Childminder wants to close at 1pm for the rest of the week

[SweatySpider321]

Woke to a text from my childminder, announcing due to the weather we need to try to collect our children at 1pm for the rest of the week -530pm is the usual finish time. I’m not even a week into a new job and my husband has no leave left (mainly due to covering her annual leave). It’s not in our contract and it’s funded hours we use with her

There’s two on my road! They’ve been recently renovated so presumably predicting that they’ll need it more & more.

misses point of the thread

There doesn’t need to be a severe heat warning for kids to be at risk of sunburn.
The sun’s strength depends on its height in the sky not the temperature!

You’re as at risk of getting sunburn today as you would be on any other sunny 24th June, irrespective of whether it’s 38c or 18c!

Perhaps but it wasn’t high 30s except for maybe a couple of days. There’s a bit difference between a “hot” 25c and a “scorching” 38c.

I'm a childminder. It was 34 yesterday and 30 today here, predicted 37 on Friday. We have a portable air con unit in the living room and in the sleep room. The inside temp stays around 22 degrees.
We have played outside in a shaded area, water, sand, slide, little pool.
When the weather is like this we go inside at 11 and stay there for the rest of the day, with our usual activities.

The only thing I'm not doing is the afternoon school run on Friday when I don't want to take the little children out in the heat for an hour.

A local nursery is closing at 1pm all week due to the building's internal temp being 35, so I guess it depends on the situation. I have had to ring an ambulance for a child having a febrile convulsion (illness induced, not summer heat) and it is very scary. So I do get it. But 32 isn't an unusual summer temp.

This is how summers are going to be now. So childcare providers need to adjust.

The main thing I have learned from this thread is that a scary number of people don’t understand that weather can be different in different parts of the country.

OP, I hope your search for a new childminder goes well and quickly - this one is a drip and/or lazy af.

But where OP is it isn't going to be in the high 30s!

Here is my opinion as a childminder. I’m open today - I’m in London a red area. My old Victorian terrace seems made for this weather and it’s nice and cool. I’m fit and the children are safe with me. Some come from flats which were absolutely boiling yesterday. I think if I worked from one of those modern new builds I’d be very worried about being able to comply with the safer sleep rules we’ve been given and are now being inspected under. The rules do list internal temps that sleep rooms need to be at. There is a local school near me closing at 1 when they have air con and I think that’s a bit silly. It means childminders who offer after school care are having to have those children longer in more uncomfortable conditions than at school.

yesterday by the end of the day I felt very “touched out” by the children - we were all hot and sweaty and having to stay in- and I was very glad of the two of three parents who told me they’d thought about me and picked their children up at 430/5 instead of staying to the final minute. All parents had sensibly chosen to work from home.

without knowing the whole story I’d say she was wrong to close but if we operate outside of guidance sent to us from the local authority or by DfE our insurance becomes invalid. If she felt she couldn’t keep your child safe for whatever reason then she should have given an explanation other than “the heat”.

Thanks for the perspectives and the info. Bit bemused about the lack of alleged lack of "respect" for declining to collect our children in 26 temperature weather. For clarity it's not even 31 hers and tomorrow it's meant to be 26

We both work with vulnerable and risk individuals, that if we don't work with them this week could have serious repercussions. Neither of us have air con at work or at home so we aren't oblivious that's it's warm and are working it. The world doesn't stop for a few warm days -tomorrow isn't even going to be in the 30's as it's predicted to be 26. Taking leave at this late stage isn't appropriate and it is actually disrespectful to say l need to feed into it. The weather situation can be reviewed on a day by day basis. Her telling us lies about her child's illness was rather disrespectful and unprofessional. Plus l need to manage the childminders expectations that we won't be facilitating her to down tools whenever it hits 25. If she wants to only open half day this summer fine; we will only pay half and will give notice

I have checked and 1 school in the county is closed -it’s miles away and due to water issues apparently. Her children’s school is open as normal

I think bc so many schools and nurseries are closed (both for our family) lots of parents will be affected and so your employer will understand that this just couldn’t be helped. Having morning childcare is more than a lot of people have! The people who mind all our children (childminders, nurseries, whatever…) also have problems with childcare bc their providers have shut! It’s just one of those things, it’s unusual and extreme. If this becomes a frequent occurrence then of course providers will have to adjust their risk assessments to include contingency planning that isn’t just closing. But for a few days society will be okay… I work in your world too. someone without kids will do your urgent visits. I would also be finding this really difficult if I was in a new job but speak to your employer. The reason you are asking for time is not bc it’s hot - it’s bc you have no childcare for reasons beyond your control. Hope you get something sorted

But why does the heat affect childminding? What would the children be doing differently at home?

Im in the West Midlands in a Red warning area, it’s 32 at the moment, I can hear some young children splashing with water in someone’s garden and everyone is fine. If I was looking after young kids they would be either in a pool in the shade, or indoors with drinks watching tv or whatever. Would they be hot and cranky? Probably. Would I send them home? No, they’d be no different in their own home. And you are in a cooler area, 26 tomorrow = she is very much taking the piss. When you leave, please write this in any online review. There are some people who would lose a days wages if their childcare fell through, it’s a normal summers day.

I work at a children's nursery, they would never in a million years let us close due to this, despite only one of the rooms (out of 10+ rooms) having air con. We've got staff going home due to their children's schools closing early, so we're now majorly short staffed with the same amount of children in and everyone is struggling. Gotta love a British heatwave!

With El Niño kicking off next summer is likely to be even hotter. I would simply say that you have just started a new job [true] and DH has used his AL allowance covering her holidays on dates X&Y. It will not be possible to finish early especially since <your region> is not seeing the temperatures that London or X are.
I would then at some point try to have a conversation with her about how she is going to manage in the future because the weather isn't getting any cooler. You may need to look for an alternative provision with better facilities if your children are young.

Be warned, she's quite likely to say your child has vomited from the heat and you have to pick up anyway.

@TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams Be warned, she's quite likely to say your child has vomited from the heat and you have to pick up anyway

I was also thinking this. And she has done it before.

What a nightmare for you - it just adds to your stress in a new job. Hope you're able to get it sorted.

@TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams if the cap fits 🤷‍♀️. Luckily both can speak and would be able to verify any vomiting or non-vomiting for themselves or sibling

I still don’t get either 🤷‍♀️. They have been sent wearing hot weather clothing, hats, sunglasses, sun tan lotion etc. With cold drinks, cold lunch, fruit, frozen yoghurt etc

In what way is keeping 100 to 1500 kids safe the same as keeping two or three children safe?

It's a childminder, whose role is to look after just a few children, in her home. A home being a building that people live in with all conveniences.

Many schools have mobile huts, which are like saunas. My previous school has shut today as they have lots of 1960s south facing three storey buildings which are like a greenhouse, so not safe. And then you have 30 children in a classroom, 1500 water bottles to get filled up etc... and huge child to staff ratios.

So I'm not sure how you can say the OP is having a go at the childminder when quite clearly the childminder is being unreasonable.

👋 hey neighbour! I’m impressed you know what the weather was like where l am yesterday. The temperature wasn’t 26 yesterday, it’s predicted to be that here tomorrow. Unless you know better than the BBC?!

OP’S AREA IS 30 TODAY AND 26 TOMORROW.

OP IS NOT IN A RED WEATHER WARNING AREA.

@NoCommentingFromNowOn thanks. So it’s not just me who is sick of the lack of comprehension 🤣

Also THE SCHOOLS HERE ARE NOT CLOSED

Don't forget you get a lot of keyboard warriors on here, and comprehension is not their strong point... it's best not to quote them and just ignore them.

Fair point

The trouble is, other people read their comments and just blab on about how baking it is, they can fry eggs in their garden, their neighbour just dropped dead from the heat blah blah, and this whole thing of ‘yeah it’s too hot you utter witch’ fills thread and everyone forgets that neither OP nor the childminder are in that commentators garden.

For example, Aberdeen is currently 17 degrees and within the next fortnight the closest it will get to a ‘heatwave’ is 20, this weekend.

And I get so, so tired of these people not reading (at the very least) OPs posts.

It's a safeguarding issue, which non childcare professionals probably haven't considered or don't understand. When you're caring for potentially 3 or 4 under 5 year olds, who are at high risk of heatstroke, you have to risk assess and consider all possibilities. If a childcarer feels they won't be able to provide a safe environment, be that due to inside temperatures or simply because each child will need monitoring more closely than is possible for one person to do, then they may make the informed and responsible decision to close their facility, or ask parents to reduce their childs hours. This is entirely in the childrens best interests. Which is surely what you want from your childcare provider? Having your child at home with you where they don't need to undertake a journey to/from childcare, and you can take care of them yourself one to one is a sensible thing you do under such circumstances as a hear wave. And it's very different to a child being one of a cohort away from home.