Nurseries staying open

[meow1989]

To coin a mn phrase: is Boris on glue?!

So now I will have to pay to keep my toddler off to keep him (and us) safe?!

I think it's upsetting to see childcare professionals insist that nursery is an indulgence with no value

But no one has said this! You Just seem to want to attack them.

What they have said is that peer to peer contact isn’t crucial at this age, and that 6 weeks without it won’t harm a child’s long term development. You do seem intent on twisting their words.

I totally get why some parents send their kids in, especially the ones who will lose a job/sole income/ house if they don’t.

But don’t vilify nursery workers for being scared for their health like everyone else. And don’t pretend they don’t care about their job and the kids they care for.

“ don’t vilify nursery workers for being scared for their health like everyone else”

No one is doing this either, so don’t paint it that way. Parents are the ones being called selfish here. Everyone is desperate and anxious

I really want to sign the petition mentioned up thread but I don't think nurseries should close, so I'm reluctant to. I think they should be open for vulnerable children and key workers. They could also open for families who have both parents working on a case by case basis. But I do not agree with parents sending their children in if they have any other option whatsoever. I think this shouldn't be allowed. I also don't think parents who aren't sending their children in should have to pay to keep their child's place, that is unfair. Is there a petition for a scenario like that? I really, really feel for early years workers and think that they are total superheroes.

parents should be choosing not to send their child into nursery and keep them at home if they can do so

Are nurseries going to refund parents their fees if parents do this? If our nursery agreed I didn't have to pay, I'd consider finding alternative childcare for DS or taking unpaid leave.

Are nurseries going to refund parents their fees if parents do this? If our nursery agreed I didn't have to pay, I'd consider finding alternative childcare for DS or taking unpaid leave.

Yes I agree, it's a bit unfair to say keep paying hundreds but you have to struggle at home to balance everything for the pleasure

@Backbee. Where we are, parents pay over £1,500 a month for a full-time nursery place. So it's not pennies we're talking about.

If one parent takes unpaid leave to care for their child, how are the family meant to pay their nursery fees plus housing costs, bills etc. out of one salary.

I wish people would stop banging on about parents working from home and caring for their nursery age child at the same time - many of us are not doing that again, ok, because we don't want our children to end up in A&E. So please rule that out as a sensible option for most people.

Absolutely agree parents who aren't sending their children should not be paying. It comes down to a choice of whether to prioritise health over money and the survival of the business. A lot of businesses have had this choice taken out of their hands during this pandemic.

I think we either have to learn to live with this risk and accept a lot of people's health is going to suffer, potentially in a really bad way or we need to accept that some business can't survive this and concentrate on getting this virus controlled and then businesses start from scratch again when possible.

Nursery aged children the constant supervision... How are you supposed to work from home with a nursery aged child at home?

Far more people will be able to work from home with nurseries being open... Its not hard to work out.

I'm an Early Years Practitioner and I am really worried about this decision. As mentioned before you can manage some sort of distancing between yourself and children in schools but in a nursery its impossible as you are constantly reading with a child on your knee, playing games, changing wet clothes/nappies, comforting etc and therefore coming into close contact with the children and everyone the children has been in contact with. I am then going home to my dc and dh and passing whatever germs I've picked up to them and all for a lesser wage than I would get working at Sainsburys. We are very under appreciated by the government and underpaid. We all have to have professional qualifications to fulfil this role yet seem to be at the bottom of the pile. The question many have asked is "are we not as important as staff in schools?" Very concerned.

@MessAllOver I was agreeing with you!

“ The question many have asked is "are we not as important as staff in schools?"”

I completely get this but you must remember that staff in schools are not deemed more important - that is not the government rationale for shutting schools. It’s not to protect teachers. It’s to protect the NHS from being overwhelmed. You might feel that that is better done by including nurseries in the closure, but don’t imagine that the government gives any more of a shit about teachers

However, I do think childcare and preschool teaching should be better paid and better recognised

I think nursery staff do have valid concerns about whether nurseries are Covid-safe, but the problem is that if nurseries shut, many won't reopen. Numbers are already almost 15% down on pre-pandemic level and demand is dropping sharply. There is a funding crisis in early years. If parents have to withdraw their children, many will make alternative childcare arrangements or reorganise their working patterns so many children won't return to nurseries.

Shutting (and refunding fees to parents) is the right thing to do health-wise but financially it could destroy the sector.

@Backbee. Sorry, I wasn't arguing with you in that comment - sorry if it came across like that .

@Lavanderrose

That is what the Government want. In reality, most parents who are unemployed and receiving two year funding don't get jobs because they will lose the two year funding. I have worked as a Preschool manager for 8 years, not one parent receiving two year funding who was unemployed has got a job. Sometimes the reason for this is because they will be worse off working.

I posted on another thread that I agree with nurseries staying open because:

• Hard as it is to work with primary kids around, it’s impossible to do so with toddlers and babies. We need to keep as many people working and spending/not homeless and on benefits as is at all possible.

• Nurseries are on the whole much, much smaller than most schools so the risk of family to family transmission is much reduced.

• Many nurseries and childminders are open all year round and remained open last summer while cases steadily fell, it has therefore been proven that nurseries being open and schools closed is enough to allow cases to fall.

I know there are also many good reasons why people think nurseries should close but I personally feel the right balance has been struck. Closing nurseries as well as schools would likely add very little to the reduction in cases but would render a significant number of extra people (women, let’s be honest) unemployed due to lack of childcare, thereby further fucking our already largely fucked economy. Also due to the way private nurseries are funded, many will never survive another closure resulting in further unemployment of nursery staff and significant long term problems for parents needing to access childcare after the next few weeks/months.

For once I agree with the Government’s decision on this and ultimately parents still have a choice if they don’t want to send their kids in. However, I sympathise hugely with the position of nursery staff and strongly believe they should be prioritised for the vaccine, followed rapidly by teachers.

Many of us relying on nurseries don’t have the luxury of grandparents or other family support, the flip side of that being that our kids don’t leave nursery and then mingle with other (potentially vulnerable) people. I do my bit to help nursery staff by living a very small and careful life otherwise and limiting the risk my kids pose to them. But I will send them until I’m forced not to and I believe they should, on balance, remain open.

I think there's a misconception that schools were closed because of the risk to teachers. I think they were closed because of the role that they were playing in community transmission - i.e. teachers and pupils spreading it to vulnerable groups who then needed hospital treatment. Obviously some teachers are in vulnerable groups too.

Keeping early years settings open is partly because they don't play anything like as much of a role in community transmission. It's not about saying that nursery workers aren't as important as teachers (most teachers are still going in every day to look after key worker children anyway)

Our nursery has closed (even to keyworkers like dh and I) due to staff concerns. We need to find alternative provision. We are getting the 30hrs funding but does anybody know if we are able to transfer it to our new provider?

Seems a bit unfair that nursery can close, keep our funding and then we have to fork out £££ to be able to keep working

@bravefox yes you can transfer it. Your current childcare setting may need to do this. Just give the new setting your 30 hours code

It is certainly tough to work from home with a toddler - DH and I been doing it since March. We're both keyworkers (not front line) but just cannot justify the infection risk to us, our toddler, other kids and the nursery staff

Great but not everyone is in the same position. We have an 18 month old and a just turned 4 year old. It would break us to wfh around both of them. Some parents only one of them can wfh. Some parents are trying to home school older children and also wfh and also look after a toddler.

Some toddlers are harder work than others. In the first lockdown, my neighbour told me how hard it was that his 3 year old would only sit and colour for an hour at a time, mine wouldn't entertain himself for more than 5 mins at a time.

You just don't know everyone's situations.

*“ don’t vilify nursery workers for being scared for their health like everyone else”

No one is doing this either, so don’t paint it that way. Parents are the ones being called selfish here. Everyone is desperate and anxious*

Actually some of the comments on here about nursery workers have been quite disparaging. A small minority are being very hostile towards nursery workers, and deliberately twisting what they have said to imply they don’t care about their jobs.

I don’t agree that parents should be called selfish either. Yes it is a horrendous situation for everyone and there are no easy answers.

[quote krj2688]@bravefox yes you can transfer it. Your current childcare setting may need to do this. Just give the new setting your 30 hours code [/quote]
Thanks @krj288 ! Will get on this today

Excellent post @SnailortheWhale.

I do wish they would offer the vaccine to EY workers straight away if they want them to remain open.

@OverTheRainbow88

I do wish they would offer the vaccine to EY workers straight away if they want them to remain open.

Me too @OverTheRainbow88 !

Just to add that our nursery rang us today to advise that they are suspending fees for those families (like us) who are choosing not to send their children in during this period. This was a pleasant surprise!

I know it won’t solve everyone’s problems but I thought it was a progressive step. Ours is part of a big chain that may have the initials BH so could become widespread practice, albeit not for all nurseries.