Nursery refuse to take my DC!

[DreamInLavender]

I spoke to management today and just wanted some confirmation that I could still send DS in (they sent an email out saying they're happy to try and sort things for essential workers at this time).

They asked me what I do and then said no, they couldn't take DC as I'm not an essential worker

I am, and if we go into lockdown our services are classed as essential and will continue to run. Is it really up to the nursery if they take DC or not, or are they discriminating? Yes of course they can set their own rules but not ones that discriminate surely.

I'm fuming and honestly don't know what I'll do

The nursery charging 75% but refusing to provide a service which by law it is allowed still to provide is something I think solicitors should be put on to surely.

It is really hard for parents. On finding someone else we did over a lot of years and 5 children try all kinds of options. Once an add in the local paper brought 50 people interested in a weekend morning at our house looking after the twins for example. For after school and school holiday we found a lovely older lady who still send the twins a Christmas card every year - we were very lucky to find her. Another one seemed nice for 3 - 6 after school but then mostly sent her mother to do the work !!!! who are a huge Iraqi kurd (not that that made her nasty) but the twins didn't like her and she was quite cross and hard to understand whereas her daughter was smiley, friendly, westernised with good English so they had to go.

For parents working at home with under 5s which is almsot impossible in many jobs where you need to concentrate if both parents are trying to do then I suppose splitting the day in two between the parents might help - one does mornings and other afternoons.

We also found some lovely sixth formers at one point for a few hours of toddler care - very good and actually better than some older women who had passed childcare exams actually.

I would try taskrabbit perhaps or asking at a local university or word of mouth. I realise this is an emergency situation and all parents have different views on what they regard as suitable childcare in their home however loads of very nice young restaurant workers are just as good at playing with toddlers for a few hours as pulling pints so worth looking there too.

Not every single nurse will be required to be frontline. What’s happening in our area is teams of nurses are being redeployed to do whatever is needed - including admin, and are also there to cover if any members of staff go down with the virus.

They’re not going to be redeploying nurses to do admin work. They’re not going to have enough capacity to do that. The reason that non-urgent stuff is being stopped is to free up beds, equipment and staff (including admin staff). Staff will be redeployed into places where they are needed. It’s far more likely that admin staff will be acting as HCAs than nurses will be acting as PAs.

Given the lack of guidance from the government I would take any list on a school website with a pinch of salt. Most schools won’t have anyone who’s been involved in NHS critical incident planning.

Xenia nurseries have been asked to close by the government. They may not have been forced but the message is pretty clear and the government are going to force them soon if they don't comply.

Whilst I'd love to find child care for our home, it's just not that possible round here. We aren't near a university or sixth form, we don't have an abundance of child care workers in need of jobs. But most importantly, we don't have the money to pay someone minimum wage for 40 hours a week. Especially not with nursery fees as well.

I don't know anyone who could afford both nursery fees and home child care and all their other bills.

I’m sure Xenia will be back soon to tell you how easy it is.

List of key workers, assuming it applies to nurseries too. It doesn't state whether it's one parent or both 🤷🏼‍♀️

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision

I saw elsewhere that it was one parent. I’ll try and find a link.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/19/children-to-attend-school-if-one-parent-classed-as-key-worker

I saw this on The Guardian website but actually it doesn’t seem to be officially backed up anywhere!

Point 4.2

www.gov.uk/government/publications/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers

Someone else found the point for me :)

I have just been looking at it. It says if you cannot otherwise manage your children etc so if you cannot keep your child safe at home and it says you will be prioritised.

In my view most private nurseries who stay open will be able to do so lawfully. First the Coronavirus draft bill has not yet been passed. Secondly even when it does (soon) an order will have to be made under it if a full ban on private provision is to come in and even then the list of key workers (which I accept as said above seems to imply it relates to schools) is so very extensive I am about 95% positive as of what I have seen today that a private nursery could stay open. Eg the list includes IT people, the justice system (i.e many lawyers), journalists. To get a free place in a state school provision may well need you to produce an employer's letter but in a private nursery I think it would be easier.

So the next legal question will be read your nursery's terms and conditions. If they do not allow it to close then it might be better for the toddlers and the nursery if they keep open (and then the parents can work from home properly and keep the nation going). You cannot work from home with a toddler around in any material sense of concentrating and doing proper work.

If that fails the nursery staff probably want income or more income so they could be hired to go to parents' houses with permission of their employer say for half a day per house whilst the nursery suspends services or closes. If you are still paying the nursery then I think that could be done free of charge.

Based on the official list, OP is a key worker. A high degree of admin is necessary in the NHS is essential to keep doctors and nurses working - doctors need to be able to access up to date notes, medication and equipment has to be ordered, organised and maintained, rotas have to be organised, liaison between medics has to be sorted, staff need to be paid, locus staff have to be booked, etc etc. It's not stuff that can be done from home because the NHS computer system really isn't up to it, and anyway there would be major issues about people accessing highly confidential information on home computers. If people like OP don't work, either the system descends into total chaos or front line staff have to waste time on clerical work.

Anybody who thinks that NHS admin staff can all magically work form home has never experienced the joys of getting a CCG / NHS laptop issued, I can tell you that.

It’s not just admin tbh. If the OP is in an acute hospital it’ll need all it’s staff and not necessarily doing jobs related to the ones they are currently doing. You just get redrafted into anywhere you are needed and you might have the skills to do.

Anybody who thinks that NHS admin staff can all magically work form home has never experienced the joys of getting a CCG / NHS laptop issued, I can tell you that.

I don’t think there are going to be any left once the ‘at risk’ and ‘even more at risk’ people who can work from home have been given priority

@SinkGirl you’re not wrong there. We can’t even get laptops to hot desk or work in the community let alone for home working!

Everything @JudyCoolibar said is true too. As it is, I was allowed to trial bringing an iPad home last night to test out the Remote Desktop. I can access my Remote Desktop and email from home, but I can’t do much else. I can’t contact patients from home or access their confidential files as the software just does not work offsite so admin staff will have to be on site at the hospitals to keep patient files ticking over.

I have a CCG laptop because I’m exclusively home based but the rigmarole of getting them set up, connecting them to an on-site network once every 30 days or you’re booted off etc... it’s mayhem, then there’s the systems issues. It’s not as easy as people seem to think.

If your civil service you get a letter to print off and hand to school/nursery. I assumed other key workers will be getting the same.

There was a list put out on who is classed, read that and send them so they know for future.

I'm an admin in a housing with care scheme. I was given a letter by my employers to take to my children's school to claim key worker status. My youngest is 25! Seriously though, there's so much extra work, fielding phone calls from anxious relatives, not to mention virtual hand holding ( social distancing being observed) of very scared residents, some with dementia, who are trying to make sense of the daily TV updates from BoJo and need constant reassurance. Not to mention the Forth Bridge type sanitising of door knobs, hand rails, door entry buttons, lift buttons, bannisters and so on and the extra food deliveries from the kitchen for those self-isolating and scared to enter the dining room. And lots more tasks to take the pressure off the carers and cleaners. Tbh I've never felt more essential.

The government list says health support staff so you are a key worker.

Apparently my job is classed as key worker - I work in pet food supply chain.

Yes, I see that pets need food too, but no I do not consider myself to be essential to the functioning of the country. As it is I can work from home so cats and dogs countrywide will still be fed... but key worker?! Not so much!

OP, please consider if you can work from home - for your own good as well as others. And if not, suck it up and stay home anyway!

As a medical PA I doubt you would be classified as a key worker... I'm a service administrator and I only just scrape in under the bar.

For most schools/nurseries to qualify you have to be a single parent or both parents have to be key workers.

Your consultant can actually do without you (clinics look set to close soon) or you could work from home.

Well.. Here I am. According to the list I am a key worker. And very much busier than usual right now with clinical staff very thankful I'm still coming in