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)

No it's basically saying early years can open and operate the same as wrap around etc which is key worker and vulnerable only

@Bonkerz read the section above on education - it says "Colleges, primary (reception onwards) and secondary schools will remain open for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers" this speaks to point two in the childcare section list.

So all pre-school children can continue to access childcare in nurseries, childminders etc. Separately, key worker and vulnerable children who are school age can continue to access schools and other care (eg. wrap-around, childminders etc).

It's doesn't say to all though just we can open.
When they opened us in June we could only have key and vulnerable.
In March they closed us completely.

Early years includes reception, my son’s is staying open over lockdown

Unlike schools nursery workers are not unionised workplaces. That is why they are still open because unions can grab the government by the bollocks forcing schools to close for health and safety. Nursery workers generally haven't organised a widely recognised Union hence they will go in and why I would always suggest being part of a union.

@bonkerz yes that's right, they are treating nurseries etc differently this time (rightly or wrongly). The general consensus is that parents of very young children cannot work full time from home and look after their children adequately. It's also why childcare bubbles are allowed this time and weren't available in March.

School based nurseries have discretion regarding whether to open or not. They are classed as childcare settings - I think Boris perhaps meant to reference continued access to "childcare settings" rather than "early years settings" as that would include reception. My sons nursery class in a London school is opening. The rest of the school is not

Can you believe that schools are having to work off KW guidance set by an academy trust??

Fucking joke.

If that's the case I'm not sure how I'll spin that to my EYFS team tbh. I'd imagine them all invoking the section 44.

Not sure how it's not safe for those working in 1-6 to have whole classes but in EYFS we can have the equivalent of a very small school in.

I'm going to message the exec head to check we are not changing our decision. Clarity around this needs to happen quickly.

Our nursery are taking key worker children only tomorrow.

@PatchworkElmer uh oh

Are they attached to a school by any chance? Or private?

@Tillsforthrills private. Reason given is that some local schools are closed tomorrow, even to key workers- so some staff have no childcare. They also have several pregnant/ CV staff and the email strongly implies that they are refusing to work and the nursery is likely to be unable to take all the kids. Which is fair enough, but flipping heck we are screwed if it happens again.

@PatchworkElmer

Apparently on another thread a virologist said on BBC the reason for npn-closure of nurseries is political not scientific.

This does make me worry about sending in DC and also for nursery workers.

@Tillsforthrills oh yes, I have no doubt that's the case. Although I do think the fact that nurseries are generally much smaller settings than schools, and generally staffed by younger employees helps (appreciate that this is a huge generalisation, but I would be astounded if the average age of school staff wasn’t much higher than the average age of nursery staff).

It almost certainly is political- pressure from parents but also from the industry itself I’d imagine, as so much of it is privately owned. And the staff are less likely to be unionised.

We’re in a relatively low risk area in terms of case numbers, so we’re happy to take the risk for now. This is mainly because DS desperately needs it- he’s only 4 but sobbed through loneliness during lockdown 1. If DS does bring Covid home- well, we’re literally having no contact with anyone else (apart from supermarket delivery drivers), so I’m confident that we wouldn’t spread it to others, and at least my conscience will be clear in that respect. DH and I are CV but the risk to DS is very low.

If case numbers go up, we will definitely re-think. I do wonder if the nursery will close soon anyway, and take the decision out of our hands.

I should add here that the nursery are saying that they will expect families to pay invoices in full, even if they’re not sending their children in. I think this will make a few people go for it when they otherwise wouldn’t. It’s a shame that they’re unable to give us the option to keep numbers in the setting low- and it would enable them to furlough some of the staff who were uneasy about being there.

Here it’s explained why they are opened
There are more rather than political.
www.eyalliance.org.uk/news/2021/01/dfe-provides-update-rationale-behind-decision-keep-early-years-providers-open

EasterIssland thank you!

That is extremely helpful EasterIssland, thank you!

Thank you, that makes sense. I hope they will carry on being open.

I'm in London, only 1 x covid case in the toddler room and none in the baby one. I've had lots of "child sent for a test" email so it's not that people aren't testing. Mostly assuming this is because they all had it but were asymptomatic.

@flattoppedtree so sorry to hear about the fire
I made this point on another thread but this further illustrates that children are not safe if the carer is trying to work and look after them
(Not meant to be a criticism of you, No one can physically be two different people!)