Pressure in general practice has become the norm. There’s pressure from patient demand along with pressure from changes to opening hours and contract expectations. Workforce wellbeing has been focused on trying to ensure that our staff don’t burn out.

One of the options we might embrace is changing working patterns to accommodate patient needs, staff needs and the desire for a healthy, balanced life.

As we outlined in our blog ‘The summer holiday childcare shuffle‘, staff now have the right to make two flexible working requests per year from the first day of employment. Staff can find holiday childcare difficult to manage, not least because schools often have 14 or more weeks of holiday per year, while most working parents generally have four to six weeks of leave, and filling that gap may not always be financially viable, or options for childcare may be scarce.

It’s often said, “You only have 18 summers with your children.” When you think about it, 18 years can fly by, so it’s understandable that some parents want to spend more time with their family over the summer. And working flexibly to accommodate our staff needs can also help us to meet patient needs in some cases.

So, how can we manage demand and help our staff? One of the things we might consider is term-time working; practices generally have less demand in the summer than in the winter months, so it may be possible to accommodate some flexibility, depending on the size of your teams.

What do irregular patterns (or term-time working) look like? These might be geared to suit patient demand or because your staff have caring responsibilities. Working patterns might vary by week or operate with reduced hours during holiday periods, but how do we easily manage all of that?

An option you could consider, is Holiday Manager, free in the HUB, which offers huge flexibility in accommodating working patterns.

Have a look at our short video below to see just how simple managing this can be.