Our (primary) head says kids can only have place (London Borough with schools shut) if there are two keyworker parents not one.

[AdmiralButterfly]

Is this legal? I thought school or council had to find school place if one parent a keyworker. A doctor friend explained this to me in lockdown one that if they didn’t have school place the other parent would be doing it 24 hours a day as the doctor parent needs to sleep after their shift not take over childcare.

No doubt @Orf1abc but that doesn’t stop it being shit or near impossible.

This is my fear too, though fortunately our schools aren't closed yet. DH does the absolutely horrid 10 day shift pattern (2-2-2 and 4 off) and I work from home four days a week. I have no idea how I'm supposed to keep our small house vaguely quiet enough for him to get decent sleep after night shifts while trying to entertain a 4yo, home school an 8yo and work 9-5 myself. It won't work for him, mainly.

I'll be begging for a keyworker place if it comes to it. And I mean, literally begging.

This was the rule at both DC school and our private nursery in lockdown 1. Dh is a teacher and was in school providing keyworker/vulnerable childcare at his own school and I had to do all parenting/childcare as I'm not a keyworker. I was (still am) WFH full time so it wasn't easy, but we managed - I worked early hours, few half hour stints in the day when I could and then most my working day was post 7pm.

There may be an issue with staffing. I teach in one of the London boroughs where primaries are closed and 40% of our teachers were positive in the days following schools breaking up. Lots of these are still not well enough to work.

We will struggle to provide online learning (we do live lessons) and key worker provision. There will have to be a system of prioritisation.

Those non keyworker dad probably have to keep their jobs @InDireStraits to pay bills etc

Everybody needs to pay bills, regardless of being care worker or not. In fact non key workers are in a more vulnerable job position than partners of key workers as at least with a key worker in the family one income is safe.

@AdmiralButterfly

If my dh asked to be furloughed for childcare for example we’d not be able to pay mortgage as furlough is capped and if he tried to do job and childcare he’d probably be in the shit with employer for not doing job properly.

This is what many non keyworket families have been facing all year.

People in non key worker roles need to work so they keep their jobs too though. I’m not saying it’s easy but that’s the problem everyone’s dealing with & will be the thinking behind the two key worker parents rule.

@InDireStraits

I have 3 employees who cannot work next week for this reason.

This is surely because the other parent (I assume the dad) won’t step up & do the parenting when their key worker partner is at work. This admittedly is often because the employers of men won’t accept them being disrupted in the same way that women often have to cope with.

Having said that I don’t necessarily think it’s right to enforce a both parents must be key workers rule.

The issue here might be that the family are not prepared to jeopardise the higher salary. Often nursery workers and nurses are the lower paid in a couple.

"Not lots of kids @Soontobe60 for whatever reason. And doctor shifts are variable so if my doctor friend is working a night shift they then can’t sleep in the daytime in their small house if the kids are awake and being loud like cooped up kids do"

Even pre-covid my DH and I worked opposite shifts so he works weekday nights and I work weekend nights one of us has always slept during the day when the kids are at home. We are both keyworkers but didnt need to use the childcare space as we work opposite shifts like this. Our school and all the local nurseries have always required both parents to be keyworkers and during the first lockdown wanted proof that parents were keyworkers too. Like I say we have always worked opposite shifts to save money on childcare so we didn't need the place and won't again this time

How do shift workers manage with kids at home at the weekend? I know it's not easy, but lots of people are going to struggle for similar or other reasons. I think it depends on the numbers at the local school and how they can cope.

Same here, I think the idea is that school places are only for vulnerable children and for key worker children only if no possibility that the child could stay at home.
Otherwise schools are pretty much full and the idea of schools closing is that as many children stay at home as possible to reduce transmission of the virus.

How do shift workers manage with kids at home at the weekend?

DH takes DS out in the morning if I’ve come off nights.

I also sleep through tornadoes and earthquakes, so less of an issue for me than for most people.

@InDireStraits

I have 3 employees who cannot work next week for this reason.

This is surely because the other parent (I assume the dad) won’t step up & do the parenting when their key worker partner is at work. This admittedly is often because the employers of men won’t accept them being disrupted in the same way that women often have to cope with.

Having said that I don’t necessarily think it’s right to enforce a both parents must be key workers rule.

I work in a school, we will stay open as we are an SEN school. If my children can't have a key worker place then it will be me who doesn't work. My DH can't work from home and earns more than double me so for our family and ability to pay the bills it will be me that stays home.

OP I'm sure if your doctor friend approached the school politely and explained their particular situation something could be sorted.

As PP have said I think this is v tricky for schools. They need to be able to take kids where there's genuinely no other way they can be looked after without being exploited by parents who would (understandably) simply find it easier if their kids weren't at home.

@InDireStraits 1 is a widow, 1 is a single parent and 1 has a partner who works away from home so none of them have other options unfortunately

No doubt @Orf1abc but that doesn’t stop it being shit or near impossible.

That's pretty disrespectful to the thousands of people (mostly women) who bring their children up alone.

We have one keyworker parent and one not and qualified last time but didn't take up the offer as i didn't feel we should if we have an alternative. I was homeschooling x 2 and working full time from home and it nearly broke me.

My youngest then got to go back the last few weeks of term as a non keyworker priority year group. And i couldn't believe some of the kids in other years who were in school knowing what their parents did or didn't for a living. Some very tenuous links to keyworker status.

So, this time when it rolls around i will think harder before being a martyr and doing the right thing. I think ultimately i'll still try to do the right thing as i have to live with my conscience. But still, i was shocked before at the lack of social conscience. It was hard to explain it to smart kids too.

I think in the first lockdown, some hotels were putting up keyworker staff working shifts (especially frontline NHS who were more exposed to the virus, to protect their families). Does anyone know if this is still happening?

We are Scotland but my authority is 2 keyworkers. I am in full time teaching asn my kids are home. Dh, main earner is a haulier, starts at 3.30 finishes whenever. My kids will go to elderly grandparents. It's not easy but I am very lucky to have grandparents, if the situation gets bad in my school/authority then my kids will have to move in with grandparents to keep them safe.
My heart goes out to all parents who are struggling to find a way to do childcare and keep the roof over their heads.

1 is a widow, 1 is a single parent and 1 has a partner who works away from home so none of them have other options unfortunately

The first two can send their children to school. There is no second parent in the scenario!

The original legislation stated only one parent needed to be a key worker, so the schools are not following the law. I can’t remember if it’s still legislation or advice.

Meanwhile on another thread today a poster said she only works 3 days per week but would it be unreasonable to put her kids in school under the key worker provision for 5! Most replies encouraged it 🤔

Yes, because those other days can't be used anyway. 🙄 As was said, as nauseam.

This was the case in our school last time around too

@CoolKitkat

How do shift workers manage with kids at home at the weekend? I know it's not easy, but lots of people are going to struggle for similar or other reasons. I think it depends on the numbers at the local school and how they can cope.

At the weekend I'm not expected to work, that's the difference. Miserable as it is in the winter with nothing open, we go out for a few hours, then come back and watch a film, and by then DH might be getting up anyway.

I can't do this on a weekday when older DC has school work and I have work.

The issue here is not so much that I have to do everything with the kids while working, that's what so many people have to do at the moment - it's trying to do that while keeping the kids quiet so DH can get some desperately needed sleep