Childcare is not a dumping ground for the unemployable

I tried three nurseries for my DC. In the first one they left my DC screaming all day with a high temperature - that was DC’s first and last day there. The next one was a little better and I made my expectations clear about being called out of work if my DC was ill. The third one was well-staffed and DC was happy there. I was not interested in staff qualifications. There is absolutely no reason why disabled staff can’t be good with small children. There should be a nursery manager who models play, personal care etc.

This is why the absolute best nurseries are the rough around the edges, pack-away, church hall style nurseries. Their money goes on staff not on fancy gimmicky products to entice parents in.

Bravo

If they can't read how do they have the relevant qualifications? Who is your boss employing?! People don't get placed, they apply interview and are offered a job by the management of your organisation.

We are very lucky with our pre school,but the nursery dd went to ( for about three sessions) was similar to what you’re describing.

The issue is, that nurseries are often included in people's "investment portfolios". Really common. So they are run to make a profit and not for the welfare of the children. I've known nurseries with extra money for SEN children, syphon the money off, rather than use it for anything that might help the child (they bought the child a cheap "sensory lamp"). Another where management didn't want to pay a plumber, so there were weeks on end where the children and workers had no access to hot water, and as a result of the poor hygiene facilities, they seemed unable to collectively shake a sickbug which was going round. I reported that one. All in nurseries where parents were paying £80 odd a day for their children to attend.

Edited to say, my point is that they want to pay the absolute least, regardless of experience. Including as many "apprentices", who they can pay a few quid an hour.

Ours go to a Children's Centre. It is amazing, can't rate it highly enough. The staff are brilliant and I trust them completely to look after my 2.5 and 4.5 year olds. But nationally most have been closed down, and have been replaced by sub-par facilities. We are lucky we have our Children's Centre in our area.

Exactly.

Never had any issue at my DC’s nursery and we’ve been sending our kids there for years. Niece and nephew go to a nursery in the same area and they’ve never had an issue so I think may be where you work x

This. There's a chronic shortage of staff. I suspect people who aren't of a high standard are being helped along to pass for the same reason. I know quite a few people working in the industry, and from what I hear it is getting worse. Anecdata and all that, but if you hear something often enough . . .

There some other factors at play as well. There aren't many options for young women (or not so young career changers) looking for a good job without a degree. Hairdressing, healthcare assistant, and childcare are the big ones. But being female-dominated professions, the pay tends to be low, which doesn't exactly motivate people to do a good job. Again, I know people who say they would rather go back to retail or waitressing, because it's less stress for the same money. Some have. The ones that stay either don't want to throw away their qualification, or feel too guilty to leave the kids.

And then you've got the ones who are only doing childcare as a stepping stone to something else. Wiping bottoms is beneath them and they're trying to get through a certain number of hours and do as little of the mucky work as possible.

I know a girl who refused to take off her two inch fake nails, even though it was supposed to be a requirement for the childcare course she was doing. She still passed. She went on to work in a childcare setting, where she point blank refused to change nappies. Not only did they not fire her - they gave her a pay rise, let her pick her own hours and the work she wanted to do, and begged her to take another contract with them.

She's 24, behaves like an overgrown teenager, and has been rewarded for it at every turn. The situation must be dire.

Yep. I imagine lots more posts like this from all sorts of sectors coming up in the next few years. If people don’t want their taxes to pay for benefits, they have to accept these “McDonald’s rejects” (as a PP referred to them!) in their places of work.

Shocker.

No-one is unemployable these days, no matter how disabled. Haven’t you heard about all these people gaming the system who should be in work? Now they’re in work and paying taxes. Happy now?

OP what your describe is certainly not representative of the staff at the pre-school our DC attends, they are amazing. Might you consider looking for a new job in a better nursery? Sounds like your skills might be in demand.

YNBU
This is what childcare workers have been speaking out against for years. It's a low paid job with shitty hours and very high level of responsibility, that apparently anyone with a clear background check can just walk into.

Many, many good and fully qualified childcare workers who genuinely love the children have left the sector because of how badly treated, unsupported and undervalued they were. I, myself, left last year after almost 17 years in the job.

Now the industry is on it's knees struggling to fill the rooms with suitable, appropriate staff because they've all been driven out.

But if they don’t work because of their disabilities, they’re benefit scroungers. It’s very predictable that people are going to complain about disabled people claiming PIP and then complain about disabled people being in the workplace.

Either the people doing the recruiting aren't that bright and have interpreted it being illegal not to employ someone because of disability as you can't say if someone's disability makes them totally unsuitable for the role.

Or there's simply no-one else applying so it is do your job and pick up the pieces they can't do, or do both jobs fully.

This chimes with my (rather limited) experiences so far. I have a toddler who we have been looking to place in a nursery, and most of the nurseries we've seen are filled with people who look totally disengaged with no interest in children, and who dont look like the brightest bunch. Among the dross, we found one great nursery which is part of a primary school, which is maybe why the staff look like actual childcare professionals and not McDonalds rejects. There's no way I'm paying thousands to leave my child with people who don't look like they have either the will or the ability teach a child or engage with them.

There was a member of staff at the first nursery my DS went to who could barely read a children’s book. I have found school nurseries better because at least the staff are qualified.

When my DC's were at nursery there were a couple of members of staff who struggled with reading and writing but were absolutely brilliant with the children, would lead the play, encourage the toilet training and self-care, encourage the children's speech and were "loved" by the children.

People who are illiterate absolutely shouldn’t be doing childcare work. I have sympathy for those people, but surely it’s a basic health and safety thing?

This is the crux of it. It’s all, “people need to work regardless of their situation,” until the people in these difficult situations are working in jobs that impact everyone else. Do we want them working or not?

This is going to sound awful but im just being honest. When i left school in the 90’s childcare was one of the courses that the less intelligent or ambitious students did at college. I don’t know if times have changed in that regard.

I started working in nurseries several years back but ended up leaving because of this. Absolutely adored the role, the children and the staff who wanted to be there but we found that 50%, if not more, of the staff were people who were there because it was an ‘easy’ profession to access. Although our issue was more commonly with school leavers.

Its gotten worse where we are to recruit childcare staff and I actually removed my daughter after some of things I saw in my role from staff who didn’t really want to be there!

My sympathies. This is being done to you by your leadership because they think that your job is an easy one that anyone can do and be slotted into.

It's the same with public libraries - I know workers who've had to deal with utterly useless or unsuitable people there. Higher management think that all they do all day is sit at desks and sip cups of tea whilst talking about their favourite books with the public.