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.

Round and round in circles, this thread. But what about the women who abuse???

If I have a choice of two people to look after my child and one is 50 times more likely to abuse them than the other, which do I choose?

It's not a hard question!

No male should look after a young child without female supervision. It's not perfect but it's the best we can do.

Completely agree.

Similarly women shouldn’t be in the army, certainly not in the front line. It’s a statistical fact that women are more emotional and empathetic than men; how can we be expected to make split second, unemotional, rational decisions in high stress combat situations?

We need to accept that some jobs are for men and some are for women.

Wars are exclusively started by men due to anger and/or greed.

Interesting that you think empathy is an emotion that would negatively impact a front line situation, but anger and greed (also emotions) are absolutely fine.

Might want to have a little think about your internalised misogyny before trying to make a 'clever' point.

Front lines don't exist until a war has already been started. People are put into the front line specifically in order to kill others before they can kill them or a colleague. Empathy is not a helpful trait in that situation, you would soon be dead unless your colleagues covered for you.

Again, anger and greed are also not helpful.

Neither is all of the rape and sexual abuse of women and children in war zones, but at least men don't have empathy I guess. That's the main thing.

We are way off topic here, but anger is very useful in a fight and Britain gained supremacy of the high seas by a system motivated by greed. Look up the history of the Royal Navy and "prize money". Your attack on a poster for making a point about women in the front line was uncalled for. They were only trying to show balance on saying that men should not work with young children.

Now, can we go back to men working in nurseries?

It wasn't me that went off topic with a stupid point.

Oh for goodness sake. We can't judge 50% of society for the actions of a tiny minority. That's like saying don't employ Muslims because they might be a suicide bomber, or stay away from anyone German because they are all just like Hitler.

If proper safeguarding procedures are followed it protects all children and staff. My dc have been looked after by some amazing nursery professionals, teachers, nurses, teaching assistants etc Some of them have been men. To say that they shouldn't be working with children is a massive insult.

So six people we know about. Who knows how many more, who knows if it is easier for a woman to go unnoticed.

Are you serious?

I support women in the army strongly. However, I do think strength differences mean they shouldn't be on the front line. I'll link some stuff on this later...

Former doctor charged with sexual assaults against 38 patients in his care

Nathaniel Spencer, from Birmingham, is accused of 45 offences, including some against children under 13

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/dec/05/former-doctor-charged-with-sexual-assault-of-patients

After working in nurseries for over 14 years and being higher qualified than alot of my setting managers I can honestly say that there is a lot of discrimination against men in childcare. If abuse takes place the news hypes it up more if its a male practitioner than if it's a woman. If sbuse happens then people neglect to realise that it is a failure in the settings safeguarding that has allowed it to happen. Male or female no member of staff should be lone working with children at any time. That said the most discrimination I have face has been disrespectful behaviour from 18-25yr old females that are unqualified or have a lvl2 qualification. Dispite holding a degree lvl6 I was constantly contradicted, talked down to and never given any help or support from managers. Promotion is also near on impossible given mostly to les qualified and experienced females. Men play a vital role in supporting child development and wellbeing especially providing a male role modeling to those from a single parent family where children most of the time live with their mother. Just cos an evil man does something don't tar us all with the same brush like I said women are capable of child abuse too .**

Yet another terrible case ...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgr7mr2150o

All so easily preventable too …

But all we’ll hear is ‘not all men’ and ‘men are so important to childhood development’.

Makes me fucking sick how it’s all just allowed to happen

How can men be excluded from these roles without breaking so many laws?

Wtaf?! My son massively benefitted from the male nursery worker, gave him.a positive role model and made a nice change from fully female staff. Incidentally a female worker was fired during this time for screaming at the kids in her care and threatening behaviour. Yabu and utterly ridiculous

The Equality Act 2010 allows sex discrimination in certain situations - female only staff in domestic violence refuges.

Why can male staff not be put on restricted roles? They are able to work in a nursery, be a great play leader, educator, role model etc. But they are not allowed to provide intimate care or toilet children at all or without a female staff member present.

Wouldn't that allow men to participate without giving sexual predators access to children?

Because women have never:
Harmed a child
Helped a man harm a child

• 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 you're more worried about the 8% of women abusers than the 92% of men?

It's the 1% women convicted child sex abusers that we should be concerned about than the 99% of men?

I don't follow your logic. Not all men are child abusers but the vastly overwhelming majority of child abusers are men.

If you had to profile a child sex abuser, the first thing you'd say is 'They're probably male'.

Following up this information is assisting safeguarding.

Sex abuse isn't the only abuse a child can suffer

Safeguarding isn't "demonise all men"

Women can groom children or cover up male abuse

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy84x8z3xjo

another one

This was very sweeping. Traditionally women didn't do nearly all the roles we do now. Many men are extremely caring and thoughtful fathers who are hands on.

It is not worth the abuse of children who cannot speak. The case linked above involved the sexual abuse and rape of five nursery age boys.

All for what? So men can feel validated? What is the point of normalizing such risks?

I'd ban them, happily, because i prioritise the safety of small vulnerable children over grown mens feelings. And for all the women outraged by that, how many unrelated male babysitters have you used?