I run a day care in an area which has several hospital's and so this is something I am frequently asked for. It seems a common shift locally for 4 days on and 4 days off.

However, here, along with the request for shift coverage, usually comes the expectation that they only pay for the day's their child actually attends.

As an in-home carer, we are strictly limited in the number of children we may have in the house at the same time. This shift pattern requires us to reserve a full time place for a child, even though we know they won't be here every day. But they do lose us money. We can't fill the unwanted days even if we do know the parent's schedule a month in advance.

As suggested by others, the only way I as a provider can even entertain this is if a parent paid for the full time place they need to be available - but of course here, no one wants to do that and what happens is most providers have to decline the request due to the financial loss it brings.