Coming off furlough with no childcare/school available?

[trulyconfuseddotcom]

Hello - did I miss something in the speech or press briefing tonight? I don't understand what happens if you and any partner have jobs where you can't WFH and you have kids whose years won't be going back to school by 1 June. So if you are on furlough but your employer now expects you to return to work after tonight's announcement - then what? Is there any guidance??? They obviously can't be expecting parents to leave kids at home alone all day! But also not really fair to expect child-free people to go back and those with children not? Thanks.

We have to remember that fair or not we have to try and get people back to work. Their might not be a fair way to do it and if we wait to try and find it, half the country might be unemployed.

We have to play the hand we are dealt.

I think this is a huge area of confusion. The government has now stated that businesses that previously closed should start to open.
Great, I totally agree. The time is right for employees and workers to begin making plans to reopen businesses. However, the announcement that schools would not be opening inline and no strategy for increased use of public transport except not to use it throws a spanner in the works. Any responsible parent/guardian would not be leaving under 14s at home all day alone. Especially, if the daily commute is lengthened. Hopefully, the documents being released tomorrow will clarify these issues. If not, I am sure that this will come up as an urgent question with the requirement for an official response during the question time the PM is hosting.

I understand the desire to get folks back to work, if it is 100% safe to do so, but surely there needs to be some sort of government guidance/job protection/continuing financial support for those who can't return to their workplace solely because schools are not allowing kids to return and they have to look after their kids?

I would assume so @trulyconfuseddotcom particularly if they are going to continue to support the hospitality & similar industries to stay closed for longer.

I think this has been answered clearly above - childcare can be a reason for furlough so will continue. If you and partner are both furloughed and need to return to work, one will return and one should ask to remain on furlough due to childcare reasons.

Childminders care for all ages?

But unless you had a place at a childminder BEFORE lockdown, you are vastly unlikely to find one now. And TBH most childminders are not geared up to look after school-age children in the daytime. They might do wraparound before and after school care, but they probably won't have loads of DC who should be at school. Many childminders don't even work school holidays...

So, childminders being open doesn't much help anyone with a DC who is school-age who previously wasn't in wraparound care i.e. all those looked after by grandparents or people with school-hours jobs or other reciprocal arrangements etc. whose employer insists they come back to work - they still won't have the childcare options. And with staggered opening and some year groups in and some not and possibly smaller class sizes etc... well, it's pretty catastrophic for working parents who have shitty unsympathetic employers.

I hope the government will issue guidance to employers. I somewhat doubt it will be actually helpful.

Nothing else they have done so far has been too clever or full of joined-up thinking.

I understand the desire to get folks back to work, if it is 100% safe to do so
Until we get a vaccine in 1+ years, it will never be 100% safe. If we wait until then the country will be destroyed. And government cannot provide support until then either, have you seen how much it is costing? This is not government money, it is money all of us will have to pay it back. And that could cripple us.

People just cant be paid to stay off work much longer its unsustainable.

childcare can be a reason for furlough so will continue. If you and partner are both furloughed and need to return to work, one will return and one should ask to remain on furlough due to childcare reasons

Which is all great, but alas furlough is at employer's discretion, and it is widely assumed that the scheme is going to be pulled sooner rather than later, at which point most employers will not be able to afford to keep staff at home on payroll if not actually working...

People just cant be paid to stay off work much longer its unsustainable.

That's a slightly different point to not being able to go into work because schools are closed.

I don't know anyone who is furloughed, we all have young dc & are working from home. Our companies don't want us back in anytime soon.

@NoSquirrels I don’t see why they wouldn’t be able to find a new childminder now. Lots of childminders do look after school age children and work school holidays so it’s not a huge problem.

Childminders I’m
Sure would welcome the revenue

But even if childminders had hypothetical spare places for these thousands of children, they charge for their services. School is free. So if you can't afford childminder fees and you can't WFH, then what? It is predominantly people in less well-paid jobs who can't WFH. I just can't see why all those people should be put in a precarious/impossible financial position if the government advice says they can return to work but the kids don't have schools to return to or the option of asking family or friends to help because of coronavirus restrictions. I'm hoping the 50-page document will have some further detail on this area as many people will be affected by it.

Anyone that works in a school with children is in the same boat...it’s so frustrating. I’m a TA so need to go into work yet my child is in Y4 so can’t go in as are lots of the other TA’s and teachers. We can’t make use of the key worker provision either as it’s already full.

So Boris said this tonight: In response to a question on childcare arrangements for people who have been asked to return to work, but are not key workers and can therefore not send their children to schools, Johnson said it was an obvious barrier to work and employers should be understanding.

Still a bit vague - be good to have something more concrete in terms of protecting people's jobs. But at least it was raised!