To think children's centre management are a bit lazy.

[Welikebeingcosy]

All last year I kept asking the children's centres when they would reopen when the restrictions were all lifted and they kept saying they hadn't been told anything and that it could be September and then it could be January. But they never opened despite groups being given permission to reopen (we were in tier one here). I mentioned to them that they were allowed to run groups under the rules and they were like 'oh we haven't seen that, we will have a look'.
I thought I'd try and ask them again seeing as the roadmap has been released.
The woman just told me 'we haven't been given a date'. But the WHOLE country has been given a date. And the rules even state that indoor children's groups can reopen from next week up to fifteen people (not including under five's). So why are they just sitting there waiting for Boris Johnson to call them up personally and tell them to reopen or are they using it as an excuse for a nice long holiday? I even had my MP chasing it last summer and they told him they're providing support online so are fulfilling the need.
Rant over. Just drives me mad that they get away with it.

@Welikebeingcosy

You'd think if they'd have nothing to do all year other than click share on the odd Facebook status they'd have had time to get ahead with the risk assessments by now.

Haha ours are all the same here too. Occasionally I see them share posts on Facebook so that gave me a right laugh . They've been closed the entire time, even when lots of private and church-run playgroups where open whenever allowed. It's a total joke. I'm so glad some of the churched have continued to provide low cost support groups for young families because there's been nothing from the council at all for over a year, it's a total disgrace for a system that is funded by the tax payer.

They probably couldn’t face the risk assessment involved.

Yeah and they had the cheek to put our council tax bill up by 5 percent during a pendemic....for a cut in services !

The session DD attended / attends is run by council staff but in a leisure centre, using the badminton court. The leisure centre are using that space to make additional studio space for spinning etc. sessions, so even if they wanted to run it, the space hasn't been released for general public use by the toddler group and, well, people who want to book to play badminton. I'm just hoping that the staff who ran it are still on the roll as they were wonderful and really involved the children of a range of ages, and kept the baby area free of roaming mobile toddlers with toy buggies etc.

We've had the same with after school care/holiday clubs locally. Many have noted the expected dates and had everything set up and ready to roll as soon as it was officially announced. Others have sat there waiting before they even gave it a moment's though so have been completely unprepared and working parents left unsure if their dc have a space for the Easter holidays or not just a day before they started.

@TrainWhistleChoir are you in Swiss Cottage? It sounds like my old leisure centre. We moved up north and I still miss it. Great place.

@ineedaholidaynow a toilet cleaner probably couldn't face cleaning up crap off the floor but they still do it, because that's what they're paid for...

@MeadowHay with those Facebook statuses I don't think they've realised that no one has checked them for half-hearted instructions on painting eggs since about week three.

Ours (in normal times) still have classes and groups running though the summer too.

Our local children’s centre has been used for other activities such as midwife and health visitor clinics to reduce the number of people having to go to hospitals/gp surgeries to help with social distancing so aren’t opening till September. Is it possible that yours is being used for this?

@F1rstt1imer they've always run that service from there regardless on a set day. Just with reduced activities at the one which runs it.
I'm talking about every children's centre in the whole county being kept closed.

I do love a kick the public services thread. Maybe all the experts on this thread on the risk assessment of delivering face to face services to potentially vulnerable people with no additional staff or funding and probably without vaccinations for staff, should pop down to their local council and offer their services for free to help out?

I think that there is enormous hesitancy and fear really, plus issues around staffing in some places (esp if volunteer led), concerns about risk, possibly concerns about what measures to put in place to facilitate the classes such as screens, hand sanitiser, cleaning schedule for equipment.

My favourite thing with DD was a no-frills rhyme time session in the local (volunteer run) library, led by 2-3 retired primary teachers. I'm vaguely aware of their bureaucracy / management planning and they simply cannot get their heads around how to open safely.

But the workers aren’t doing it for free are they? They would be being paid Every private group starting back up next week will have done a risk assessment. So why not the children’s centres??

@newyorker74

I do love a kick the public services thread. Maybe all the experts on this thread on the risk assessment of delivering face to face services to potentially vulnerable people with no additional staff or funding and probably without vaccinations for staff, should pop down to their local council and offer their services for free to help out?

This. And a letter to Boris to highlight the discontent.

In fact if someone wants to give me a job I’d happily run children’s classes from next week!

We're not talking about vulnerable people though we're talking about mums mostly in their teens 20s 30s and 40s with small children. If every other organisation in the area can do it, why are the council staff so incompetent to use the creative brains they were chosen for the job with?

[quote Welikebeingcosy]@ParadiseLaundry so is it the council who has the final say on children's centres?[/quote]
No, it’s the woman who answers the phone every time you ring up and ask them when they’re opening. 🤷🏼‍♀️

@Poppercot

But the workers aren’t doing it for free are they? They would be being paid Every private group starting back up next week will have done a risk assessment. So why not the children’s centres??

Not everything is opening up as per pre Covid. Many pubs and restaurants aren’t because they can’t facilitate outdoor service. ,abbé the children’s centre the OP is ranting on about are in the same position?

I've done almost the exact same job as the children's centres do on a campsite abroad complete with risk assessments, and I could manage it.

I do love a kick the public services thread. Maybe all the experts on this thread on the risk assessment of delivering face to face services to potentially vulnerable people with no additional staff or funding and probably without vaccinations for staff, should pop down to their local council and offer their services for free to help out

But why? Someone/people are being paid a not insignificant amount of money to be the ones that sit in their (home) office and (not) organise/coordinate this

The point is that pubs and restaurants may not be able to open yet because they have no outdoor space. Children’s centres are allowed to hold indoor classes. But are seemingly choosing not to.

YAB massively U. Firstly, if they’re a Children’s Centre then the staff shouldn’t have been furloughed as you’re not able to furlough local authority staff.

Secondly, the staff can’t make unilateral decisions . There are 5 million layers of unnecessary middle management employed by the council, and they are the ones who decide when they can reopen and what services they can offer.

Thirdly, not sure what the staff being in their 20s has to do with anything - can people of this age not be clinically vulnerable or have health conditions?

Hence the title 'management'.

Oh my bad yeah in a sample of 20 something year olds the probability of most of them having clinical health problems is quite high hence why Sainsbury's have had to stay shut the entire year due to staffing issues... 🙄

@newyorker74

I do love a kick the public services thread. Maybe all the experts on this thread on the risk assessment of delivering face to face services to potentially vulnerable people with no additional staff or funding and probably without vaccinations for staff, should pop down to their local council and offer their services for free to help out?

The staff in our children's centres are paid. I'm sure plenty of people offer their services for the pay that those staff are receiving and actually do the work they were employed to do. They're not run by volunteers. Plus I'd be interested to know why volunteer-run church playgroups have been able to operate without issue for months now, but services with paid staff members and taxpayer-funded resources are unable to do so? It's tiresome on MN whenever anyone criticises anything related to the public sector someone has to pipe up calling it a 'bashing' thread. We are perfectly entitled to criticize the total lack of service provision in this area, it's not good enough and causes real harm to vulnerable people who are no longer able to access support. Thankfully our area has finally had some consistent provision over the last few months due to volunteer-run church groups who have stepped in to try and fill some of the gaps. Odd how they're perfectly able to do this but paid staff aren't.

My gripe is with the people making the decisions to be clear, not the woman in the front desk. Someone is choosing to keep the children’s centres closed when classes are allowed to run. Someone rightly pointed out the staff aren’t furloughed so this is a complete waste of taxpayers money having staff being paid and no services provided.