Nursery workers

[Geneva1994]

I hope when people are saying how risky it is for teachers and to vaccine teachers first, people are also thinking of nursery staff, especially those looking after the babies. My daughter works in a nursery baby room dealing with snot, spit, children sneezing and coughing in their faces, changing nappies, dealing with accidents and sick every day. It’s impossible to social distance as most the children need carrying as they are non mobile and also need comforting.

I don’t see any nursery staff saying they aren’t going to work? Or demanding the vaccine. Yes it’s obviously hard for teachers but any children in primary school are capable of wiping their own arses and blowing their noses.

Unison, who are the largest union representing nursery staff, are also supporting the NEU action for their support staff and early years staff members.

If any nursery workers feel unsafe at work, I would suggest they contact unison and ask for advice about sending in a section 44 letter.

I agree that nursery staff deserve protection and to feel safe at work.

Good luck to everyone starting back today, whether you’re a teacher, nursery practitioner or childminder

@Pugdoglife

I'm not sure why anyone thinks teachers have any support. Basically one teaching union has told it's members not to go to work, what hasn't been reported however is that if those members follow that advice they will face disciplinary action from their employer. Just the same as if a staff member from a nursery didn't turn up to work.

It is an absolute lie that teachers who follow the action will face disciplinaries.

Please don't spread misinformation.

@SansaSnark I don't know much about it in that I haven't done loads of research but one of the other main teaching unions (not the one calling for teachers not to go into work) has sent out an email warning all staff that if they haven't given the headteacher a chance to explain the safety measures in place then this is the case.
In terms of nursery staff I think they're amazing, and so far I have been so grateful that our nursery has stayed open and made life as normal as possible for the little ones!

I am so grateful to the nursery staff that look after my DC. They are so vital to the country.

DH and I regularly have conversations about how brilliant the nursery staff are, and how they deserve to be far better paid! It must be very scary for them at the moment.

@ramblingsonthego We actually did slightly better than budgeted in 2020 due to getting autumn term funding based on autumn 2019, plus furlough payments. We are normally about 30/70 funded/parents in autumn term rising to 60/40 in summer) and given low funding rates the parent fees allow us to just about break even. Most are currently parent payers (I guess because those parents see the benefit of preschool more / need it more so took the risk and/or are less likely to have lost jobs themselves? But also to some extent following our normal autumn term pattern.)

If we only opened to funded places this term we would be in worse situation as would need higher staff to child ratio to make it work practically (eg you could have 20 children and four members of staff but with 10 children you still need three members of staff) and getting lower average fees. But I do think we need to look at furloughing another member of staff and cutting our ratios - we don’t work at the legal minimums as it doesn’t allow us to provide decent care for the children and is stressful for staff and leaves us in a grey area re safeguarding when staff have to leave the room but I’m not sure we have a choice now. Other option is to cut pay but they aren’t exactly well paid now (though higher than minimum).

Also whilst legally we can charge parents who don’t send child, in practice they don’t have to pay until first week of term so just won’t pay. And we can’t sue them or turn them away when/if they do come back as we need their money.

I think my owner/manager has done an amazing job through the pandemic. We stayed open all the way through but she had to deal with insurance companies refusing to help, rules around furlough support changing the Friday before the scheme went live and all kinds of other last minute changes that usually occurred on a Friday evening to be sorted by Monday morning.

We have managed to stay open and have been busy since we were able to reopen fully. Sadly, many nurseries around the same time had to close - some for good - because the financial help and support was so poor. There is no size fits all with nurseries. Some rely more on funded children than others, some have committees running them or charities. Some are part of a school.

My colleague want the best for our children and will be in work today despite their own concerns about vulnerable relatives, school closures etc. We have made it as safe as we can but there is no social distancing with small children and we have to go to work accepting that.

I think we would like to be recognised for the work we do, the risks we take and to be in a priority group for vaccines so that we can protect vulnerable staff members and
our vulnerable family members. I have to stay away from my mum as she has COPD and there is a very real chance I can catch it at work.

Personally though, I love that being at work is a slice of normality. I do get human interaction and cuddles. We’ve been very fortunate so far to have been in a low risk area (although this has now changed) and no cases in the nursery. I’m off this week as my dd tested positive from her NHS job so it arrived in our household anyway but hopefully this will give me a level of immunity at work until we can get vaccines.

@gymbummy You have no idea how much a card with some heartfelt words would mean to them. We love a wee note or email!

Spreading lies?! It's an absolute fact.

I'm sick and tired of the misinformation spread about teachers throughout this whole pandemic.

None of us should have to face unsafe working conditions, with children of any age, the constant mud slinging at teachers is draining and it's not necessary. Nursery/early years do not get better conditions by making ours worse or implying we should just put up with risks that could easily be reduced.

Looks like nursery workers have been forgotten about again

In Scotland many nurseries have had to close due to only accepting keyworker children or vulnerable children, due to this I’ve lost my job.

I’d give anything to be going back to work tomorrow as normal! 😢 we had been working in small bubbles of 8 children and had no covid cases.