Will there be Keyworker care?

[Amonite]

If a school bubble or bubbles close is there still keyworker care as there was in the summer term?
Our children went to school throughout as we both have frontline keyworker roles. We are in a local lockdown area, if the children are sent home for 2 weeks surely keyworker children are exempt and can still attend?
We have no childcare options

Time to reduce the quarantine for kids. Make it 5 days, if no symptoms after that time, or they had symptoms and now feel better, back they go. It would reduce the pressure on tests

No, the solution to insufficient testing, is for the government to provide more tests, NOT for children to do half the quarantine.

No it not just about key either children but we want covid wards open - something needs to be provided.

I feel that children on the whole have been let down dreadfully.

@Pomegranatepompom

No it not just about key either children but we want covid wards open - something needs to be provided.

I feel that children on the whole have been let down dreadfully.

Children in state schools have, yes

I’m not suggesting schools provide childcare btw. I’m sure teachers want to teach...

The key worker children in my school had a clear advantage over their peers. From June 1st children using a key worker place had to attend school full time in full uniform and they had proper lessons during the course of a full school day in a small group so they each had lots of teacher feedback 1:1. It was really unfair to those children in thirty one

That is unfair. I only needed to send my DC a few days, but they didn’t even complete their home learning on the day’s they attended. They watched films and did some colouring !
It was clear it was childcare only.
Again demonstrates the inconsistencies which people found difficult.

But the school also didn’t support home learning.

Oops posted early. It was very unfair to children who could not attend school purely based on their parent’s job. The answer lies with the government sorting out the testing capacity and getting results to people more swiftly then they are able to get back to work and school. The term key worker needs to disappear from school as it has created inequality where KW children were taught and their peers at home weren’t or KW children were only given childcare and their peers were able to learn at home.

*I agree that this is a problem, especially for front-line NHS staff. Earlier in the pandemic everyone knew that these children would be heavily exposed via their parents, and yet they were still going to school. Of course it was much easier then because they were all in a single bubble together (a high exposure bubble).

Maybe hospitals will be able to provide some kind of childcare for parents in this position? But it's not going to work well as we get into the winter flu season if half the consultants and nursing staff are off work, not looking after the illest covid (and other) patients, so they can look after children who, very probably, don't have it anyway.*

I was coming on to say this, I dont think it's been thought through very well. My DH and I are both working fronline with NHS patients, non-covid, but these are people who are in desperate need of treatment and diagnosis and have already been hanging on without it for months. Huge backlog and it is really affecting our nation negatively- it's horrible.
Meanwhile we have 3 DC in primary. 3 separate classes. One has been sent home to isolate this week, and we really don't have any other options for childcare, well there aren't any are there? My parents are elderly and cant cope plus shielding, other relatives also work or are too far. I'm so worried about an impending merry-go-round of bubble closures throughout school that stretch over winter. This will be happening across the entire NHS surely? It just wasn't a problem during lockdown and up until now! Keyworker provision never threw up any issues, nobody got sent home. Now the exposure is so much greater, its going to be inevitable.
And to make matters worse, (this goes for all professions) no pay as its classed as parental leave.

Wonder if the mortgage company are still doing mortgage breaks? 🤔
So many people putting themselves at risk, healthcare, teachers, supermarket checkout operators etc. We never got furloughed. The memory of the claps on the doorstep aren't going to pay the bills.

Time to reduce the quarantine for kids. Make it 5 days, if no symptoms after that time, or they had symptoms and now feel better, back they go. It would reduce the pressure on tests

That will lead to further spread in schools with even more children being isolated. Bad strategy.

What the govt need to do is sort testing out. If schools had access, on site to a large number of tests, children and staff could be tested quickly. That would sort it out. That’s what schools were promised when we were told to open fully.

It hasn’t happened, obviously.

@Aragog

What's the point of quarantining kids for 14days on confirmation of a positive result if there's already been a significant amount of time between contact between them and the infected child.

It's 14 days from the last time you were in contact with them.

So say:

(day 1) Thursday - child a and b were sat in class together at school
(day 2) Friday - A doesn't come to school as feels poorly
(day 3) Saturday - A has symptoms and starts to isolate themselves
(day 5) Monday - A gets a test
(day 7) Wednesday - A gets a +ve result and lets school know

B then isolates for 14 days from the previous Thursday. They are already on day 7 - so they then isolate for a further 7 days.

You need have a word with schools then and let them know this, as they are sending the classes/years home to isolate for 14 days from result not last contact! Is there really a point isolating from 7 days after contact with the positive person surely the damage is already done by then in terms of spread and most would have showed symptoms by that point .

It is worrying that surgeries could well be cancelled due to the surgeons needing to stay at home with their children whilst they self isolate. Nightmare.

@gypsywater

It is worrying that surgeries could well be cancelled due to the surgeons needing to stay at home with their children whilst they self isolate. Nightmare.

It is, but seen as surgeons children, and any other frontline worker children arent immune to covid it is what it is

@gypsywater

It is worrying that surgeries could well be cancelled due to the surgeons needing to stay at home with their children whilst they self isolate. Nightmare.

Better than a potentially infected child taking it into school to infect a whole year group and a potentially infected surgeon taking it into a hospital though.

Far better would obviously be to have quick, easily available testing locally.

Let'seatgrandma Not if it was your life that would have been saved by the surgery.

Concerned77 But actually there is a fair chance they are immune. But for some reason this doesn't count for covid. People can donate their plasma for those who are very ill and then be forced to quarantine because some random who was in their vicinity has tested positive for Covid. Which is clearly ridiculous.

@StarCat2020 I don't have a link but the surgeon emailed in to radio 4 today and the interviewer put it to Pritti Patel as a question.

Which she promptly floundered on!

Someone did point out upthread is maybe misheard - it probably wouldn't be two weeks but they were both having to isolate till a child's test came back and they'd already been waiting days which had resulted in cancelled operations.

Surely the antibodies should count. Why bother testing nhs staff if there's no benefit.

No children of key workers won’t be able to go to school in case they’re infected with coronavirus. Both myself and dh are teachers and have primary age children. If their bubbles break down then we would have to stay off school to look after them (we’d share the responsibility) which will leave our classes without teachers. I wouldn’t expect my children to go to school though because they might spread the infection.

@Treesofwood

Surely the antibodies should count. Why bother testing nhs staff if there's no benefit.

Because a) it’s how they discovered you could have it whilst being asymptomatic b) at some point we will have data about how protective the antibodies are and how long they last etc

This is a new virus, remember. We need data to understand it.

we both have frontline keyworker roles
I don't know why but this irritates me because so many jobs come under this phrase "frontline keyworker".

Newsreaders, people working in supermarkets and those working in food factories are all keyworkers according to the COVID guidance.

Surely frontline means looking after people who are acutely unwell?

I hear people taking less about being KW thankfully, I don’t know anyone who uses it at work. I remember I kept seeing more people in uniform in supermarkets which was completely inappropriate & unnecessary (unless you a paramedic popping to get lunch pre shift).

Feminist10101 I think 6 people in the world have become infacted. People who have had it, confirmed, should be exempt from all these quarantines self isolation etc. We accept negative tests even though there's a 1 in 5 chance they are wrong. 6 out of however many million is fine.

I think the OP asked a reasonable question and was jumped on by people assuming she meant that teachers should offer childcare.

I’d like to know what happens when frontline intensive care staff cannot go to work due to childcare issues. When ventilators cannot be operated adequately. I’m talking anaesthetists and intensive care consultants.

My DH falls into this category. Presumably we’d like these people in the hospital if we get sick? Currently 10% of his colleagues are isolating because their children have a symptom and they can’t get tested.

This is why it was a reasonable question.

Surely it would be better to give tests to those keyworkets dc, ASAP.

Perhaps NHS trusts will look to have some provision for healthy isolating kids of key workers. My trust was very proactive in sourcing childcare options for clinical staff during the initial lockdown. But I'd like the term 'keyworker' to be redefined in such cases, where others lives would be at risk if their care were postponed by 2 weeks.