Are your development needs met by a single person, either in-house or external? I can provide cover for when they are unavailable for short periods that are known in advance, ensuring that you always have the capacity to fix urgent issues.
Where I can help
I can provide cover in the following circumstances:
- A gap between one developer leaving and their replacement starting
- Gardening leave
- Holidays
Cover is available for periods of 5 to 20 working days.
The areas I can help cover are:
- Infrastructure issues, e.g. servers requiring urgent maintenance
- Fixing code issues
- Responding to urgent queries, e.g. request for data extraction
Cover is only provided between my working hours of 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding UK bank holidays).
Where I can’t help
This service is not for:
- Regular development work or routine queries
- Covering for developers who are in a dispute or taking industrial action
- Timeframes that are not known in advance, e.g. sickness or parental leave
- Long-term support
- Support outside of 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday
If you have a developer who is likely to be unavailable for a long period (sickness, parental leave etc.) then a more appropriate service would be a fixed number of my development hours on a regular basis (e.g. 10 hours per month for 6 months). Alternatively, I can help you find interim cover with another freelancer or contractor.
Costs
I charge £50 for each day you want me to be available. This covers the cost of me reserving time each day and any setup required beforehand (e.g. ensuring I have access to your servers, code and databases). Any time spent during the cover period is charged at £50 per hour.
For example, if I provided cover for 5 days and spent 6 hours of time then the total cost would be:
Time reservation: £50 x 5 = £250
Time spent: £50 x 6 = £300
Total: £550
I invoice at the end of the cover period on 14 day terms. I am not registered for VAT and therefore do not charge it on my services.