Nursery not letting me do transition with my baby

[Caimum]

My baby is due to start nursery when I go back to work , will be eleven months old. He hasn’t been left with anyone else before. The nursery is refusing to let me in to do a proper transition ie where I stay with him Initially and support him to have his care handed over to nursery staff. They are saying it’s because they still want Covid restrictions . I think this is not good practice and it will cause him distress. They mentioned One little girl cried for a month before settling.
my son is my seventh , and only successful pregnancy , I don’t want him crying for a month and being flooded with stress hormones and thinking I will stop crying as Mum is basically leaving me here.

its seemingly a good nursery based on a visit to this and others . It’s also the one we can afford given sky high nursery costs where we live.

Do they have the right to do this given Covid restrictions are lifted nationally ?
I would do a Covid test, wear masks and gloves , I’ve never had Covid as I’m extremely careful and have limited family and friends circle who mainly live a distance away.

Really upset , I just want to do a proper supportive handover and see how they are with my son too.

The problem is we have to think about all the children's needs and having parents in for multiple settling in sessions affects the other children. Whilst I'm not inviting parents into my home I'm still happy to do transitions outside, I'm also happy to visit the child in their own home but I have to draw a line somewhere. Prior to covid yes I did invite parents in but drop offs and collections were always on the doorstep.

We can now go into my DC’s nursery for drop offs and collections. On one of DC days, they finish at lunchtime. Hardly any children do half days, and most are trying to lie down in the room as I collect, but it’s a modern nursery with a long glass wall, and as soon as some of them see a parent collecting one child, they start shouting for their parents and get upset.

The room leader wants it switched back; it was much smoother for the children before.

OP, I was told this by one nursery we saw -- that they were keeping their Covid measures in place as felt less disruptive for most children that way.

I went to another nursery which had opened up to allow settling. All children are different and I know my DS and I knew he needed a little reassurance from me that this was a safe place for him.

Trust your gut and go elsewhere.

Both my children went to daycare (in the US) long before COVID was a thing. There was no real transition. I think we had one settling in 'day' but that was two hours maximum. With the second one, he knew the daycare setting since he was there to drop off his brother pretty much since birth so I just dropped him off. Yes, they are upset sometimes. It doesn't mean they aren't loved and reassured. Both of mine are now school age but within a few weeks were generally skipping off happily. In fact when they had a grouchy day at daycare it was a sure sign they were going to fall sick within 24 hours- so any unhappiness was a result of illness not the setting.
If you have investigated the nursery before hand, then yes, they are well within the rules to not have a hand over. There may not be any when they go to primary/elementary school for instance. With both of mine, I dropped them off at the door and collected them several hours later. Obviously both were verbal by then. But sometimes the handover is for the benefit of the parent rather than the child.
If your child is not being cared for, you will know through many little signs soon enough.