Changing Nappies in Job Centre Plus/When there are no facilities

[Earlybirdtea]

I went to register for job seekers allowance last week for the first time after just being made redundant. I arrived on time with my seven month old son, my 2 year old is in nursery).

Anyway during my meeting my son's nappy needed changing and there are no changing facilities or even toilets so I popped him on my shawl and quickly changed his wet nappy(Not Poo). If a baby is crying and there are no facilities then as a mother I believe that to be exceptable to change their nappy in the best available place which was on the floor,not the table and I was thinking of the point of view of others around me as if he got uncomfortable then he would have started crying which would have disturbed the other interviewees.

In short, I was told, You can't do that here, I responded saying there are no facilities and was told that this is an office environment, you would have thought that you would have arranged childcare!!!

I have written a letter of complaint and been informed that the lady who approached me was in fact doing her job as a health and safety professional, fair enough and, "there are Public Facilities within 100 yards of our building and in the future we will endeavour to highlight this when appropriate." It was also communicated to me that they encourage customers not to bring children to their interviews.

Am I being unreasonable to think that they should offer changing facilities, even special access/lockable? I really don't like the idea of going down the road to some public toilet block, there may be facilities in there I will have to check.

I also feel that they have no place to tell you that children are not really welcome in this environment, it is certainly not ideal I know. I do not plan to take my son to job interviews and have only just been made redundant.

Should I just back off and except their response, I have other important things to think about I don't plan on having to go there very long or on the other hand should I escalate this within their internal complaints procedure
as this is a bit mother and young baby unfriendly.

I would really appreciate your comments

Honestly if it was me, I would have waited.

Yes in the perfect workd they woukd have everything I believe some do. But Id have changed the baby before we got there. I wouldnt have arrived with a baby in a wet nappy. And in a poo crisis, he'd have had to wait until we were at an appropriate place or Id have set him down on the floor with my hoody on the floor and changing mat ontop, hoody goes into the buggy basket straight into the wash at home. Its not nice but sometimes its desperate times.

YABU.

Sorry, they are right. I know it's hard when you have no one to leave the baby with, but a baby is not an appropriate person to have there.

YABU - when is changing a wet nappy a priority? Either you should have changed it before the interview (if it was getting full and so at risk of leaking) or it could have waited until afterwards.

Explodapoo might be a different case - not sure what I'd do then!

I agree with white trash.

It's not a children's centre, or somewhere children need to go often so i wouldn't expect them to have baby changing facilities.

Well I think that YANBU in that I would expect them to have a toilet with a changing table just like any large place that services the general public. However, I would not have changed my baby on the floor & I'm not surprised she told you not to.

So what if you don't have childcare though? I am genuinely surprised that they aren't more understanding as loads of people must be in your position. If I had a babysitting favour I could use, I'd save it for an interview, not the Jobcentre for a standard appointment.

YANBU to be annoyed by the tone of their response but I would suggest that you don't waste your energy on trying to take this bureaucratic beast to task over it - Jobcentres are horrible places and it will just run you down at a time when you need to focus on your baby & your work situation.

Hope you find a great new job soon.

A wet nappy is hardly an emergency ! Frankly I'm more surprised they don't have a disabled loo but then if there are no facilities it isn't going against equal access. Sorry but agree Jobcentre is no place for children or a baby and taking them along suggests you are n't really available to work.

OP, you have experienced that phenomena that is the JC!

I too had to sign on for the first time a couple of years ago. I arrived 10 minutes before my appointment time, as instructed, yet was seen 50 minutes after my appointment time.

By which time my 3 year old had got a bit bored and was amusing herself by singing and doing a little dance in front of me. I got told to "keep her quiet and still". I did point out that I'd been waiting nearly an hour for my appointment and she was just bored. It didn't go well and they threatened to kick me out ("stop her, or you will be asked to leave" - seriously!)

Welcome to the world of "benefit scumbags" where the staff treat you like a piece of shit for having been made redundant.

How does taking a child to the JC mean you're not available to work? The OP might have had a CM lined up in case of work, but who was not at home during the day (perhaps at activities with her other mindees) and couldn't just drop her child in there for an hour or two.

That was certainly the situation for me!

I couldn't afford to pay to keep the childcare place open whilst I wasn't working, but she was there if I did get a job. That doesn't mean I could just drop my daughter in any time I fancied!

At 7 months the OP's baby is only really just old enough for a nursery or childminder place. Are you suggesting that a recently made redundant (& therefore probably broke) person pays for an extra childcare place for a bog standard Jobcentre appointment?

how on earth should the OP have arranged childcare? There is a small question of paying for it! which presumably she is trying to get a job to be able to do. (Not necessarily the case in your case OP, but in general). We both work FT and only just have some spare cash to fritter away on some childcare when it's not needed, if I wasn't working I'd be very put out to be expected to pay for childcare to attend the job centre.
Oh and the OP could have left her baby with a friend. Without being able to promise when she could pi=ck her up as the JC no doubt kept her waiting for hours.

thank you nomoreheels, x post but you said my rant much more clearly.

:)

Actually, this would get on my wick too. Was there no toilet at all?

I'd write a complaint letter saying that they have statutory responsibility to serve all members of the community. Being baby-unfriendly is just putting up a barrier to mothers accessing their service - no less than a flight of ten steps is a barrier to someone in a wheelchair.

Mothers have been disproportionally affected by recent cuts - and are more likely to need more specialist support getting back in the job market.

I wouldn't necessarily say a GP is a 'children's centre' - but it is well understood that mothers cannot always leave their children.

I really don't like the idea of going down the road to some public toilet block

But that's what the rest of us do.

When I was on IS and had lone parent meetings, the letter always said they could cover the cost of childcare if you preferred to leave children behind.

But still, I think it's silly that they are so anti-baby. I've seen many people attend meetings etc with children. Even if they cover the cost of childcare not everyone will have some available. I thought it was mad to put DS in for an hour just for a meeting so I never bothered. It would be difficult if the meetings were to run over, as well.

I think they probably dont have toilets to prevent them being taken over by drug users (certainly true for one area I know). If I ever needed to change a baby and there were no facilities I used to lie the buggy flat and change them in there with a mat underneath. Prob not ideal for my back but it wasnt often and I did it quickly.

There is no reason why you should have arranged childcare, I would expect you to save your childcare favours (or money) for interviews.

How can you go down the road to a toilet block anyway if you're waiting to see someone? If you missed the appointment surely they wouldn't be happy about that either?

Plus sometimes you have to attend for e.g. a lone parent meeting which doesn't require you to be available for work, but is just a discussion to see what your options are re returning to work.

Comparing to a gp is daft as last time I looked children are service users for a gp practise.

Not everywhere in life has baby changing, especially not places that are aimed at adults. I don't see why people kick up such a fuss about this. Like pp have said you just change in pram or something.

yep agree BB, you vanish off to change the baby, they cancel your appt, you end up waiting another three hours by which time the baby needs another change, feeding ( in front of the job seekers?!) and is probably thoroughly bored and depressed

"Like pp have said you just change in pram or something."

She did, she changed in an "or something". Which apparently caused all the problems

if the government are intent on getting those lazy, workshy, feckless single mums back to work, then they need to put their money where their mouth is. Oh and free pinnies and hair rollers for every married mother.

I can see why they wouldn't see the floor as an appropriate place to change a nappy, especially not just one that is just wet.

Surely if your going somewhere your not 100% sure will have changing facilities you change just before you go out so you would only have to change pooy Nappies unless out for a long time?

Yanbu. It's not like you shunted everything off the desk to change him there. They need to be prepared for this. If they haven't adequate facilities then a little leeway is needed.

but he was on her shawl. I don't see why that is inappropriate.
Genuine question, I do accept I might not agree with the consensus as I did change my DCs' nappies on a mat on the floor, I have come to realise that most people use raised changing tables.

Although I do agree that if you changed him just before you set out you shouldn't need to change again for a while.