If medical staff feel confident that their children are well looked after, this can only be good for us all, says NHS childcare co-ordinator Sara Mousley
Monday
Up at 5.45am as youngest teenage son needs taking to the station to catch a train to college. Hit the office at 7.45am. Priorities are coffee, breakfast bar, unanswered e-mails and phone messages. By 8am the phone is ringing with the first emergency of the week.
My role is a relatively new one within the NHS, supporting the implementation of the NHS Childcare Strategy, set out in the Department of Health's NHS Plan. I'm childcare co-ordinater for the Central Campus of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust covering four hospitals. The staff provide me with just about every conceivable childcare problem going - and it's my job to sort them out.
Today, a nurse's childminder has called in sick; her shift starts at 2pm and she can't work without emergency cover. This is a job for our childcare agency partnership - it always comes up trumps at short notice. Next week is half-term so there are calls from staff needing childcare to cover days when their usual arrangements have broken down. Thank goodness for hospital holiday clubs!
Lunch is taken at my desk with one hand on my phone and the other on my 'mouse'. Staff have the opportunity to contact me in their lunch break, so I need to be on-hand, albeit it with a mouthful of salad roll - hoping it isn't someone too important.
The afternoon is spent collating orders for next month's childcare vouchers - we also provide help with childcare costs. At 5.15pm it seems a good time to call it a day - a brief has to be written on 'maternity seminars' for my next Childcare Strategy meeting, but I take this home.
Tuesday
Meet with the trust's solicitors at 10am to discuss the tender document for our proposed workplace nursery. A lunchtime meeting with the personnel team provides sandwiches which see me through an afternoon visiting nurseries where the trust has bought places. Need to check on available places and how staff's children are doing. One toddler decides to share his snack with me - trousers will need to go in the wash tonight!
Wednesday
Early start again (why don't colleges have half-terms?). Check my 'to do' list - need to address the saga of organising more baby changing units throughout the hospitals - seems like asking for gold! The afternoon is spent attending to staff enquiries and updating reports. I work closely with the recruitment and retention team. There has been a 36 per cent increase in staff returning after maternity leave since the trust provided support with childcare.
Thursday
Travel straight to a meeting at regional office. We discuss the next NHS conference and workshop on 'NHS Childcare Strategy'. Arrive back in the office to find a member of staff waiting for me, needing to know what childcare support is on offer and will our workplace nursery be open by the time she returns to work next year? Her pregnancy wasn't planned and she's panicking. Cue for a bit of TLC.
I wish there'd been a childcare co-ordinator around for me 20 years ago. After several strong cups of tea and chocolate (me, that is), I pack up and go home to my teenage sons - another story altogether! Settle down at 6.30pm with pizza and glass of wine.
Friday
Recruitment Fayre in main hospital dining-room from 9am to 7pm. Our personnel team is on duty an hour at a time, but there's only one childcare co-ordinator - so I'm there all day!
The NHS is more family friendly nowadays with its work/life balance initiatives. If staff are able to come into work because they have reliable childcare, the health service can only improve. Staff are really grateful - it is often a fine line for them between returning to work after maternity leave or not being able to consider it. We all use the NHS at some time in our lives and it feels good to be able to put something back. If someone says 'I'm so glad you're there' it somehow makes it all worthwhile.
