One key worker, child should stay home

[Areyouactuallyseriousrightnow]

Not sure if there has already been a thread but AIBU to think that if only one parent is key worker and other is WFH, child should be staying home as school provision is for key workers who cannot complete their important role if they have to look after child at home, not so that the other parent can continue with work without interruption?

My partner is a key worker, but I don’t consider us eligible as I am home and therefore technically can be with the children.

YABU- if there’s one key worker take that opportunity to send the child in.
YANBU- if there’s another parent at home, child should stay home.

@Mnusernc - yep that’s the attitude that will take this fiasco further.

@CakeQueen87 - yes you are correct, that’s exactly how it is intended. Yet cue the steady stream of one-parent kw families, where their jobs are just so impossible to manage with their school-age children nearby. Because everyone else who does not have a KW partner, has jobs that are a piece of tidy cake by comparison. Quite a few teachers I know, are complaining about the pressure on schools now. We are governors at two schools, and one school has just announced that requests are still rolling in...from people who ARE deserving, but missed the boat, because they were in theatre or pulling teeth. Parents at home are complaining, because they’ve now caught wind of the fact, that the 60% of their child’s class in school, are actually getting taught and supported, while they are sticking their kids in a room, and shutting the door for six hours! It’s a complete and utter farce, and is completely driven by those parents who have used this badly planned provision, to suit themselves. To hell with the rest. I hope everyone who feels the same, is writing to their MPs. Our school HTs are already taking this up, so I hope they put a stop to this madness soon.

@Schoolmummmy
Do you think your MP is the best person to write to about this? Is there anyone else who I can contact to express my concerns as a parent? I was wondering about the NEU
Someone needs to take action against this. It is absolutely ridiculous

@Mnusernc yes it is unethical. How can you not see that? We are supposed to be doing everything we can to reduce numbers and therefore reduce the spread!!! If 70% of people access the school places what’s the fucking point in being shut.
If you have other options you absolutely should not be assessing a school place just to make your life easier.

@Schoolmummmy one of the mums who has a child in DDs class is an NHS support worker. They own property so her husband doesn’t work. Her 3 DC are using KW places and other children have had to be turned away because the school is at full capacity. One mum put the WhatsApp she has had to hand in her notice before she was fired as without the school place she can’t work.

As a primary school governor we have now received numerous emails from parents complaining they haven’t got a kw place.

We are continuing to support the headteachers decision that both parents must be kw or one kw for single parent families. There isn’t the staffing to take anymore in any area where most families have two working parents.

@CakeQueen87 - I emailed our local MP and our country NEU secretary, and have already had a very supportive response from both. In fact the NEU have now already raised it at LA level.
You will also not be surprised to hear, that the MP has already been inundated with similar complaint - from teachers and parents alike. Hopefully this fiasco will be stamped out soon.

@Butteredtoast55

One of our parents (an A and E nurse) emailed today to say she really needed her places because her DH had 'made it clear he doesn't intend to help the children as he's got things to do'. He's unemployed.

I hope she shows her 'd'H the door then, useless fecker.

@Schoolmummmy
That's helpful thank you. I've never written a letter to my MP before but something needs to be done about this

WFH means working- not swanning off doing childcare and home schooling.

@Heartlantern2 - yes, but that applies to everyone who is wfh. Whether they have a ‘key-worker’ partner or not. Many of my friend’s husbands do the exact same job as mine...in fact in this affluent Home Counties suburb..it’s probably the most popular sector of work. But they have charmed the category that’s as broad as the hills, to include themselves. Because quite simply..they don’t want their kids to be at home.

My colleague has two primary age DC’s. She is working from home full time as is her DH. Both have full on jobs with lots of risk if their work is wrong, lots of phone and zoom calls.
They don’t qualify for a kw place nor do they want to add to the teachers or their families risk.
Why do others feel they should have a kw place in the same circumstances?

The assumption that the key worker’s partner can drop everything to look after children is ridiculous. They are key workers because we need them to work and therefore schools need to facilitate them doing so. Many nurses won’t be the breadwinner in their family and if schools take a hard line, insisting that if there is someone else at home then children can’t be at school, key workers will have to leave their jobs. How does that help us?

The assumption that the key worker’s partner can drop everything to look after children is ridiculous. They are key workers because we need them to work and therefore schools need to facilitate them doing so. Many nurses won’t be the breadwinner in their family and if schools take a hard line, insisting that if there is someone else at home then children can’t be at school, key workers will have to leave their jobs. How does that help us?

Exactly!

Do we want nurses, paramedics, healthcare assistants and other lower paid medics walking out of their jobs? Taking big chunks of leave in a pandemic?

Because that’s what will happen if keyworkers are denied school places, based on the assumption their partner can home school and support the family financially. NHS workers will just leave so they can home school their kids!

Male or female, many partners of keyworkers are the main earner in the family and have jobs incompatible with home schooling. Who is going to risk losing their job, home, ability to provide for their kids?

@Llamadog - “ The assumption that the key worker’s partner can drop everything to look after children is ridiculous”

But the non ‘key-worker’ partners can???

What utter blinkered bias in defence of this preposterous behaviour keeps getting doled out on here...no wonder we have the situation we have. People are selfish and think their situation is superior to others.
Our MP has acknowledged that the wording of the key-worker guidance, is being used beyond the remit of how it was intended. On a massive scale, and they are in liaison with various LA’s and educational advisors, as to how they can remedy this. Yet another problem to heap on the educational professionals and local authorities and indeed the educational unions themselves..because people just can’t help taking the piss. Enough said!

In some jobs you just can’t wfh and do childcare without it either being child abuse or doing the job wrong and killing someone

We’re a dual key worker family so asked to get a place but might not as my DH wfh. I’m a hospital junior doctor and my husband is a psychiatrist. My husband can wfh doing telephone apts (and has been asked to by his trust as they don’t have enough offices to socially distanced staff if they come in) but also gets called out at short notice to do mental health act assessments and even if not he is talking to really mentally unwell patient on the phone. He can’t do this and homeschool the four year old. He can’t take the four year old with him to section people, and if he delays going out to section people until I’m back from work then people may well commit suicide or harm others while they wait. He is the only psychiatrist for the county when on call. When not on call how can he talk to people about their delusions and worrying mental health conditions with the four year old doing worksheets next to him?. How can people on here be advocating our dd is exposed to this? What about his patients don’t they deserve confidentiality and my dhs full attention? He’s the bigger earner so if we don’t get a place (still waiting to hear) then I will have to quit so that’s one less junior doctor on the covid ward!

@Toomuchtodo21 nobody is advocating that. If your DH is on call and therefore sometimes works out of home, and therefore cannot consistently care for your child at home, and you always work out of home, and you’re both KW, of course you need and should be taking up a school place?

@CakeQueen87

Doesn't the guidance from the government say that you should only access education as a key worker, if you have no other option? So I think it is fair to say that anyone who is sending their kids into school when they have another option is being selfish. Although I agree that the guidelines should be much clearer and schools should take a much stronger stance on it.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision

Doesn't seem to specify 'no other option'.

@Schoolmummmy What other people can and can’t do is irrelevant. The government have identified key because as a society we need them to be able to work for the rest of us to stay safe and well.

I honestly don’t think anyone in the world is comparing a KW psychiatrist on call, to a non keyworker in an fully WFH role.

Firstly because the thread is about one KW couples, where the non KW is WFH, and secondly because the school place is for KW couples where the child can’t be cared for at home. Your husbands role is sometimes out of home, and at short notice, so your child can’t be cared for at home.

[quote Schoolmummmy]@Llamadog - “ The assumption that the key worker’s partner can drop everything to look after children is ridiculous”

But the non ‘key-worker’ partners can???

What utter blinkered bias in defence of this preposterous behaviour keeps getting doled out on here...no wonder we have the situation we have. People are selfish and think their situation is superior to others.
Our MP has acknowledged that the wording of the key-worker guidance, is being used beyond the remit of how it was intended. On a massive scale, and they are in liaison with various LA’s and educational advisors, as to how they can remedy this. Yet another problem to heap on the educational professionals and local authorities and indeed the educational unions themselves..because people just can’t help taking the piss. Enough said![/quote]
If one of them has to stay home unpaid it will obviously be the lower earner which could be the keyworker.

This thread keeps coming up with scenarios that are perfectly acceptable...not the scenarios that are being discussed as a contentious issue. I can’t see why a psychiatrist would not be classed as key worker? I’m sure that’s a situation that can easily be addressed with the school. There are many valid situations...that we have previously discussed. Equally with regards to the nurse...who may for instance, have a husband as an accountant (as is the case with one of our school applicants) The kids are 9 and 11. The school granted the place, but equally...why can’t the husband supervise children of that age at home?? I’ve worked from home in that capacity before...it’s perfectly doable.
But NHS workers aside, which incidentally, account for 5% of our total kw place applications..and I do believe any school would take a supportive approach....of those applications, 90% are one kw only. Scanning the list...the VAST majority are wfh roles..in the likes of banking and finance..IT etc. And both parents at home....that is not acceptable when the numbers are simply so high. On top of which, there are now a growing number of complaints from those parents who are hearing that the kids who are in school..are being actively taught & supported in class..while their own kids get the bum deal. It’s not a fair situation..by any stretch of the imagination. It needs to change.

@Schoolmummmy that is depressing on the applications- but I can believe it, it reflects anecdotal experience around me.

I’ve mentioned my husband because the school are saying we might not get a place because he wfh. They know he is a psychiatrist and I’m a hospital dr but their policy is two Kew workers working out the home. So yes schools are saying no. We are trying to see if he can drop the on calls but I’m still not happy with him assessing v unwell people with her listening both because it’s not fair on her to be exposed to such stuff and because patients will get a crummy deal

The other option is I quit work. No furlough available. And I also have to work my notice of a month or work can refer me to the gmc. It’s all really shit.

Final option and one we did last time after the hub school basically neglected her because it wasn’t set up for 3yr olds properly was send her to my parents again but because they live so far away it means we won’t see her for weeks again.

There are no good options and I feel we sacrificed her last time for the “good” of the country and I won’t do that again, so looks like DH will “wfh and homeschool” and hopefully not kill anyone for a month as I work my notice