If schools aren’t back to normal sept?

[gingajewel]

If schools aren’t back to normal September and you are back to work what are you planning to do? Also do you think the key worker provision will stay for September or do you think it will only available to the summer holidays?

Ours are going back part time in Aug. Don’t know how long for. We can both WFH and will probably still be allowed to, so we’ll just carry on with what we’re doing now, which is tag-team and vaguely supervise around a lot of TV getting watched. There is zero chance we’ll be able to do any more than bare minimum of any ‘home learning’.

@pitterpatterrain
Not to put a spanner in the works but what if schools are staggering the start/end times of different year groups or alternating which years are in. Depending on which children your childminder has they may not be able to do drop off/pick up.

Thanks for all your perspectives! I am a key worker, wfh at the moment so my kids are at home. I get the impression many of you think there may still be key worker provision in September however I have just realised, as mentioned by a pp, that my children will either be in the key worker group or year group! My eldest is going into year six and my youngest reception! I unfortunately can’t afford to give up my job, I have to work so am worrying about all of this!

I'm a newly unemployed, newly single mum. I'm screwed back, front and sideways. Ex is a narcissist arse who is already trying to wriggle out of his share of the childcare we'd agreed because (quote) "you're not working and I have to be at work" paraphrase: "I'm very busy and important and I don't give a shit if this makes it impossible for you to find and keep a job"

Circumstances can change at any moment and when you work as a parent, your choices are:

parents work around each other, have a number of teen/6th form/ni students numbers, have a small group of parents to look after each other’s, nannies, au pairs, siblings, grandparents, look for flexi work, change job, brush up skills to help change carers/jobs, childminders or quit when there is no other choice.

I spoke to my year6 head of year at pick up today, if social distancing is still necessary he said "all children should be offered an education so perhaps a rota system" ........which can only be a nightmare surely. I am a SAHM BUT have many working mum friends, and no one, NO ONE could have planned for reduced, rota, alternative days, school hours. 3 months is a long time.

And MN were very keen to say women would not be more adversely affected by this I remember a couple of weeks ago

Very apparent we will be- it is very concerning.

have a small group of parents to look after each other’s, nannies, au pairs, siblings, grandparents

Then what is the point in this - children less at risk anyway, better to be in school than pass on to everyone else, I understand the ideas but overall it doesn't make sense does it. Why not be in with teachers and classmates

Our family is very lucky. We won’t face any real issues. I already worked from home and dd is old enough to
Do most of her school work independently.
My only real concern will be if the school is providing enough real work, if they don’t, we will be supplementing the curriculum or looking into private schooling.

@orangeblossom78

There's no evidence that more women will have to resign for childcare reasons than men.

Each family will take the decision that is right for them- primarily based on which parent earns more and which is able to facilitate flexible working I suspect.

I'm expecting a lot of resignations come September at my place when we return to normal working practices, and I think many men will choose to go as well as women.

Our school have asked if theres any children who dont have access to a device such as an iPad/laptop as part of their long term plans. I feel this is stemming from there not being a full time provision for all children come September as many of the children without a device have already missed a large amount of work this way and there isn't very long left of this academic year left.
If they do offer part time or rota situation this will be a nightmare for parents who have more than 1 child who are in different year groups potentially being in at different days and times.

Are some parents planning to club resources together for day clubs? On the assumption that households will be allowed to mix by then? I don't have school age kids, but if I did I'd be looking for community space to do this.

For us it looks like it will be keyworker bubble and not any specific teaching Or a few days a week of reception but I have to stop work to make the hours work.

So either sacrifice the kids education or my career (and one less dr working). It’s going to have to be my career I think which is shit but kid needs to get an education - I’m also not sure what my legal responsibility is re schooling, if I know they are not educating her in keyworker bubble am I still fulfilling my legal duty to educate her if I send her?

There's no evidence that more women will have to resign for childcare reasons than men. Each family will take the decision that is right for them- primarily based on which parent earns more and which is able to facilitate flexible working I suspect.

@FrenchSeal either you're not actually employing anyone, or you need to pay a lot more attention to your employees. Already the number of women furloughed for childcare reasons vastly outweighed the number of men, and who do you think earns more in most couples? And often, that is the case because the woman has already had to take a step back to care for children. Flexible working is often linked to tenure, which again is higher for men who haven't had to take career breaks for children.

I am the main earner in my relationship, as are a number of my female colleagues, and all but one of us are taking the lead on homeschooling and more, and I'd guarantee that we'd be the ones to quit if needed - instead we've mostly taken on nannies, but that is a very privileged option not available to the majority of parents.

This is going to be a disaster for women, and therefore for the wider economy, as a large group of skilled and motivated (and tax-paying, pension-contributing) employees drop out of the workforce, due to a short term childcare issue - and will likely find it hard to return at anything like the same level.

The thing is I did have grandparents etc to look after my kids but we can’t mix households and my mom is shielding , so the people that help me out aren’t available at the moment and there is no evidence they will be available in September either.
It’s so simplistic to say women won’t be adversely affected, in the real world of course they will. Not on Mumsnet where everyone can afford nannies and au pairs and there is a raft of available babysitters, in the real world people (mostly women) have to make hard desicions! It’s easy to day retrain, how? I can’t afford to go back to uni (and have just finished a masters) I don’t want to retrain I enjoy my field of work! This is an issue that can go on for months and in the real world is a very real problem for so many people.

Shielding no longer exists in England unless another Uturn has happened.

Oh, I know in the real world it's an issue many faces.

This is another slap in the face for all single parents out there.

I don't know if my business can survive so I've been studying for free to brush up my skills. As a female, it's what I have always done. When I was a sahp I used that time to learn new skills, keep up to date in other areas, distance learning, student loans etc.

I know it's hard, worrying about it won't help. You and if there is one, the partner have to sit down and sort all this out together. Get your thinking head-on because no-one will come up and give you a solution, well not all the time.

Furlough will end in November at the very latest. If companies cannot support flexi, work from home etc because it isn't in the interests of the company, that's it. Work on how you are going to sell this to the company. For those who are wfh successfully will have a good case. Those who haven't been as productive, there is no incentive for the business to let that person continue wfh.

Bosses will take all that into consideration. Many of the devices used have been provided by the company, all that history might be deleted to you, but not necessarily to them.

The problem is I can’t really sort anything out because I don’t know what is going to happen! Like I said I am a key worker so if there is still going to be key worker provision in September I can send my kids to school and that’s great!
The government suggested that nursery went back 1st June and my daughters school haven’t, so I had originally gave them a 1st June date that I may be available to not work from home anymore, but it hasn’t happened! My mom is a teacher so has my kids in the six weeks as does my friend but we can’t mix households so we now have no childcare for august! No play schemes are accepting children, no childminders by me have spaces and when I looked for a nanny, the nearest one was 27 miles away, literally no one would ever have a nanny where I live, it’s laughable!!
Myself and oh have cobbled together some plans till august but after then I think both our employers will be a lot less tolerable on us dishing out the childcare line!

Basically if school aren't back to normal, people are going to break all the social distancing rules to survive. They'll be mixing bubbles by using childcare and school, or friends will start co-opt childcare for the workers, or older grandparents will unshield themselves so their children and grandchildren aren't adversely affected. Not everyone, but enough to make the bubbles ineffective.

It would be better to manage the situation that pretend this won't happen 🤷‍♂️

@imaystillbedrunk you are totally totally right!

OP if I was you I would 100% use grandparents for childcare in the summer holidays if you feel it's safe enough. Make a risk assessment and act accordingly dont not do it just because someone in Parliament tells you not too. I am using grandparents now as are probably many others as the alternative is too quit my job and I can't afford to do that.

We'll also no longer be allowing any staff to work from home

Why? If you've lasted this long with everyone working from home, you'll survive with some working from home.

I guess it is a good way of avoiding redundancies. Just sack people. Good luck with that in an employment tribunal, I suspect a lot of your employees have more than two years' service.

This is why you need to join a union people.

Shielding no longer exists in England unless another Uturn has happened

Shielding was only ever voluntary. All the government has said is that if you want to go out for a walk, you can. Probably reflecting what's going in real life for a lot of people who just need to get out of the house and see someone (from a distance) who they don't live with. The risks are tiny even if you have a serious condition.

Those who haven't been as productive, there is no incentive for the business to let that person continue wfh

True but I would suggest that those who don't work well at home don't work well in the office either. And some may not have been productive because they are trying to look after kids too. Once they have childcare in place again, things will change.

Trying to work while supervising DC is simply not feasible (although I realise why it has been necessary). We've also had numerous clients complaining about babies and DC interrupting our virtual meetings and conference calls with them

Don't believe the client part. Everyone is in the same boat - even clients have kids.

And the first part will be solved if childcare is reinstated.

Also if you sack everyone how are you going to run your business?

People will have to decide do they want social distancing which means not all children can go back to school which could mean they end up having to quit their job or are they going to be prepared to say the risk is low and normality resumes ....because it cant be both so it depends on what importance you will place.

@puffinandkoala yea I know it was only guidelines, I did my own risk assessments because realistically it's impossible. I mentioned this because the op had excluded shielders as possible options.

No-one would be sacking anyone. Not all those staff are working and the company have said to all from September wfh is to stop. They have been given enough time to make a formal request. As long as employees can prove it's in the companies interest, it will be granted. Reasonable adjustments etc will still be valid. From September it would be no different to if the office relocated elsewhere.

Many are on 0 hour contracts, don't have jobs that can be done online etc and are on furlough. Nail technicians cannot work from home, so why should the company pay them whilst paying someone else

And of course, I forgot, there are the various unpaid options available to both parents.