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

32c (where OP is) isn't unprecedented.....

How ridiculous. I’d change to one more reliable . Hope she’s going to refund you

Our school has just announced they’re closed on Wednesday and Thursday.

Good luck with that, between weather warning, risk assessments, safeguarding, suspect the answer will be a no and LA will back that up.

My DD's high school have just emailed to say they will be closing at 1pm tomorrow and Thurs. I expect the local primary to follow with the same email shortly (have younger kids too).

Our nurseries have all closed at 12pm too. Some schools are closed and some are closing at 1.

I’m guessing it’s due to liability if young children start collapsing or get sick in the heat.

It sucks but it seems to be most childcare settings and it’s one heatwave week. I doubt it’ll be this bad the rest of the year.

Your husband needs to take dependents unpaid leave if you’re in a new job. It’s quite simple.

26 schools in my county area are closing at 1pm tomorrow and Thursday. Temps around the same as you're saying.

we can’t just duck out of our responsibilities every time we feel uncomfortable, society would grind to a halt.

People have no sense of duty anymore.

This is not cool.

it would be a no from me.

Look tell her if the house is too hot take them to a soft play with AC and youll pay an extra £10.

Thats what my cm is doing...

Presumably she doesn't work as a childminder then? Really nothing to do with OP's situation.

Not Quite the same as most other businesses though, is it? I do home caring and will have walked approx 25000 steps today in between houses while I cook, wash and clean for elderly people. Should my company be allowed to just decide to close and leave all of our clients without care?

Point out bluntly to the childminder that you have a contract with her and 5.30pm is pick up time. You won’t be picking your child up at 1pm you will be collecting at usual time as per your contract

And how should she get all of her children to said soft play? Bus, public transport in this heat? Walking to and from, waiting?

It’s up to her to decide if she can safely take care of these children, she is legally responsible for making that decision, and she’s decided she can’t. I’d far rather they acknowledge that actually they can’t do it and have kids home safe than them push on and end up with kids unwell.

She's taking the piss, and doesn't fancy working when it's hot.

32 is hot, but not that hot unless you're exerting yourself. She can set things up to keep the kids inside, lots of drinks, ice pops etc.

DD was in school when it was 40 in 2022. Now that was hot, but they managed. No reason why it can't be managed with a smaller group of kids in a house.

This.

And then the childminder ends the contract and the OP is really stuck now with an 18 month waiting list for anyone else...

Its not a duty… its a business. Unfortunately she can do as she see’s fit, if she wishes to close then thats her choice, the same as hairdressers, garages, shops or any other business . Inconvenient- yes. However it is entirely up to her, i’m sure the loss of income has been taken into consideration

Every childminders has to risk assess and meet the needs of all the children . Some childminders have glass walls or conservatory’s and may become too hot .
Some childminders have their own health issues which make the heat dangerous. If the childminder collapses and passes out would you be happy for babies and toddlers to be unsupervised? Most childminder.s work
alone . If she closed she will pay back funding - she doesn’t have to offer it another day . The school’s closing are not offering extra days in the holidays .
Yes it’s difficult if you are working but ultimately the child is your responsibility and that’s why you get unpaid parental leave . Im
a childminder in my 60s . Luckily I have a cool north facing room that’s currently 22 degrees and three ones year olds fast asleep . We have had a lovely morning in the garden , water play , shaded play mats with Duplo and books, sand , mud kitchen . Had story and rhyme time .when they wake up we will have a snack and then pool time .
The children in my car get lots of 1:1 time , I only have two each day for rest of the week. We also go out to local parks , farms and forest, music sessions - so I feel they have a better experience than nursery but unfortunately as a one man band if I’m unwell. Care would stop . Nurseries obviously have more staff .

I don’t see 32 as that bad. 36-39 is however a bit different I think!!

This kind of nonsense is why I never used a childminder - they can literally leave you in the lurch and there is nothing you can do about it

I bet there will be a clause in the contract that states she can close or shorten hours for certain events

Feelings aside, if she's decided to close, you can't stop her.

Yes and still try to charge and loads of MNers say it's fine because they can run their business the way they want. Same as covid, when they started closing they thought they could still charge for the care they weren't providing. Crazy.

Anyway she might possibly have a point with the red warning (though the forecast temperatures have reduced so I wonder if they will downgrade to an amber warning) but Friday isn't a red warning so no need to finish at 1pm then. I also think that if my house is ok for me and kids, then so is a childminder's house. It's a bit different to a school or nursery.

I suppose the difference is, the number of children in it. How many does she look after? If she's got six smallies running around to look after and try to keep cool I can see why that may become an issue. Although, not particularly in 32 degrees. 39 degrees would be different.

The problem here is the ‘danger to life’ warnings being pushed out which causes unnecessary panic.

Somebody working in a manual job in direct sunlight all day then yes fair enough, that’s risky.

But a childminder can literally stay indoors, put fans on, stick tv/films on, draw the curtains. There is no justification for closing so early! She’s jumping on the school bandwagon but she isn’t stuck in a classroom with 30 kids. She’s in a completely different situation and is being utterly ridiculous.

She just can’t be arsed!