What will your work do if work places are open but schools aren’t?

[gingajewel]

Just wondering if work places re-open and schools don’t what you’re work place will suggest? Do you work somewhere where you will be able to continue to wfh for a few weeks? Will you have to take parental leave or annual leave?
I have no clue about my employers, currently wfh but I don’t think they are too keen on it!

daisymay133 But as a teacher surely you don't want to go back until you know it's safe to do so – and there's no way any school is going to successfully keep kids 2m apart all day! I get that people are keen to get back to work but it's got to be done properly and if that means keeping them shut until Sept, so be it.

Sorry, OP, didn't mean to derail thread with school talk!

The 2m rule will be gone by next week

They’re already saying it’s not necessary and that it was something they cooked up

WHO says 1m!

They’ll relax that which then means all go back

I’m not actually in favour of lockdown when capacity in nhs is ok

The whole point was to save nhs and nhs is pretty ok

My mates work in icu across 3 trusts and all are quiet

We shouldn’t be locking down in this situation. Lockdown can’t happen forever

Everyone can’t just hide until we get vaccinated two years from now - even if thy fine a vaccine later this year it’ll take months many months to distribute

Lockdown is to keep capacity below nhs limit

It’s below - so we should open. Government always said it would be a series of stop starts as only solution to this is immunity - either through vaccine or herd immunity

Vaccine is 2 years away so it has to be stop starts until then. If you don’t lockdown for two years then there’s not much point

But as a teacher surely you don't want to go back until you know it's safe to do so

Nowhere will be "safe" until there's a vaccine or an effective treatment....

This lockdown is not for our safety. It's so the NHS has enough beds for people who catch it. This lockdown was never to stop people catching it, it's to stop them catching it all at once.

Carrying on social distancing where possible will help keep the spread slower but we cannot keep schools closed until "it's safe" because we do not know when that will be or if it will indeed ever be.

Exactly!

@gingajewel

There is case law on unfair dismissal and indirect sex discrimination though, which is what I’m assuming the poster above is referring to.

It’s a complex area and I would advise anyone concerned to take advice from a professional. Not mumsnet.

The last couple of weeks at school before lockdown were chaos.

Kids off/being sent home, staff sick. Siblings off too if their family member had a temperature, at both my children's secondary schools and across the 20 primary and secondary schools I work with.
One of mine was riding a temperature so his brother (and us) had to stay home in isolation too as a precaution.

What's changed?

Nothing has changed but this cannot continue forever or most of the country will be destitute and there will be no NHS!

Though rules could be imposed ie taking temps on the door before school starts..

I think isolating as a family when one person is I'll will continue and should continue as that will stop the spread.

How many people can realistically social distance at work?

If you have to share office space, toilets, lifts, kitchens, public transport ?

The childcare issue is important undoubtably.

But it's putting the horse before the cart in the majority of cases surely?

You could only return if you drove to work, had your own office where no one else touched anything and you had your own kitchen and toilet?

I don't know how employers would be able to create a safe working environment?

Happy to be shouted down though.... pondering this out loud

You could only return if you drove to work, had your own office where no one else touched anything and you had your own kitchen and toilet?

Public transport I understand but for the rest of them... Just wash your hands?

No one can

That’s exactly why government will update their narrative

The 2m no longer applies

It wasn’t strictly based on science in first place - all they said was people risk would be higher if they spent 15 mins within 2m of people. That’s all

Now they’re rethinking it

Guarantee it’s to get the country back out

I can see schools going back after half-term, probably not all years back at once.

At work, you don't get to go inside the buliding until your temperature has been checked. Schools could do the same. They could also work a shorter day, and use gyms and halls as classrooms for extra space. I know its not great to lose exercise time, but I think it is acceptable, given the circumstances.

We can't wait until the virus has completely gone (will it ever?), or until there is a vaccine. It's a least worst solution time.

The pressure to send kids back is building from all side - look at some of the threads on here. People are getting stressed and angry,- some schools and parents are clearly managing far better than others. In the press, there's talk of unbridgeable attainment gaps developing between the better off and the most disadvantaged, - some private schools are shaping up to to go back in June and/or teach into the summer holidays. If it carries on along those lines, it will be hard to keep all state provision closed.

As other have said, lockdown was really to slow the spread, and buy us time to sort out the Nightingales etc. We can't hide forever.

@daisymay133 interesting points, what is your theory for them getting rid of the 2m distancing? Has this been hinted at? As far as I am aware other countries are doing this still? Or has this changed? Just curious by the way as this would be the perfect solution to a lot of things however would this not risk a second peak? We saw that just washing our hands doesn’t work!

It’s just been in few of the papers yesterday and today that they are rethinking it

That they can relax if people check temps etc

May be rubbish but the papers have been right about a lot if the lockdown changes etc

@TazSyd I agree with you! No one should be taking guidance from Mumsnet! Just wanted to see what other people’s thoughts and opinions were on their workplace and how they thought they would react if schools went back before workplaces! It is all hypothetical as I’m not even sure bojo knows what to do yet!

My curiosity comes as I am a key worker and my colleagues who are in the office drove to work, had there own spaces in the office didn't use the same toilets or kitchens and we have just had to shutdown as people have tested positive.

@daisymay133 thankyou! I do think the papers print things to gauge people’s reactions! So they could well be doing that!

We saw that just washing our hands doesn’t work!

As far as I am aware it did work. Again, it was never intended to stop Corona in its tracks.

Things would have been much worse without that incredibly simple step!

It would push another peak for sure but they always said it’d be a series of stop starts so they may open and close at certain times

Maybe not full lockdowns but more pressure on the curve as they say !

There’s no solution

It’ll only go with immunity

So it’s lockdown til vaccine or stop starts to quietly develop immunity whilst protecting nhs

There isn’t any other choice

I've seen discussion that it's better to get a second peak (if, as assumes, there is one) in the summer months rather than September because again, less pressure on the NHS going into the winter months.

I'm ready to get back to normal (or new normal) after May half term if possible. All vulnerable people I cared about have already died though (from that other C disease with no cure) so I'm sure that affects my thinking.

Another one here thinking schools and workplaces could possibly reopen in the next 6 weeks.

It's not about beating the virus (that's now impossible until there is a vaccine), but managing the waves of infection within acceptable levels.

Acceptable levels meaning the NHS being able to treat the seriously ill.

Social distancing is not going to happen once the country gets back to work. The best we can hope for is increased testing and temperature checks in crowded places.

@TazSyd there is also the sheer number of people. for example, for my organisation it would be 12 out of 17 personal and group assistants they would need to make redundant because of childcare obligations. that would create more chaos than letting them work out a work from home rota. Not to mention that a good third of HR would be in the same situation

Dust, before lockdown it took about 30 minutes to get my class of 36 to wash their hands. When we had enough soap. It will take just as long to take their temperature with the crappy thermometer we have. That's thermometer singular. Schools are not awash with flashy heat sensitive ones. And who's going to do the temperature taking? The PPE- less teacher or TA?

Have you seen Irelands plan out of lockdown? Not back til next school year/ Aug childcare opening before schools back. Made me hope we would follow same path even though our death rate is way higher and prob should be in longer. Schools reopening is no use unless open breakfast clubs, aftercares, nurseries and childminders as how many people work between school hours. So childcare would really need to open first. Which is an issue still for those who rely on shielding grandparents as they'd need to find new paid for childcare.. I work in a school and I couldn't go back unless nurseries etc open too for my kids. Also in my work place way less that 1/3 have
childcare commitments. It will vary place to place but 2/3 having no childcare commitments does seem reasonable.