Lone Parents, Poverty & Work – The story so far
By Lyndsey Thomson - Project Coordinator
Stephen is bringing up three school-age daughters in Kirkcaldy. With over 20 years of experience as an industrial painter, he was struggling to find work that would offer him and his family a healthy work-life balance.
Charlotte lives in Glenrothes with her three young children. She wants to work but cannot find a local job that will allow her to do the school run. Relying on public transport can make this even more of a struggle.
Dot is the sole care provider for her daughter with no family to help her with childcare. She would love to have the opportunity to go back to work, but what happens after school and during the long holidays?
These are just some of the parents we work with, who want to work and provide for their families but can’t find flexible, well-paid and sustainable employment – that’s where Lone Parents, Poverty, and Work can provide the solution.
Since we launched the initiative in April last year, we’ve supported 30 households to get on the road to sustainable employment, and 15 parents are now working! Within a year……… flexible, family-friendly employment can be achieved.
A number of local employers were keen to get involved with our project from the start including Fife Council’s Facilities Management Department, Chocolate & Love in Glenrothes and Gowrie House Care Home. After initial discussions with each organisation, it was clear to see that we could help each other out. They all had vacancies they needed to fill and we have parents who want to work.
First things first, we needed to find out what vacancies were out there; if employers were willing to be more flexible; and how we could then get our parents into these jobs.
We ran an information session with Fife Council’s Facilities Management team for parents to come along and hear more about the jobs they had available and to have a discussion about the recruitment process and how this could be simplified. 19 parents attended and were happy to provide their input about their experience of applying for roles within Fife Council previously and how this could be improved. It was agreed that for positions within this department, Fife Council would remove the requirement for the usual supporting statement (accepting a CV in its place) and they would also offer parents being supported by Fife Gingerbread guaranteed interviews.
Other ways we have worked with employers to help simplify recruitment to make it more accessible for lone parent families include:
Offering a short informal telephone chat ahead of a less formal in-person interview
Flexing start and finish times to accommodate the school run, and allowing parents to work later in the evening if possible
Adapting temporary posts to under 16 hours to compliment Universal Credit requirements whilst allow parents to gain work experience
Hybrid working options to reduce the need for childcare
Providing interview questions ahead of the interview date
Creation of term time roles, where parents work a set number of hours and are paid for a percentage, banking the remaining hours to use as TOIL within school holidays.
Following discussions with employers, next came the conversations with lone parents to find out more about their needs. These conversations often included their availability, childcare and benefits. Providing additional support with CVs, writing supporting statements and interview prep.
Almost half of parents referred to the Lone Parents, Poverty & Work initiative have attended job interviews (so far!).
To date, just under 50% of the parents referred to the Lone Parents, Poverty & Work project have attended interviews and have been successful and have moved into employment which is fantastic but we can do so much more. We want to grow our relationships with local employers to broker more opportunities for lone parents, and tackle Child Poverty in Fife.
Head over to our website to find out how you can lone-parent proof your organisation and how we can help.
So what happened to our three parents mentioned above……………….
After getting in touch with one of Stephen’s former employers, Hy Spec were keen to help if they could. They quickly set about customising a vacancy they had coming up for a Storeman / Industrial Painter role which would allow Stephen to return to a career he loved whilst also being able to be there for his daughters. On a trial basis, Stephen is working 15 hours per week over 3 days but can work additional hours to bank and use as TOIL for occasions such as school closures or holidays and children’s sickness, etc. Stephen is delighted to be back at work, doing something he knows and is skilled at but even better, Stephen said “I feel like I have my life back now - thank you for everything you have done for us”.
Charlotte benefitted from working casual hours for Chocolate & Love in Glenrothes. This was a temporary and local opportunity so Charlotte was able to walk to work, negating the need for public transport, and the employer, being aware of the need for hours during the school day, offered 20 hours per week, 10 am to 2 pm, for a four-week period on the run-up to Christmas. Chocolate & Love was extremely impressed with the work carried out by the parents, extending the casual contract into the New Year. “Working at Chocolate & Love has been a great opportunity for me over the past few months. They understand that as a single parent, I sometimes face challenges juggling work and childcare and they have been great, allowing me to work a small number of hours within the school day so that it didn’t affect my Universal Credit claim and still allowed me to do the school run”.
As for Dot, she couldn’t be happier. With prior experience in the care sector, Dot was delighted to be hired as a Domestic Assistant at Gowrie House Care Home. Making use of her skills and experience, Dot’s position is fluid so she can carry out different tasks depending on the needs of the business when she starts her shift. Gowrie House was also able to offer a term-time role with hours during the school day, ensuring that Dot can make sure her daughter gets to and from school safely and she can also enjoy quality time during the school holidays as she works 18 hours per week but is paid for 15, banking 3 hours per week to take back as TOIL when needed during Easter and October school holidays. “I was given the chance of employment with the care home and I can honestly say it is the best thing I have done in a lot of years. The hours I work are perfect for dropping off and picking up the kids so they suit me and my children which is perfect. Also, I have gained more confidence and self-respect since starting”
These stories are proof that flexibility is possible in a variety of different shapes and forms and industries. Flexible working is and should be sustainable but society constantly evolves and employers need to keep up so - can you further flex your flexible working policies and procedures? Lone-parent positive cultures within the workplace should be standard practice and flexing the flex should become our next new norm.