Childcare being removed for key workers

[Mia1415]

My DS has been going to school and his childminder during lockdown.

I was informed yesterday that from 1st June you are only allowed to send children to 1 setting a week (so school or childminder).

Whilst I can understand the logic of not wanting children to mix bubbles I am really annoyed about this as:

• giving key workers 1 weeks notice that they will be loosing childcare isn't really acceptable
• are key workers no longer deemed important?
• It can take up to 14 days to display covid symptoms so allowing 1 week in school, following by a week with a childminder doesn't really prevent anything
• One of the key points of getting children back to schools is so that parents can get back to work. At my school the years that are going back in initially are only doing 2 days a week, so if wraparound care is banned how is that helping people get back to work?
• I can understand this rule a bit more for children that are just returning to school, but not for children that have been going to both throughout lockdown.

(I have emailed my MP and local council about this and I'm awaiting a response).

AIBU?

If they start making things too difficult for parents they will start to make up their own rules / or ignore rules completely.

They won't be able to ignore them though will they? A childminder will refuse to take children who have been in school if they are the rules, they aren't going to risk their registration.

If this is widely brought in do you think schools will extend opening hours for key worker children or will we just all have to quit our jobs without even working a notice period and just starve?

EYFS guidance dropped today 12.30 on a BH weekend...

www.gov.uk/government/publications/preparing-for-the-wider-opening-of-early-years-and-childcare-settings-from-1-june

The government have sold this as a careful return to school not as childcare provision which is what it would have to be if they wanted everyone going to work.

But for key workers school is open as childcare. We were told this would be continuing, which it is, but now suddenly any wrap around care is being stopped.

If this is widely brought in do you think schools will extend opening hours for key worker children or will we just all have to quit our jobs without even working a notice period and just starve?

Exactly. Its ridiculous

@Juanmorebeer our school was providing wraparound and holiday club for keyworker children from 7.30-5.30 (with a normal school day of 8.30-3.30) - as soon as the wider opening was announced they said they were dropping holiday care, no wraparound for anyone from 1st June and school hours reduced to 9-2.45.

This is disgusting Mia key and front line workers have kept our country going.

Schools can't be expected to cater for all the shift work hours that key workers are doing, there has to be something put in place by the parents themselves- they can request furlough for one parent if they can't sort out wraparound care. A key worker family I know have sorted a 'rota' where one parent is working nights and the other is working days so they can do childcare between them.

I've found this paragraph in one of the many pieces of guidance published. This one is related to childcare setting and was updated on 15 May:

4.7 Can childcare practitioners send their children to schools and childcare settings?
Childcare practitioners are critical to the coronavirus response. Critical workers are encouraged to send their children to school or childcare settings.

Maybe councils have seen the word 'or' in that paragraph and acted on it.

This is unfair to keyworker’s families on so many levels - they either choose the childminder full time, in which case the children miss out on yet more education. Or they use the school for whatever part time provision the school decides - and the key worker cannot work. Yet another example of keyworker parents facing impossible choices. Hope you get some responses from the council op. X

If this is right then prepare for key services to be annihilated.

I will probably manage by just using my childminder, but meaning my 2 youngest will miss out on school.

Other option if I take unpaid leave from a significantly struggling maternity unit.

Neither are great options sadly.

This guide does not cover nannies or au pairs, as they work in the child or children’s family home.

They have no clue do they! Of course it affect people like me as I am taking children to/from pre-school and school and I am not a parent of the children. Maybe though it is a way of getting around any school/pre-school that says I can't collect children as the guidance does not apply to me... problem is that it does apply to them. Ahh!

@beesbeesbee of course schools can't cater to all shifts, no one expects them to.
But if schools stop providing wraparound care and refuse to allow other childcare providers to collect children, they create a big problem for critical workers, don't they?

they can request furlough for one parent if they can't sort out wraparound care.

No they can’t. Lots of key workers can’t be furloughed for childcare reasons.

@beesbeesbee

I'm not asking the school to facilitate my working hours. My DS goes to school and then to wrap around care.

My issue is that the wraparound care has been stopped.

I'm a single parent and am well used to juggling childcare and my work. And even if I wasn't only giving one weeks notice that an arrangement that has been working perfectly well for nearly 2 months isn't in my view OK.

Also, you are VERY unlikely to be furloughed if you are a key worker.

I don't think any public sector workers can be furloughed, can they? So that counts out most key workers.

Let us not forget that one of the professions most likely to suffer from lack of wraparound care is primary teachers themselves!

I can't see the NHS furloughing staff due to childcare issues. I can't see the military doing that either, or police, ambulance, fire service etc.

My childminder got the same email - only 1 setting pee week. not a problem for us thankfully (we are in surrey - where are you?wonder if that’s something the councils gave set up)

juan I get your concern but staffing that would be very hard as the same adult is meant to stay with the same children all day : creating separate 'might need extra wraparound care' bubbles simply wouldn't work and would mean very long working days for that one adult, who doesn't seem to have any sort of even toileting break built into the guidelines as it is...

I’m a teacher and my DH works in front line emergency response on shifts so we’re both keyworkers with zero flexibility in hours. Neither of us can be furloughed, neither of us can work from home, neither of us can take any holiday. In normal circumstances we have a carefully balanced combination of breakfast club, ASC and occasional help from grandparents. From June 1st DS will be going to keyworker school that starts 10 minutes before my school day does and finishes 25 minutes earlier. My school is a 25 minute drive away.

I literally have no idea what we are going to
do when I get called back into school.

Furlough not allowed for public sector workers as stated above.

@beesbeesbee what planet do you honestly live on?

Schools can't be expected to cater for all the shift work hours that key workers are doing, there has to be something put in place by the parents themselves- they can request furlough for one parent if they can't sort out wraparound care. A key worker family I know have sorted a 'rota' where one parent is working nights and the other is working days so they can do childcare between them.

This assumes that the shift workers have any say at all about their shift patterns. DH has none-it’s a 24/7/365 shift pattern set a year in advance and 4 out of the 12 people on his rota are unwell or shielding. He’s already working extra shifts at the moment-they can’t accommodate individual circumstances beyond occasional swaps-it’s really tightly staffed.

Funnily enough as a teacher, when I go back I have to teach the kids, you know, when the kids are actually there.

Neither of us are eligible for furlough.

Grandparents normally help out when we are really stuck. They’re shielding.

I was suggesting furlough for the non-key worker if there were a family with two parents, only one who was a key worker.
It's difficult for everybody at the moment and schools aren't going to have enough staff to cover every individual situation are they? Even if they have enough space to double up - my DCs went to a school with only 4 classrooms so they can't fit everybody in as they are normally Reception + yr 1/2, yr 3/4 and yr 5/6.