summer holiday challenge for employers is here again

Most children and teachers can't wait for the start of the long school break whereas most parents can't wait for the end of it

As schools prepare for their long summer holidays, we take a look at the potential nightmare that parents (and their employers) face when it comes to managing the holiday care challenge, and what employers can do to help.

School-age children

Working parents start on the back foot simply because children's holiday time outstrips typical working parent leave by a ratio of well over 3:1.

So how do parents solve the problem of working when their school-age children are at home for weeks on end?

Well, as a starter, most parents will plan ahead to take their main family holidays during the summer. Employers however need to be aware that in order to be absolutely fair and non-discriminatory to non-parents, they should treat holiday requests on a first-come-first served basis.

Other parents will split the care responsibility, each taking different weeks off to cover more of the school holiday period.

Using ad hoc 'care' services

Many employees will employ the ad hoc services of parents and relatives as much as they can. Holiday clubs will figure in their plans, childminders, au-pairs, other mothers, neighbours and professional short term care providers will all feature in the mix.

As one of our clients' employees puts it:

"It's basically a giant jigsaw. I start with a calendar print-off of the summer holiday weeks and go from there putting in the time we're going to be on holiday as a family, which other days I or my partner can manage to take off, arranging reciprocal childcare days with other mothers and so on. I'm lucky as both sets of grandparents are still willing and active enough to pitch in as well. We do make use of holiday clubs where we need to, but there's the cost to be considered. But the thing is however well you plan there are always gaps and care arrangements will fall though at the last minute."

My Family Care's school holiday tips for employers

1. Use your working parents network (if you have one) to:
   a) Support and provide help and advice on the types of holiday care options available
   b) Encourage dialogue about potential solutions and shared care opportunities
2. Remind parents that their childcare vouchers can be used with summer holiday clubs
3. On-site solutions - A really innovative solution might be a temporary on-site creche for a particularly busy week or two over the summer. Our experience is that employees have been amazed by the way an appealing, educational environment appears out of nothing
4. A more radical departure from the norm is the occasional 'bring your teenager to work' day. It may not guarantee that the usual work gets done in a calm collected manner but it underlines your position as a family-friendly employer and sometimes, depending on the type of business, there can be remarkable insights from a very different focus group!
5. Plan in advance with employees. Encourage working parents to be upfront about any days/weeks for which they are struggling to find care. It can avoid short term problems. Can you as an employer/manager help plan for flexible solutions in these circumstances. Are they able to work flexibly or more flexibly during these periods?
6. Learn from this summer's experiences, so that you'll be better able to deal with next year! Do you understand the extent of the issue or the level of disruption it causes to you as a business? If you can't measure it you can't fix it. Think about a simple employee survey on the challenges/problems caused to working parents during holidays.

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