Supporting employees with summer childcare

A recent survey by the charity Coram Family and Childcare shows the average British family will spend ￡943 on six weeks of childcare this summer. This represents a 3% increase in costs in England, 7% in Scotland, and the biggest increase of 9% in Wales.

Not only have childcare costs increased, but there is also a shortage of places, putting additional strain on parents, especially those without family nearby to help out.

With members of the Atkinson HR Consulting team having been busy scheduling holiday camps, arranging childcare, and organising (and budgeting for) days out with their little ones, we’ve been reflecting on how proud we are to have a flexible approach to managing our workload and making the most of our unlimited annual leave policy.

To help inspire you, we've pulled together our favourite examples of innovative and creative ways that our client organisations have been supporting their working parents this summer:

Wellbeing Fund

One charity offers their employees a ￡400 wellbeing fund that they can use to put towards any activity that helps them relax and unwind from their work. This fund could be used to spend on day trips with their family (or perhaps just a spa day for the parents once the kids are back at school!)

Work from anywhere

At least two of our student union clients give their employees the opportunity to work from anywhere in the world for up to four weeks at a time. This means an opportunity to visit family in far-flung locations who perhaps can help with childcare, while also providing an exciting change of scenery for their Zoom backdrops!

Another client is actively encouraging more unusual hybrid work locations and enabling their employees to work from anywhere with a WiFi connection. From soft play centres to caravan parks, literally anywhere goes!

Flexible time off

Another client has recently extended the amount of paid leave an employee can take to be with their child when unwell or injured. They can now take up to 5 days of leave to deal with caring for their dependents in emergencies. Another of our clients has also embraced a flexible time off policy, which has no upper limits to the amount of leave that can be taken, whether it's for dependents, emergencies, wellbeing, or a holiday. This means that colleagues can plan their leave more easily around school holidays, too.

We’ve also seen lots of great practice from other organisations who are putting flexible working at the centre of their people approach. Ideas include:

• Flex Fridays – giving all employees alternate Fridays off to spend as they choose.
• No Meeting Mondays – avoiding scheduling internal meetings on a Monday so that employees can prioritise the start of their week to catch up on important or urgent tasks
• Children Welcome - For office-based teams, employers are encouraging their employees to bring their children to work and to experience a day in the life of their parents at work.

Finally, we’ve been enjoying these resources aimed at supporting working parents during these busy summer months, which can easily be shared with your team members...

• Mind’s?toolkit?for supporting parents health and wellbeing during the summer.
• Working Families provides resources for small and medium sized businesses on flexible working and family friendly policies.
• The latest government?‘Help for Household’?resources and advice to help with rising living costs, including childcare and discounts available to help with the cost of meals and school uniform.

We hope you take some inspiration from some of these creative ways to support working parents and consider how they may be applied to your own organisation.

#childcare #flexibleworking