Can you believe it’s summer already? Scottish and Northern Irish schools are on the verge of breaking up, and English schools will do the same in a matter of weeks. If your staff team includes parents with school-aged children, then the end of term will almost certainly impact on your practice in one way or another.

What workplace rights do employees have to support them with holiday childcare? And equally, what are their responsibilities? This blog will briefly answer those questions.

Staff responsibilities

Let’s start by reminding ourselves about the responsibilities that staff have towards their employers. In most cases, employment contracts continue to run as normal over the summer and so staff should (unless other arrangements have been made) be attending work as usual. It’s reasonable to expect staff to plan for their own childcare needs in advance. Where other work arrangements are requested (e.g., annual leave or emergency time off) then usual workplace policies and procedures should be followed.

If you’re unfortunate enough to have staff who don’t follow workplace policies and cause disruption to practice services as a result, this should be investigated and disciplinary action could follow.

Right to annual leave

So those are the key responsibilities that staff have. Let’s have a think about their rights – and how in general you as a manager can provide support. First up, of course, is annual leave. Most parents will request some of this over the summer period.

Parents’ statutory annual leave entitlements are no different from those of their non-parent colleagues. There’s no innate ‘right’ to take time off over the summer months if this can’t be accommodated on staff rotas. However, most parents will request time off well in advance and it’s in the manager’s interests to grant requests where reasonable and possible. If history shows that managing annual leave requests over summer is a struggle at your practice, then it’s reasonable to put rules or guidance in place such as setting a maximum number of weeks’ leave, when requests must be submitted by, and so on.

Right to request flexible working

I wrote about flexible working processes quite recently in this blog here, so I won’t discuss these in detail. But remember that, as of April 2024, all employees have the right to submit up to two flexible working requests per year regardless of their length of service. This request should be considered carefully and only denied if lawful reasons apply. Requests you might receive relating to summer childcare include:

• Temporarily reducing hours
• Moving onto a term-time only contract, or
• Working from home on a full or hybrid basis

With reference to that third type of request – working from home – you should discuss this carefully and openly with employees. As a parent myself, I know that very few parents can provide high-quality and consistent work whilst looking after young children at the same time! As a practice, you’re entitled to stipulate that employees must have appropriate childcare in place whilst working from home. However, working from home might still be appropriate as a supportive measure if the kids are older and unlikely to need ongoing attention, or if working from home helps the employee to drop them off at a local holiday club first thing in the morning without a long commute afterwards.

Right to deal with emergency childcare needs

Employees have a statutory right to time off work to deal with an unforeseen emergency which involves a dependant. It’s designed to provide an opportunity to make alternative care arrangements. The definition of ‘dependant’ in these circumstances includes children of school age. In other words, if summer childcare plans fall through at the very last minute (e.g., due to illness) then employees can stay away from work to keep their children safe, and to make alternative plans if possible.

Unless the employee’s contract says otherwise, there’s no legal right to pay for this time off. It’s not sickness, so sick pay provisions don’t apply. The time off should be short-term in nature, usually lasting no more than one or two days at most. If someone says they need several weeks of emergency leave, I’d usually discuss this further with the employee to learn more about the situation and why they expect it to last so long.

Right to unpaid parental leave

Buried deep within most staff handbooks is an entitlement to a form of unpaid leave known as ordinary parental leave. (This isn’t to be confused with shared parental leave or parental bereavement leave which are separate statutory entitlements.) Parental leave can be useful for employees who are struggling with childcare over the summer as it allows them to take up to four unpaid weeks off per child. An employee needs at least 12 months’ service to submit a request, which they must do at least 21 days in advance. Employers are expected to grant requests where possible but can potentially push back the employee’s suggested dates for business continuity reasons.

If your practice employs Salaried GPs, be mindful that their rights to unpaid parental leave under the BMA model contract are slightly enhanced. See the BMA Salaried GP handbook section 15 for full details.

If conflict arises…

Very few GP practices would ever want to be deliberately mean or unpleasant to their staff, so being flexible and reasonable around summer childcare struggles is just a normal thing that we do. But occasionally conflict between staff and managers does arise. Where this happens, remember to bear in mind the following:

• As mentioned already, you’re entitled to have policies and procedures in relation to holidays, notification of emergency leave, and so on. Employees should comply with these rules as best they can, even when the situation they’re in is somewhat stressful.
• The failure of an employer to act reasonably towards an employee who’s struggling with childcare, such as rejecting a flexible working request without due cause or disciplining an individual who requests parental leave, could potentially lead to successful legal claims for sex discrimination and/or unfair dismissal. Note that these same risks apply whatever the employee’s gender.
• If any employee is forced to choose between their job and their children, they’re clearly going to choose the latter! Being inflexible and unsympathetic about childcare struggles can thus lead to higher staff turnover and poor morale within teams. There’s a good business argument for keeping working parents engaged and enthusiastic in general practice.

Finishing up, my advice to any Practice Managers who are approaching the summer months with nervousness is to review (or implement) policies relating to flexible working, annual leave, emergency time off for dependants, and unpaid parental leave. Make sure your staff are aware of both their rights and responsibilities in relation to these topics. Keep communication lines open, and good luck to all!

Useful resources:

Holiday Policy [PLUS]
Flexible Working Policy [PLUS]
Time off for Dependants Policy [PLUS]
Unpaid Parental Leave Policy [PLUS]

Previous related blogs:

Flexible working changes are in the air – Are you ready?
When family comes first: A quick rundown of family leave entitlements for GP practice employees
“I’m not sick, but I can’t come into work today”– Navigating family emergencies in practice

Susi O’Brien