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

No one is eating food in a jobcentre and the vast majority of restaurants would have somewhere to change a nappy.

They should have facilities available - ridiculous to suggest you should nip off down the road seeing as if you did do that and missed your appointment they would cut your benefits!

Similarly, ridiculous to suggest you should find childcare to go to the Jobcentre. How many unemployed people can find and pay for a childcare space for a few hours fortnightly?

Re restaurants, you have a choice to go to a restaurant, you dont have a choice about going to the job centre!

Obviously half the posters on here have never experienced a pee tsunami from a small child. Would you really leave a baby in a soaking wet nappy? My daughter was certainly capable of soaking through her nappy and into clothes in a surprisingly short time (of course at the most inconvenient times). It was changing a nappy FFS, on the FLOOR. It must have taken 2 minutes. OP YANBU.

The op could have asked, like snape said, I am sure that the staff would have been helpful

I'm sure they wouldn't have been Have you ever met helpful Jobcentre staff? They'd have told her to go down the road.

I had an hour long appointment with them, and in the middle I had to fill in some forms.
I was desperate for the loo, and when I asked was told they didn't provide toilets for the scum for us but I could go the Tescos up the road.
Surely in a massive public environment with people coming in all day for appointments, a public loo should be available?

I guess not all JC staff are as helpful as snape no I haven't been in a JC for years

What a lot of fuss over changing a wet nappy. When they said 'You can't do that here' I would have just said 'Yes, I can, see :)'

I wouldn't class a wet nappy as an emergency, I would just let it leak and wash everything later. But my babies wouldn't have been upset by a wet nappy, maybe the OP's DS is different.

To share a personal experience - I, too, was made redundant when I was on maternity leave. I took my 9 month old and my 2.6 year old to every single appointment for 6 (long!) months.

The job centre staff were very good about it, very accommodating. DD1 needed a wee during my first appointment and they phoned down to the security guard and let us into the disabled toilets.

Just change the nappy on your knee instead of on the floor. Job done, no bother.

I have never been able to change a nappy on my lap - I think I am missing some sort of flexibililty. The staff would've had a lot more to complain about if it had been a pootastrophe, they should be counting themselves lucky! I HATE it when you are made to feel unwelcome and embarassed for doing child-related stuff. Grrr.

Hannah - just because it's child related doesn't make it appropriate. She shouldn't have changed on the floor in an office environment.

OP - YABU. Wet diaper is not an emergency.

I can't help thinking that the responses would be slightly different if the person who was urine soaked wasn't a baby. These places can keep you hanging on for ages, I wouldn't like to be sitting in my own piss all that time. Why shouldn't a baby have a dry nappy when necessary?

I can't believe the number of people saying it's an office environment.
It's a public service and should automatically have toilets available.
It's just another example of the jobless being treated like second class citizens.

can someone please explain why knee changing would have been better?

Why on earth didn't you ask someone? That would seem to be the logical thing to do rather than expose your child to an entire roomful of strangers!

In case there were peeeedos lurking behind a filing cabinet?

Yanbu. Why should your baby have to sit in its own pee for longer than s/he has to? Would it be acceptable to treat an old person this way? Babies vary a lot in their tolerance to wet nappies, maybe the op's baby is more sensitive to them than some. And nappies vary in their comfort when wet, too.

I had this issue at the housing, when i had been waiting with a two year old and one year old for over 2 hours and there were no toilet facilities and no toys, i was told of for reading the leaflets to my kids, and letting them draw on paper, and for them singing etc, and there was no place to change their nappies.

it was a local service centre in which many children attend with their parents, so i changed them on my lap, as i usually do anway.

but i think it is outrageous, if ou want jobseekers to come in to use the search facilities, phones etc, and many of those job seekers are without childcare, as it is unaffordable for those not in work, then you should make it easy for them.

Because it takes up less room, you wont be in anyones way, and will make less of a show of yourself than doing it on the floor?

I didn't have a baby, but did ask them, I was desperate during a 1 hour interview.
I got sent to Tescos, so am totally sympathetic to anyone with small children.
Maybe they do their best to treat their clients as an underclass so they'll not come back again to claim.
After all we're not good enough to have public toilets.
But if it wasn't for the jobseekers the staff would also be unemployed,
Swings and roundabouts, but a bit of respect please.

I am really depressed at some of the comments on this thread. Shame on you Honeypablo. Let's hope you are never made redundant.

You think being told that changing a nappy in a jobcentre plus is unacceptable IBU. Well, when I had my work focussed interview, I had to take my DS3 with me, he was 4mo at the time, my appointment was running over an hour late, and DS3 needed a feed. I got told off for BF'ing DS3 in there, and told I must stop or they would remove me, and if I needed to feed him I should have taken a bottle.

I did quote the equality act 2010 at them, and told them that if they removed me on this basis, I would be contacting a solicitor, and besides, my DS3 was/is EBF - he can't drink from a bottle because of a medical issue, AND I don't have any childcare because I am a lone parent...

Jobcentre Plus offices are the worst place to have to take a child.

my sons nappy at that age could go from bone dry one minute to soaking wet the next minute, i had to change him there and then as he would get painfull nappy rash.

if the government wants to get parents back to work, they need to provide childcare for the parents to be able to attend JS and Job interviews.