Nursery Isolation Periods

[Vergingontheridiculous]

DD is 14 months old. Being an original lockdown baby, she didn't come into contact with many bugs until she started at nursery at 11 months (so I could go back to work). As a result she is now catching everything going, and is getting a cold/sniffle/cough seemingly every other week.

Nursery has a policy of sending her home if her temperature goes over 38 degrees, and getting a covid test.

The big issue we're having (aside from the frequency at which she's being sent home) is that they refuse to take her back until she has been a clear 48 hours without a temperature. This means that every time she has any kind of short-lived temperature spike for any reason, she is excluded from nursery for 2 days after she becomes well again. This is the case even where she has had a negative covid test, and even where the likely cause is something else (e.g. post jabs).

We are therefore having to take multiple days off every couple of weeks when DD is actually well, and has tested negative for covid. We are being charged full fees for every day they refuse to take her.

I understand that there have to be policies in place to protect children and staff from exposure to covid, but I cannot see how this achieves that, given that we know DD does not have it following a test, and when she is clearly well again.

Is this a normal policy, or is our nursery being unreasonable? Are they unreasonable to charge in full for the multiple days that they are refusing to provide childcare, when I or DH have to take a day of leave to look after her? Or am I being unreasonable in expecting them to fulfill their obligations when we have a confirmed negative result and DD no longer has a temperature?

(FWIW we pay over £1,000 a month for the service).

This has been policy at the nursery we've used for years. Think it's to partly stop the children getting sent home with a temp on Monday and parents dosing them up with Calpol on Tuesday and still sending them in when poorly. Happens more than you think.

Aw dear op. I know it's shit when you see your money going down the drain but it is a short lived thing. When my son started nursery last August he had a new cold every week basically. The thing that seemed to give him a rest from it and we saw a turning point was at the Christmas 2 week break. It gave him a chance to fully recover and then when they went back it was only for essential and key worker children so he had less bugs to contend with. Once the rest of the children came back he has now had one or two colds but nothing like it was back in the first four months.

So I'm basically saying,. I feel your pain. It is costly, it's frustrating and it's annoying. But it will get better!

That sounds a bit over the top, surely if baby is well and has a negative covid test they should be allowed back. I think fair enough if they have a temperature you have to take them for a test and still be charged for that time, but I would be very angry at having to pay for days after he results are back if it's negative.

Although I have to say my nursery do keep the children and don't send them home if they can help It. Sometimes then being there distracts them. They give the children calpol if required and we don't have to wait any days to send him back in if he has been unwell. Seems like this is not as common though!

They are not making £30 per bet of staff each hour
Apart from the member of staff who needs paying out of that they also have to pay staff not in ratio eg the manager, the cleaner, the cook, the lunchtime cover, the area manager, the admin person, the staff at head office, the handy man, the gardener, to name but a few

My point is that I don't see who they are supposedly protecting if she no longer has a temperature, and has tested negative for covid. She's only getting ill from nursery anyway, as we don't go anywhere else, so if it's a protective policy it's not been working for us.

@Vergingontheridiculous what was happening at my daughter's nursery before they brought this rule in was their child was being sent home on Monday with a temp, the parent would give their child calpol on Tuesday so they didn't have a temp when they sent them in, only for the child to feel unwell again by lunchtime so not better and continuing to spread whatever bug they have. For our nursery it was absolutely nothing to do with Covid, just parents taking the piss.

This was the policy for my eldest's nursery .... She's 15. It won't happen for long.

OP you sound so precious and entitled. I don’t think nursery is for you, a private nanny would be a better option for you so you can make sure they don’t make too much profit and look after your ill child.

@brazilianut I'm not sure why you felt the need to resort to name calling. In MN terms, "did you mean to be so rude?".

If I could afford a private nanny, obviously I'd take that option. Wouldn't anyone?

I'm frustrated by the fact that the policy as it stands, and which has been described as a covid policy, prevents me from using a service that I'm paying a large proportion of my income for, despite the fact that my DD has been confirmed as covid negative. Is there any evidence that keeping a child out of a nursery setting prevents the spread of other infections?

*once they no longer have a temperature and are feeling well again, obviously. Trying to do 2 things at once.

Yabu. My dc2's nursery asked me to keep him off for 4 weeks when he had chicken pox. 2 weeks quarantine while dc1 had it and then 2 weeks while dc2 had it. There were a lot of vulnerable children at the nursery. Now I have a vulnerable child and I'm glad these rules exist. A vomiting bug can make one of my child's existing conditions worse for months. My child has also had to miss an important medical appointment thanks to his school bubble bursting when people weren't following the covid rules.

Lots of people have told you that this is not necessarily a covid policy but a standard nursery policy.

Its not normal for a child to regularly be getting a high temperature

@Vergingontheridiculous of course keeping a child who is unwell will reduce the spread of illness. There are so many causes of temperatures and many of them infectious. Could be any number of things.

@dishwashersaurous the nursery have said that it's a covid policy.

The doctor has seen DD, and didn't seem surprised that she has had frequent, short-lived temperatures above 38. She didn't used to get them before starting nursery though. And she has only ever once measured over 38 when she's been at home. Maybe they have very sensitive thermometers.

I think you should consider the bigger picture. Even though a child is off ill overheads for the nursery continue. Under safeguarding adult child ratios have to be in place to keep children safe, so staff can't be sent home just because one child is ill.( as it would leave three others without an adult).
If no one pays when children are off, the nursery goes bust and you are left with no care at all.

Imagine there was a child in your child's nursery class who kept being sent in with sickness bugs and spreading them to all the other children, resulting in all the other children being home sick from nursery. Can't you see how that would be worse?

48 hours from sickness, diarrhea or temperature is not a covid policy. It's a general infection control policy and you'd better get used to it, because it applies all through school too.

I can tell you've never run a business if you think the only thing your nursery fees pay for is staff wages. Premises rent, power, internet, admin, cleaning, sick pay, mat pay, marketing and so much more is covered under your £x per hour calculation. I don't know how nurseries do it, to be honest.

48 hours off after fever, sickness or diarrhoea is a normal childcare policy.

It's also required at the moment as a covid measure.

Send your child to a childminder. Fewer contacts mean less illness.

Our nursery is the same, for sickness bugs they have to be clear 48hrs before they are allowed back in and I think high temperatures are either 24 or 48 hrs. Even before covid it was standard protocol

It’s batshit.
Fortunately for us our nursery have a COVID policy that is sensible and each child is taken on an individual basis - ie. if they have had immunisations in the last few days it’s taken into account. The temp needs to be “ongoing” as they describe it, so in practice they taken it hourly if they think a child is unwell and make a decision from there.
Please ignore all those shouting at you about “they need to run a business”. Yes, they are. And they continue to do that if you child is in or out. Ours (south east) is £1335 a month for 4 days. And that’s for nothing special, and comparable to all other options in the area. It’s criminal how much they charge, but actually the gov funding is so crap it just pushes prices up and up.
If they are reducing their staff numbers for the 48 hours I wouldn’t send my child there, it’s just so unpredictable and not right for the staff - or the children. There’s bags of training that can be done to fill the voids and actually staff sickness/ holiday etc to cover.

4 days a week just to clarify.

Standard policy for most schools and childcare, ditto sickness. It's why it's hard to work with little ones I'm afraid

The nursery’s policy can’t be working if your DD is catching bugs all the time. There must be DC still attending who are spreading their germs.

if she's not measuring 38 at home, then i suggest that you take your thermometer with you when they ask you to pick her up and test her.

£1335 for 4 days?
Bloody hell. I had no idea childcare was so expensive .

@dishwashersaurous they would have given her Calpol by the time I picked her up, so I'm not sure that would help.

In any event, as I've said, I don't have a problem with bringing her home when she's ill. It's the 48 hours of being perfectly well before she's allowed back (and which has been stated by the nursery as being specifically to avoid covid risks, it is not in their standard terms (it is for D&V)) and the fact that we are charged full fees for that time that I think is unreasonable, and unfair on parents who use the service in order that they can work.

As a PP stated, the CMA have issued advice last year against childcare providers charging full fees when covid has prevented attendance. I'm certainly not the only one who considers the charging of full fees to be unfair. Nurseries are businesses, and should shoulder the risks of compulsory non-attendance, not consumers.

I started the thread because I wanted to know whether our nursery was an outlier in terms of the 48 hour policy. It appears that lots (but by no means all) have similar policies. I would prefer a more common sense approach, but obviously I'm limited by what the available nurseries offer.

I am surprised by how many people seem willing to pay full fees for a service they are being denied. I can't imagine that all the posters above would be so happy by all businesses taking a similar approach.