Ban male nursery workers?

[BluntPlumHam]

I came across this article which has left me quite sick.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cze665j2y51o.amp

Said 18 year old was newly qualified nursery worker who’d SA’d and raped 3 year olds.

Nurseries are desperate for workers and I have noticed through friends and families that there is now an increasing number of men entering the profession.

Men traditionally haven’t performed this role and I often find it difficult to envisage what attracts a male to this profession to begin with when we have so many instances of men who run away from childcare responsibilities.

Although men entering the profession can be a positive outcome the other very concerning outcome and on the potential rise is this.

Sex offenders will target this profession no doubt as it gives them easy access to children.

men are significantly more likely than women to sexually assault children.
Official statistics consistently show that the vast majority of individuals convicted of, or reported for, child sexual abuse (CSA) are male. For example:

• In the year ending March 2019, the Crime Survey for England and Wales found that 92% of adults who reported experiencing CSA said the perpetrator was male only.
• In 2022/23, almost 99% of individuals convicted of child sexual abuse offences in the UK were men.
• Reports to the Australian Royal Commission by victims and survivors of institutional abuse revealed that 93.9% of the abuse was perpetrated by an adult man.

So just a blanket ban on them all together ?

It isn’t my personal opinion but I do think we ought to have measures in place to make nurseries more secure and safer. This thread is to invite discussion.

Also, kudos to those brave little 3 year olds who had the courage to tell their parents because they’ve saved a lot of potential victims in the future. My thoughts and wishes for a life time of healing for them and theirs.

Sorry I should have been more clear - campaigners are pushing for a ban on male staff in nurseries/creches following the revelation that this pervert had been working in multiple creches for several years with the result that 1,200 babies and toddlers had to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea and chlamydia... - That is simply terrifying for any parent.

The Australian government is dragging its heels for fear of upsetting men instead of placing child safety front and center.
Spot checks are never going to eliminate this type of threat - not hiring men to care for babies and toddlers will.

This is really upsetting.

I would occasionally scratch my skin until in bled in school. I can still remember the Head taking me into his office, calmly chatting to me and putting the cream my mum had given him onto the back of my legs

Honestly I would be livid if a male staff member did this to my young child. Maybe it was completely innocent but … it’s a bit creepy tbh

Not a very good attempt at trolling. Try harder next time.

I work with male nursery staff. There are many children now who grow up without men in their lives and I’ve seen many children respond very positively to the different play and teaching style men have. I see it as a positive and we should encourage more men into the industry. A good nursery shouldn’t allow any staff member to be able to be able to abuse children whether male or female.

Is there a problem with 100% cctv coverage of nurseries? The woman who allowed a baby to be smothered was caught by cctv, that would seem to be the answer to me, not a ban on men, because I'm sure any man genuinely motivated to do early years work is going to be better motivated than a lot of girls who do it because it's what girls do.

Regarding motivation, men who are sexually attracted to children are 3x as likely to work with children as your average man and it is known that the push to attract more men into is being exploited by paedophiles who are using the belief in the importance of male role models to gain jobs in nurseries. They are actively seeking job roles that allow them intimate access to children and there are guides teaching them exactly how to do that.Their motivation is very genuine and extremely disturbing.

As for CCTV it has its place but I fear that CCTV of children receiving personal care could become exploitative too. There are many who would love to get their hands on such footage.

Thank you but we've already been through all that.

It would be an outrageous human rights violation to ban all men from early years work IF cameras would resolve the issue. Hence my question, is there an issue with 100% cctv coverage in a nursery setting?

I answered that too and again if we’ve already been through that then why are you so convinced that men are doing it for “better” reasons than female staff when you’ve apparently read the information. provided about paedophiles actively seeking out roles that allow them access to vulnerable young children?

Lots of children are without male role models. I think more men should be encouraged

I do think that it is regarded as so peculiar for a man to want to work with tiny children by so many people that they have to choose to do it in spite of that. So if you took all the genuine men doing it and all the women doing it, more of the men would have a really strong motivation for choosing it than the women, especially the young women straight from school. So if you could deter the bad eggs from applying (with cctv everywhere?) , then having the men there would have several advantages.

This is true but of the child was never told then there is no harm to a child. There are also easy ways to prevent it or catch it with access logs.

Let's face it, there's never going to be a ban on male staff in nurseries, it would be a human rights violation of all the good men who want to do it, the majority. We need other alternatives.

I might agree with you for school age children where intimate care is not an issue and the children generally verbal. I'm not sure that a nebulous "role model" benefit carriers much weight for infants/preschoolers though. Certainly not to a point where we should actively encourage male involvement where the stats show us this will put some children at risk.

Absolutely.
Just reading this post creeped me out.

And me, both because of the CSA I went through and at the thought of someone doing that with one of my DDs. And yes, maybe it was innocent, but it sounds very much like grooming to me.

No. This is very upsetting.

It was just kindness. Simple as that.

It's sad that people cannot understand than men can be kind. I find the twisted replies here really odd and sad that some women are unable to understand how kind men can be.

I have asked for all of my posts on this to be removed as the replies are very upsetting to me.

My mistake for posting something so personal to me.

I’m really sorry for upsetting you. It honestly isn’t that I don’t believe that men can be kind, of course they can. I have a very kind DH myself, who is a loving father to our DDs, and who I’ve always trusted. I also have 2 lovely BILs and good male friends.

It’s just that the scenario you described would alarm me if it involved one of my DDs. Because I wouldn’t know whether the teacher concerned could be trusted or not. (He might be the kindest of men but how can I know that?)

I’m glad that there are safeguards now, like always having 2 members of staff present. It’s a protection for both the staff members and for the children.

You talk about my critical thinking skills then go on to use a profanity lol and you presented zero logic. I’ve worked in education in a variety of roles for a very long time and received nothing but praise from colleagues and parents. Why should I be told I should now be banned from a profession I have dedicated my working life too because of a knee jerk reaction by narrow minded and misinformed people?

A slightly specious piece of reasoning. My original training was 2 years full time followed by working in paediatrics and then later a 4 year degree to retrain as an early years and primary teacher so not necessarily easy to get into. I’ve known did come perform intimate procedures completely on their own and if a child is being barrier busted they will often be on their own with one nurse. Paedophiles are sadly to be found across the spectrum. What was wrong here was that young man should never have been lone working. At least he was discovered early and not allowed to do this for years and thank goodness those children spoke up. And as I’ve already said the majority of abuse takes place in or near the home and usually the adult is known to the child (NSPCC). A blanket ban on men working with children will not reduce the number of offenders. They would just find another way and why punish the men who are doing perfectly good jobs and would never even consider perpetrating any form of CA