Holiday camps cancelled- what are key workers supposed to do?

[Dishwashersaurous]

My children’s holiday camp provider has just emailed to say that despite thinking that they were going to run, they have been told by department for education that they cannot run.
I booked these days in September.

I understand that if dfe say that they cannot run then they cannot.

But my aibu is what am I , and millions of other parents, supposed to ?

We’ve been just about coping but I was clinging on to the summer camps to enable us both to work normally.

Grandparents are not legally allowed in the house.
No where is open.
I can’t take anymore leave/ unpaid leave etc, nor can my husband as it’s been used up in the crisis so far.

[Russell19]

@Paddingtonthebear not holiday clubs specifically but it has been said today that family and friends can look after children. Obviously no help to people who don't have support but helpful to lots.

[Nquartz]

@Paddingtonthebear one of our local clubs thinks they'll be able to open from 4 July (so Monday 6) and another is assuming they'll be open over the holidays as planned

[Rainycloudyday]

I’m sure it’s been suggested but is banding together with other parents an option? Three families rotating childcare would be 1/3 of the time off? Obv not ideal but no different to the bubbles in schools and nurseries in my opinion. And significantly better than giving in notice.

For those with actually no option and employer turns down unpaid leave, would it be better not to hand in notice but keep a paper trail of all attempts to get unpaid leave/parental leave and then if sacked for not coming in, take legal action for discrimination/constructive dismissal or similar?

[Xenia]

Employment lawyers are going to be very busy. Generally it is not unfair dismissal if someone cannot work because they have a child or elderly parent or spouse to loo after other than their tights to ask for unpaid brief leave for emergencies. If Jane has lots of savings so she can hire an expensive daily nanny or childminder over the summer but Mary has always spent any spare money on holidays and gin and cannot and you sick Mary not Jane is that fair or unfair assuming Jane can work all summer and Mary cannot?

[Paddingtonthebear]

@Nquartz yes several here are saying the local council have said they can open so they are taking bookings for the school holiday but they haven’t actually got any go ahead from the government to do anything yet

[LizziesTwin]

My daughter was hoping to work at camps at Easter & in the summer. She was interviewed in February and applied for her DBS, had a day of virtual training in March. There will be young adults wanting to work.

[Littlebelina]

BBC live feed at 14.49 has Boris saying formal childcare and wrap around care can restart over the summer which I assuming means holiday clubs although not seen this elsewhere. Ours is taking bookings (not payment yet) and reckons guidance will come in the next week or so. Either way it's come too late for many providers who have already decided it's not possible

[lyralalala]

@Littlebelina

BBC live feed at 14.49 has Boris saying formal childcare and wrap around care can restart over the summer which I assuming means holiday clubs although not seen this elsewhere. Ours is taking bookings (not payment yet) and reckons guidance will come in the next week or so. Either way it's come too late for many providers who have already decided it's not possible

It's too late for us to open now. I couldn't order equipment and activities, and especially food, without knowing if we'd run. Now there's no way I could get it all in place, even if I could get the staffing in place

Also, I wouldn't be prepared to rely on the guidance because the guidance to schools has chopped and changed so much. If they keep chopping and changing for childcare I could have pull places at the last minute and the damage done to the reputation could take years to repair. We're getting comments from people about our early decision to not open, but the group that took bookings and payments over a month ago and then announced on Friday they wouldn't be operation will likely never recover because people are furious

[Littlebelina]

I can understand why you've come to that decision lyra, the lack of forward thinking from the government on this (and schools) has been appalling with guidance slow to appear, not appearing at all or being changed constantly. The summer holidays aren't a new thing and should have been planned for.

Still hoping ours will open as part of a nursery so use staff/ resources from there but still half expecting it to be called off. As I said they've not taken cash yet so won't have lost anything as don't have any easy alternatives

[Mumkins42]

I think it's fair to say the 'rules' have descended into farce. If you and parents are happy I would just go ahead and use their support. I really feel for you with work, it's so unrealistic. I'm currently recovering from serious illness and have been home schooling since March. The thought of no school, no structure and managing a challenging, bored, defiant child bouncing off the walls every day for 3 more months with little respite makes me feel quite miserable. There will be plenty feeling overwhelmed for many reasons right now

[lyralalala]

@Littlebelina

I can understand why you've come to that decision lyra, the lack of forward thinking from the government on this (and schools) has been appalling with guidance slow to appear, not appearing at all or being changed constantly. The summer holidays aren't a new thing and should have been planned for.

Still hoping ours will open as part of a nursery so use staff/ resources from there but still half expecting it to be called off. As I said they've not taken cash yet so won't have lost anything as don't have any easy alternatives

We had three plans ready since Easter. One that allowed us to open to all kids, one that allowed us to open to some kids and one that would have allowed us to open for the Keyworker bubbles at least.

All they needed to do was give people sensible options in good time, but so many places (especially any who get any sort of funding - we had bought everything in for Easter and still don't know what the funders will do about the fact we didn't run) won't be able to do last minute prep.

[Xenia]

I argued from lockdown that most nurseries could stay open and then if someone challenged if the jsutice system worker was the right kind of lawyer to be entitled to a place etc they could deal with that at the time as it was unlikely the army would be sent into nurseries to decide if little Johnny's father worked as a super market delivery driver or "just" a beauty worker.

The same could probably apply to holiday clubs BUT the problem might be as we have not yet legislated to stop CV19 legal actions that an employee or parent might sue the club and the club's insurance not pay out, if people caught it from there if the opened and guidance was unclear.

[Paddingtonthebear]

Holiday childcare guidelines released today but seem rather unclear

www.facebook.com/114591595252973/posts/3366319430080157/?d=n

[Paddingtonthebear]

Guidelines on gov website

www.gov.uk/government/publications/protective-measures-for-holiday-or-after-school-clubs-and-other-out-of-school-settings-for-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/protective-measures-for-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak

[Paddingtonthebear]

Confusion over what “small, consistent” groups mean and whether children will need to attend holiday childcare every day and stay in the same groups throughout

[drspouse]

Well the holiday club at DD school has told us they cant' take DS so we are booking them both into the little club in a little clubhouse in the woods that he's loved before! And they will indeed be in all day every day (they have themed weeks so they tend to miss out if they don't go, but the days aren't that long).

[Xenia]

Thanks for the guidance - what a muddle! For a start a lot of private schools start holiday clubs or allow premises to be used for them when private schools break up - 2 weeks before state schools yet this guidance very unhelpfully suggests complex rules for that period. Also a lot of it is ideally you do XYZ so not perhaps plenty as long as people are sensible can be ignored.

[HotFlower26]

Dd17 has Drb for football coaching. Has done work experience for a local primary so has Drb there too. Desperate for some summer work but we don’t know anyone needing help with childcare and wouldn’t know how to go about advertising her services to babysit

[drspouse]

Has he tried childcare.co.uk? They charge and are frankly a bit useless but they are widely used.

[lyralalala]

The guidance is as clear as mud. Groups still don’t know what they can and can’t do accurately

[Isthisfinallyit]

Can you find 4 other families and each take care of all the kids for a week on rotation? With a bit of luck if there are two parents they can each take three days off.

[Londonmummy66]

My teenage DC have been touting for childcare business over the summer as all the activities that they had planned have also been cancelled. I imagine that you could find some year 11/12/13 around who would be glad of the work?

[LizziesTwin]

One of the company’s my daughter was offered work by has asked her if she’s still available. She is and is quite excited.

[LizziesTwin]

Ugh companies. Why can’t I edit?