How to deal with friends claiming to be 'key workers'

[McDougal]

Just as the title says, really. I know a lot of admin staff in the NHS. A lot support inpatient services and have a real impact on keeping things moving. Others are PAs to managers who will be making decisions impacting upon patient care, but could do this themselves without a PA forwarding this communication on their behalf.

How do you deal with this? One friend is continuing to take her child to nursery as she's a 'key worker' when her husband is temporarily at home as his job has come to a standstill and I'm struggling to be sympathetic.

No it's not UniversalAunt which is why key workers aren't able to access 'school' for their children.

Educational providers are offering childcare, within school buildings or nurseries to key workers. Every single Government document makes it clear this is childcare to enable key workers to continue to work, often in different school buildings to the usual, with different teachers and/or support staff etc and not teaching any curriculum.

Most of our Trust PAs are the consultants life line. Seeing as they are front line they need them to do all the support work that goes with that. There are a lot of roles in the NHS that are vital to keep the hospital running. Path and lab staff are an example. How are samples going to get tested. Porters, cleaners...you can't run a hospital with only the nurses and doctors. Many staff are also being redeployed. All NHS line managers have been asked for a list of staff to redeploy to support and admin roles! They are required to work and therefore they are key workers. This is happening across the country in every single Trust. Maybe you are unaware - or just click on your local trust job vacancy page to see a call for more support staff!

Our school cheerfully told everyone they would be open for business as normal Monday and just bring your kids along if you needed to.

Then your school is, frankly, fucking irresponsible.

Your dh is wfh, so he needs to organise his day so that he can also have your children with him. Schools are not remaining open for EMERGENCY childcare only, just so he can keep his income ring-fenced. Everyone has that problem.

If you are a keyworker there is no shame in making use of the provision. I truly do not get people even scrutinising who is sending their children to school or not. It is not your business and reeks of resentment and shaming because you cannot send your own children in. We should not begrudge people some childcare to keeps things running.

This same attitude occurrs on benefit threads. It's very unbecoming.

To any keyworkers with partners at home or not:

Thank you for your service and the risk you are taking to keep things running at even half normal.

TheNavigator: "It really is exposing both the decency and unpleasantness that lurks in people."

The unpleasantness it's exposing is not from those who are rightly concerned that VITAL key workers' emergency childcare provision is probably going to be removed through over-subscription from piss-takers.

I truly do not get people even scrutinising who is sending their children to school or not. It is not your business
It is my business when I'm one of the teachers who will be expected to mingle at close quarters with them. And it's the business of front-line workers who may well end up with the whole plan abandoned very soon.

How is it going to be removed?

Why is someone who works admin for healthworkers a pisstaker?

I think this thread has shown how much we all appreciate those that are keeping the country going in this horrible time. What we don't want to happen is that systems that have been put in place to keep it running be pushed to the limits and withdrawn because of people taking advantage when they genuinely have other options that don't endanger vulnerable people i.e. grandparents etc.

It's a scary time and we shouldn't be pointing the finger but we should also be encouraging people to act as responsibly as they can.

The OP said her friends husband is at home.
And there ends the debate. The child should not be going into school.

It's not their job that makes them a pisstaker but that they may have other options or, in the case of my friend, (possibly mistakenly) be under the impression that there won't be enough work to justify them being there in the first place.

Therefore they may be able to work from home or find another solution and not have to send their child to school.

Teachers have to their bit. Sorry. My sister is nurse expected to deal hands on with covid patients. I had to pep talk her to go into work the other day. She is sick with fear of giving it to her children. Yet she is not complaining. She said she does not care about herself. It is noticable that nurses doctors and even admin staff for health workers are not really complaining but I've seen a lot of moaning from teachers.

Inthenightsky said;I'm a PA to a consultant in the NHS. Every morning he puts his head round my door, does a sigh of relief, and says 'oh thank fuck you're here'.

That actually made me laugh, because, I absolutely know how important a PA is the NHS and I know how much you do. To say you're there to pass on messages is laughable.

Teachers have to their bit.
AND WE ARE!!!!! FFS.
Read the endless threads on here about it. We have been attending school everyday, being sneezed and coughed upon with no PPE, hand sanitiser of even hand-soap. We have taught full weeks, along with this week trying to plan and set effective Home Learning tasks for the next few weeks too.
We will be continuing to go in in future, putting our own health at risk, as well as that of our own families, (as NHS workers and shop assistants are too, of course) but we should NOT have to do that when there are people who have adults at home who are perfectly well able to watch their own kids at home.

This is making me really cross but I dont think theres anything we can do!

My brother is a teacher. He keeps sharing the message about people not sending in their kids unless absolutely necessary but...his DP is not a key worker and they are sending their kids to school!

but I've seen a lot of moaning from teachers

I haven’t.

I’ve seen a lot of rallying around planning lovely activities and online learning and sharing resources.

Some people just see what they want to.

I was running my own business but it collapsed overnight due to CV. I took a temp role very quickly and now work for Public Health England and am directly involved in supporting the fight against CV. Husband has been asked to wfh as he is a single point of failure within the organisation and is also a key worker. He organises the delivery of crucial medical supplies.

We are sending our DS in to school. Although DH is at home, he cannot effectively do his job and care for an 8 yr old with SEN. If DH stuffs up an order or loses concentration, fails to click send on an email cos he's distracted, people could die.

I'm aware that other parents know he's home, but not what he does. They also know what my business was, but not that I've taken a contract with PHE. Don't vilify others, you really don't know what is going on in their lives and workplaces.

Teachers unions put a lot of pressure on the govt to shut schools and they all always complain the loudest, so forgive me if I have less sympathy for them than I do front line health workers/police/ who put their lives directly at risk and have no such luxury and would never dream of stepping back. It's always teachers who complain the most out of all the public sector. Many of you are doing a great job but sorry going by MN some of you are still complaining about being on the reserve list. You are not seeing that attitude from keyworkers in other sectors, not even supermarket staff who frankly deserve Victoria Crosses when this is over.

@McDougal I know I'm going to be ripped apart here, but I genuinely would anonymously report them to school...

I would consider that option. The government website says children of one key worker can go to school if required. Maybe it's open to the school's interpretation as to what that means, but if one parent is home all day, it's arguable that it isn't required.

It may not be difficult for the parents to work out who "dobbed them in" though.

Teachers unions put a lot of pressure on the govt to shut schools

Here’s what the major teaching union actually said to the government:

“ In letter to the prime minister, joint-general secretaries Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, state: "Given your failure to release modelling comparing different scenarios of school closures, we are now forced to call on you to close schools, at least for some time and at least in some areas."

They say school closures would allow teachers and school leaders who are not in high-risk categories to work on plans for "more limited opening of schools" to cater for children of NHS staff, food and distribution workers, police, prison and fire brigade staff and those who are produce medical equipment. ”

What about that is unreasonable, Catherine? Where is that teachers shouting loudly to shirk their duties?

Fucking teacher-bashers can’t even stop when there’s a global pandemic going on.

Teachers and schools had, last week, the most stressful, emotional and taxing week of our careers. We turned up to school to keep kids calm and occupied while they have been frightened and while at the same time trying to sort out the utter mess that the government has handed us due to their incompetence.

And next week we will be continuing to set work for the nation’s children, and manning schools to keep keyworkers in their roles, and to look after vulnerable children at our own personal risk.

Give us a sodding break, won’t you? Next time you’re about to post a teacher-bashing post, just don’t.

I know I'm going to be ripped apart here, but I genuinely would anonymously report them to school...

Gosh you would just love a police controlled state wouldn't you? Imagine how many neighbours you could denounce to the authorities. Sadly for you, we live in a democracy and people can make their own decisions. You may disapprove of them but that doesn't mean you can turn them into the state for re-education.

I do think there is an interesting discussion to be had about men accepting their partner's job is more vital than theirs and stepping up to look after the children. But I don't think it can be had in the context of people eager to use the opportunity to increase social control.

A lot of our admin staff have been moved to the wards to help there with feeds, bed making, stocking up etc,etc,etc.....

Oh I'll do what I want. I am also just speaking facts. Call it teacher bashing if you want. You have no idea how much support I've given to teachers either in previous posts or irl.

But the fact remains that many working in the public sector are at risk, yet taking MN as a sample even before schools shut, neither nhs staff (in whatever capacity) support workers, police, social workers, key administrators, or (perhaps most at risk) shop workers have been complaining on MN about having to work in contrast to teachers.

I have teachers in my family including my DS tutor. They are dismayed at teachers union and pressure on them to support that action. I feel sorry for the teens who have their exams disrupted.

I’ve definitely seen threads/posts from NHS workers complaining about what has been asked of them. But I’m not going to say that NHS workers therefore deserve less support than supermarket workers because I’m not a totally awful human being.

I work in the nhs not frontline at all and could do 100% of my job from home (some thing I have raised time after time before the Coronavirus) but I am not being allowed to work from home & being told by my manager that I have to use the child care provision and be in the office as normal!! Not at all something I agree with, I disputed this last week several times but not sure what else I can do?