I take my hat off to all parents who are home schooling.
We’ve got it easy in our house. Our 16-year-old daughter would ordinarily have been sitting her GCSEs this summer, but instead will be awarded her grades based on a blend of internal and external assessments.
Like in many other houses across Wales, our kitchen has become her classroom and she keeps to the timetable of the school working day, attending her lessons on line.
My husband and I are not required to play any part in home schooling. We don’t even make our daughter breakfast and lunch, busy with helping our clients navigate the impact on business of the pandemic. She must fend for herself, or if she is lucky her 22-year-old brother studying from home for a MA, will eventually get hungry enough to make them both a toastie.
We know we are getting a let because our children are young adults. Our colleagues, friends and family are having to juggle jobs with hands-on home schooling. We're grateful to be spared the daily discussion about whose work is the most urgent and who must grapple with teaching.
If our children were young still, we would have managed by taking it in turns to work and home school and working earlier and later when needed.
Based on how many emails I receive from lawyers (both male and female) sent very early or late in the day this is a fix that is working well for legal professionals, but is also a privilege that comes from a well-paid job that can be done outside of fixed working hours.
However, data analysis published earlier this month from the Women’s Budget Group, Fawcett Society, Women’s Budget Group Northern Ireland, Women’s Equality Network Wales, Close the Gap and Engender, revealed that twice as many mothers as fathers report they would have to take time off with no pay due to school closures or a sick child (15% of mothers compared to 8% of fathers).
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Those on the lowest income are nine times more likely to report risk of losing their job due to school closures.
To add to this, in a TUC survey carried out last month 70% of working mothers who asked to be furloughed for childcare reasons since schools shut stated that they had had their requests refused.
It was confirmed in April 2020 in the early days of furlough that employers can place employees on furlough if they are unable to work due to childcare responsibilities. This is a right to request, not a right to have the request granted.
There remained some confusion about this, and therefore on 5 January 2021 the government changed its guidance again to make it clearer that employees may be furloughed if they are unable to work or are working reduced hours because of caring responsibilities which have arisen as a result of COVID-19.
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The amended guidance states that caring responsibilities include caring for:
- Children who are at home as a result of the closure of schools or childcare facilities.
- A vulnerable individual in the household.
- The TUC warns that the pandemic is hitting low-paid mothers and single parents hardest and calls for parents and carers to be provided with a legal right to furlough, along with 10 days’ paid carers leave and an increase in sick pay.
However, in response to a question raised in parliament last week, Business Minister Paul Scully MP resisted calls to provide a legal and enforceable right for parents to request paid, flexible furlough.
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My concern, for mothers and fathers alike, is the reinforcement of attitudes that childcare is primarily women’s work and the impact the pandemic could have on slowing progress on the gender pay gap.
Whilst employers are not obliged to grant requests for furlough, they should discuss with their employees any issues arising from child care and home schooling. I’d recommend to employers and employees alike that they seek to work together to see if a workable solution can be found, via a patchwork of flexible furlough (due to end April 30, 2021), part time working, taking some holiday and reduced or varied working hours.