Nursery e-mails me 5 pm...

[Friendshipissue]

To announce that they are closing the room DS is attending with immediate effect. No advance notice or indication. Just a brief note about staffing challenges, recruitment issues and how sorry they are.
I'm really sorry childcare providers are struggling I really am because of the shitty circumstances they are left in.
I don't know what to expect from this thread apart from getting it off my chest. I wish we had a bit more notice to at least to get into waiting lists, organize our meetings with DH, cancel our medical appointments etc.

They will be sent home. If anyone thinks “I didn’t get the email” is going to magic provision they’re deluded.

Our Nursery burnt down one night. A large (private), well run nursery, with lots of kids and a fantastic reputation - the manager was lovely. Was arson - Fuckers.

The scramble for alternative child care was horrendous. Ended up at a horrible place - felt bad leaving DS there but had no option - had to work. Fortunately it wasn't for very long.

Advice - get on the phone and get ringing around as there are not normally many nurseries running with a load of spare capacity - and the nurseries will only hold a place with a large deposit.

What a nightmare! Hope you find something else without too much trouble. In our area that would be impossible 😫.

Our nursery keeps having repeated room closures for those exact reasons - if someone is sick, they don't have the ratios so they legally cannot open.

They sent an email last week apologising and saying that they are doing their best to recruit, but the reality is that the supermarkets pay more. So why would you go through the stress of having to deal with the legalities/safeguarding/training when you could earn more in the local shop? Especially as the career progression/earning potential doesn't increase.

It's great that minimum wage has increased in recent years, but the reality is that when the unskilled jobs start to pay more than skilled jobs, it's basic logic that those skilled jobs will suddenly become very difficult to recruit for

Government urgently needs to get a grip on this- the shortage of childcare will impact significantly on the wider economy and make inflation worse (parents having to pay more for limited childcare spaces) and impact productivity (parents not being able to work effectively

Would be nice if they cared about the moral and social aspect of high quality childcare and early years learning but economics seems to be the only thing they care about (and that's not going well either)

Oh how awful OP, that must be so stressful.

I guess you're working the phones this morning, but if you have time when things calm down please consider contacting your MP. The early years sector has been treated with contempt over the past decade (at least), and isn't working for any of the stakeholders. Politicians need to be told this time and time again.

I work in nurseries. This will be down to lack of qualified staff as legally, you need a level 3 in each room, then half need to be level 2, the others can be unqualified. Nursery often mixes rooms to resolve this but not always suitable to do so.
Sorry this has happened. When this new funding comes into place, the situation will get even worse. Nobody wants to work in nurseries anymore. The pay is laughable, the hours are ridiculously long and the challenges are endless. Many nurseries are only operating because they are using qualified agency staff to cover the gaps.

We have had this twice, once with DD1’s wraparound care, there were no other providers so we (luckily) rearranged both of our working hours so DH could drop to school and I could pick up. We were so lucky that our employers were sympathetic and flexible.

The other time was DD2’s entire nursery, they had told us they were struggling, but the day the lockdown was announced I went to pick her up and all the staff were crying and her key worker handed me her folder. I asked why and she told me they were closing that day.

The Government keep announcing these “free” places which is great for parents but they don’t pay the nurseries enough to offer the places and pay their staff, it’s shocking.

This happened to my friend and her ds. She's had to take unpaid leave while she waits for a space to come up because the nearest nursery with space on her work days was too far away.

What a shock that must've been . Just another effect of the complete mess the country is in .just hope you can get something suitable.

Oh god, that’s a massive headache for you to manage. I hope your employers recognise it as an emergency and let you have time to sort it out.

Not when its asked in quick rapid fire aggression and they look at you as if you are lying

The industry won't get better.

The government will relax ratios and qualification requirements.

I have seen nurseries that I work in use me as L3 then use cheaper unqualified agency workers from Reed, who do not have a clue about childcare and end up sitting in a corner reading for their whole shift.

There are already talks in the early years about dumbing down qualifications, making it easier to get them and reducing the number of qualified staff needed in each room. All because the government are so dim, they think this will encourage people to work in nurseries. More children per adult who happens to be unqualified/very limited in their training and dumbing down all the training and qualifications, what could possibly go wrong ?

So true, also I havent seen an apprentice in a while. That used to be a way to keep costs down but still have a willing employee who is learning and capable.

The previous nurseries that I tempt in that were snobby and rude have become so accommodating when I have gone back recently, so fake and asking me to join permanently.

Also all of my agency friends have gone on to work permanently somewhere or have left childcare.

I sincerely hope you manage to find equally good provision elsewhere soon.

this scenario is my worst nightmare. Our nursery are like a second family to my kids. The staff are consistent from when my eldest started five years ago, I cannot imagine how stressful it must be to be trying to balance the books running a childcare provision, but it is a very scary prospect.

whilst the “earlier free places” sound great, I desperately wish they would adequately fund the places so the childcare sector can survive.

Hi, OP - setting aside issues around nursery funding (which I agree are atrocious), I have been pretty much exactly where you are. In my case, our childminder suffered a stroke shortly after we collected DS for the day, and was immediately forced to close down.

Clearly, the implications of this were much, much more serious for her family (she has 2 young kids of her own) than they were for us, but I've felt the terror of suddenly having no childcare literally overnight.

My advice - get yourself on the list for whatever local nurseries there are locally, cobble together whatever help you can using annual leave and family until then, and if all else fails, we used https://www.emergencychildcare.co.uk/ to get a place for a couple of weeks. It was a horrible month, but we got through it.

I've been treated terribly in a lot of nurseries. Spoken down to and bossed around etc.
I go to one now quite regularly and it's so stressful. Some of the staff, mainly the unqualified ones are completely out of their depth and always shouting at the kids. Also, they speak to me like they are in charge, no respect.
I'm only doing this while I get sorted with a proper nanny role. The 8-6 shifts, constant nappy changes and stress is just soul destroying.

Some of the Government have interests in the big nursery chains. Rishi Sunak's wife was recently in the news because she had interests in KoruKids - and they were advantaged by the last budget.

Many of the chains are backed by investment companies. It's in their interests that smaller, more independent settings are forced out of business. They don't care that you have unaffordable childcare and limited places. Children are money in the bank so far as they're concerned.

Why else do you think the Government has allowed things to get to this pitch? They've known about it for years.

Ditto

That's such a shock for you OP. Hopefully your work will be understanding given the circumstances.

That’s awful it’s already hard enough on the little ones having to attend nursery all day anyway for them to suddenly lose all that they know. Get a childminder so your child can have a more home from home experience perhaps.

Have you tried getting a childminder lately? There's also a huge shortage and most will have waiting lists, so spaces are filled almost as soon as they become available.