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

boffinmum It's a job centre, not softplay.

I'd settle for them being more human friendly. i.e not being so geared towards complete and utter humiliation of people, destroying any fragment of self esteem a person may have left. After all destruction of self esteem only serves to hinder return to work as it comes across in interviews no matter how good your intentions.

Yes,a Job Centre that insists you attend,even if you have to bring your children.
Not to provide adequate facilities is just plain stupid.

And no one is asking for play facilities...just somewhere to take your child for a piss/change nappy.

Presumably if you are claiming job seekers allowance this indicates you are ready and willing to go back into work and can therefore arrange childcare at short notice should a job become available or be asked for interview? Presumably the same etiquette should be applied to attending the job centre, so it's not necessary for them to provide childcare facilities.

Needing to arrange childcare at short notice for job interviews is precisely why people cannot afford to use up favours/ the good will of others for JC interviews.

I don't know anyone who can afford paid for child care until they are successful in getting a job.

Why, is arranging a long term childcare place anything like finding an ad hoc one for a couple of hours once a fortnight when you don't have a wage coming in?

Not going to weigh in on the childcare issue (but agrees that JCP staff aren't geared up to meet needs of most)...

...BUT has anyone mentioned that you should be claiming Income Support rather than JSA? I know they changed the rules so you are now expected to look for work when your child is of school age but with a baby, you can get income support and child tax credit.

What about people visiting the job centre for something other than job seekers, ie income support? They might need to change their baby, and might not be able to leave it with someone else, ie if it is bf.

People on IS do have to go in for LP Advisor sessions. Again,if you have no access to childcare or favours,you have to take your child with you.

Minus - have sent you a PM.

Gallicgirl - it is JSA as Minus's DH has been made redundant and will be seeking employment.

Oh right, been a few years since I worked in benefits and I mistakenly thought she was single mum.

So the DH will claim JSA for the couple, Minus can claim child tax credits. Surprised that Minus also have to have an assessment and is expected to seek work also.

Me too! Minus shouldn't have to as she's on mat leave from a P/T job and due to have a baby any day.

Job center staff are a new breed of rude

ridiculous sweeping statement. somewhat like me saying all JCP customers are work shy malingerers.

When i managed a job centre in a severely deprived area with a huge amount oif inter-generational unemployment, i would not tolerate rudeness from my staff and expected our claimants to behave in a similar manner. an absolute minority of people spat, swore, were racially abusive to my staff and my remit was to protect the health and safety of staff and customers as a whole.

as i said before, if someone was waiting and in desperate need of a toilet, or privacy to change a nappy/breastfeed, I would be only too happy to oblige. it's common sense. If someone who has just been turned down for a crisis loan asks to use the staff toilets, I'd probably go with 'on your bike'

the toilets downstairs in the shopping centre co-located with my job centre had 'blue' lights so people couldn't find their veins to shoot up. my security guards would take plastic bottles of juice off of claimants, because they could be used as a weapon. On the other hand, one of our claimants ran in to the JCP off the street for 'sanctuary' because they were being chased by members of another gang and threatened with being stabbed. My staff would sit on their break and discuss how best to help their claimants, rather than chat about the x factor.

Minus,, I really do hope things work out for you and our family. :) times change & what seems bleak and insurmountable just now can change on a sixpence. please be strong for your wee family, things will get better. :)

Excellent post Snapespeare. I too am sick of JCP staff all being tarred with the same brush. Yes there are some rude, arrogant ones but the vast majority are trying to do their best.

It's a long time since I worked in a benefits office but ours was new, had toilets including a disabled one and a lovely play area with a Wendy house. We had to close the toilets as most days they would be deliberately blocked, used by junkies or someone would stage a dirty protest in there. And the Wendy house went after the third time someone - not a child - had a shit in it. JCP facilities are as they are because the costs of repairing toilets and cleaning bio hazard waste became, I imagine, an expense the government was no longer prepared to tolerate. So don't just berate JCP for not being family friendly or not giving a shit about it's customers, get angry with the dirty, skanky idiots who brought this about.

There are no rude arrogant ones in my workplace.

We all work damn hard to do the best we can for our customers.

I'm sure you do, I still work for the Dept so I know how hard the vast majority of staff work. The point I was making is that JCP is the same as any other organisation, not everyone is as helpful or polite as they could be. I have encountered rude and arrogant staff in the bank, Next, Tesco etc etc.

Bad Customer Service here rightly gets stamped on with huge tackety boots.

But yes, I can only speak for my own workplace

I'd make it clear in your letter, and I do hope you write one, that on JSA you cannot possibly afford child care for two children, so they will have to endure your child being present for the meetings.

Their job is to (allegedly) help you to find work...not to comment on your child care plans.

I probably would have gone to a corner of the room and changed my child on the floor if it was urgent, and to be honest, I wouldn't have cared what they thought about it. I would stress that they shouldn't be commenting on your child care though, it has fuck all to do with them.

Can katie and BoD come and run my local JCP?

Exquisite

No-one would have cared about changing a baby and we are quite happy if parents want to bring along their children . Personally, I love to see the babies. In our place all the frustrated mummies love to coo over them, was the best part of the job when I was a LP adviser.

I have to admit that I've met some lovely people working for Jobcentre plus, but also some very judgemental ones.
But I also think something as simple as toilet facilities should be provided for everybody.
I'm genuinely about the stories I've heard about the mess the unemployed leave. If it's true.
But I do think it's treating the unemployed as the true underclass.
Jeez, they can't even be trusted to use toilets.

I was about the blue lights to stop junkies from seeing their veins. Christ, where on earth do you live?

Lots of public buildings have blue lights to stop people shooting up. Our local shopping centre did until the bulbs went and they decided they were too expensive to replace. The IVDAs always find a way round it sadly.