Will childminders and nurseries close?

[duploid]

I know nobody will know for sure until Boris speaketh, but anyone have any intel on whether nurseries and childminders will stay open?

(I've searched existing threads and didn't see anything)

I very much doubt it 😖 if schools shut nurseries will follow suit. Dreading trying to juggle a 2 year old plus working a full day. I already do way over my hours so not sure how much more I could split my working day. DH can't work from home so just me.
Having some very low thoughts today

I am a deputy manager at a nursery and if we go into lockdown then we will open for vulnerable and key worker children.

So want to know the answer to this question but I doubt it will even be obvious when he makes the announcement. Probably will have to wait for the guidelines to come out. My kids are at school nursery which is obviously shut now (London).

If schools close, they should

A childminder who looks after 3-4 toddlers will be very different from a school. Last time there was initially protection for childminders but not nurseries but then it all changed. Sigh.

I think they will close. It sounds like they are going for a no household mixing which includes children. It will be very much a March style lockdown.

I hope so, if schools close.
We need fewer people able to transmit, so more at home. Last time was hardly a lockdown at all, nothing changed. Still as many people on the roads, in supermarkets, packed into parks with no social distancing.
Close the lot for 3 months.

@GypsyLee do you have a nursery age child and work full time?

No, my children do though, and I have one doing A levels.
I wouldn't be sending any of my dc to nursery or school.

Mine has said not but asked for KW children.

Most of them got it in a big wave in November. They probably feel they've reached herd immunity.

I teach SEN so have to have a nursery place

I wonder how it will impact childcare bubbles too.... I hate the not knowing and waiting

We've been told that we can continue to take all children, regardless of key worker status.
It's not clear if they mean school age as well - or even if they realise that childminders care for older children as well.
Of course, that might change with tonight's announcement...

It's so stressful not knowing. Neither the childminder nor the families will want them to close.

I wish he would speak before 8.

@GypsyLee why wouldn't you send you child to nursery though? How do full time people work if this setting is shut? Any ideas?

Very easy for you to make flippant comments having got older children.

Just spoke with our private nursery (ie. not attached to a school) they confirmed if we go into lock down it will be key worker children only. I want to cry

Desperate for them to keep nursery open but dont think they're going to by the sounds of it.

Very easy for you to make flippant comments having got older children 1000% this
The closure of nurseries isn’t to protect the children it’s to protect the adults and wider society

We've not had one covid case in our nursery, junior school or high school.......

I expect them to close, because it’s not just putting more limits in place but going back to the “spirit” of March’s lockdown - ie people genuinely not leaving their house except when necessary. The more they leave open (whether nurseries or garden centres), the more they undermine that message.

It’s horrendous, I know, I had to wfh with a 2.5 year old whilst heavily pregnant last time. If I hadn’t been able to go on maternity leave early I would have ended up getting signed off sick.

If they close nurseries and childminders then childcare bubbles should not be allowed.

@whatwouldyoudo85 I understand that it may not look fair if childcare bubbles remain, but in reality childcare bubbles don’t have the high levels of mixing, and should be exclusive therefore not contributing to the chains of transmission in the same way that perhaps nurseries and schools do.

They added the second paragraph of this to the contingency framework today:

Where the contingency framework is implemented, all early years settings (including nurseries and childminders) should continue allowing all children to attend.

In the very unlikely event that evidence supports limiting attendance in early years settings, DfE may advise that only vulnerable children and children of critical workers should be allowed to attend.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-contingency-framework-for-education-and-childcare-settings/contingency-framework-education-and-childcare-settings-excluding-universities

Yesterday the first paragraph was there but not the second. I have no idea what that means - whether it's priming a declaration that the evidence doesn't support closure or whether it's priming a declaration that they're closed - but it must be significant?

@stinkysaurus I'm guessing you're part of a childcare bubble then?

[quote StinkySaurus]@whatwouldyoudo85 I understand that it may not look fair if childcare bubbles remain, but in reality childcare bubbles don’t have the high levels of mixing, and should be exclusive therefore not contributing to the chains of transmission in the same way that perhaps nurseries and schools do.[/quote]
The thing is that if formal childcare closes a lot of people will start new childcare bubbles that they don't currently have - and that's likely to mean a lot more older people mixing with those children.