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?!

@Pl242

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.

Wow you are v v lucky @pi242 . Ours completely shut with no notice, no mention about reimbursing fees and no advice about what critical worker families like ours should do next. Nobody seems to be answering the phone/emails either.

Nurseries should be open; and indeed schools should be open too.
What on earth do people think is going to happen - that all the young are going to die of Covid? The very reason for the vaccine being rolled out to the old first is because that is who is (or rather, can be - it's not a death sentence) vulnerable to it.

What on earth do people think is going to happen - that all the young are going to die of Covid?

The amazing thing with “the young” is that they have parents, grandparents and teachers.

I’m really conflicted on this as I am glad that my 2 year old gets to keep some normality through going to nursery still but I also am concerned for the staff at nursery. We are, thankfully, in an area with low rates currently but well aware that can be quick to change.

I’m due to go on maternity leave at the end of the month and would be happy to keep her out of nursery until things settle down... if, like a PP said, nursery agreed to suspend fees for me pulling her out and it wouldn’t affect her having a place there. As it is, nursery would expect full fees even if I kept her off. With the best intentions, if I wanted to piss the best part of 1k away a month without receiving anything in return it definitely wouldn’t be in nurseries pot...

@thefallthroughtheair

Nurseries should be open; and indeed schools should be open too. What on earth do people think is going to happen - that all the young are going to die of Covid? The very reason for the vaccine being rolled out to the old first is because that is who is (or rather, can be - it's not a death sentence) vulnerable to it.

I think that they are going to spread it to the old and vulnerable and the others currently taking up space in my ICU. We also have a few young people in our peads department with COVID.

There seems to be a common misconception that, because we are not a school, Early Years, have fewer contacts. This simply isn't the case. When my setting is at it's full capacity, we can have up to 40 children and several staff all in the same room, so just shy of 50 households mixing. This is far more than any school bubble...or any other setting that I can think of...and WITHOUT social distancing or PPE.

Just some food for thought there.

Spotted this article on the BBC - makes a ln interesting read.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-55552711

I can absolutely see that different settings have different capabilities in terms of keeping groups separate and areas ventilated. My child’s nursery has several different rooms, each with separate outside space, around a larger central room, so they have been able to restrict small bubbles to the smaller rooms and outside space easily. The preschool he will go to next year is just one room with all the children and staff in it together

@dumbledory my childminder can only legally have 6 children so some settings will have less contacts.

@PegLegTrev

This is true...but not all settings are comparable. Childminders may be coming into contact with six contacts...a nursery worker may work in a room with a relatively small bubble...preschools, such as mine, can have upwards of 50 contacts all in the same poorly ventilated room, with no PPE. It is no wonder that government announcing that we are to open to all children as usual, disregarding the SAGE advice that we close to all but keyworker and vulnerable children and without any PPE or further protection, that staff will naturally worry about case rates of a new variant being 1-30. We are human and have our own health and families to worry about, as does everyone else. Except nobody else is being asked to work in these conditions.

I wish it were the case that all Early Years settings are equal and covid-secure, but this is unfortunately true.

If I was a nursery worker I would just work with full PPE and socially distance anything less then section 44 health and safety act letter goes in. Child falls over and bumps head then just let him get up himself. If he spends all day crying then fine no cuddles for anyone. That would soon bring things to a close. The problem with nursery workers and I live with one is they care too much and won't stick up for themselves by joining a union. Us software engineers wouldn't be 2 meters from a crying snotty kid in the present circumstances.

@EssentialHummus

What on earth do people think is going to happen - that all the young are going to die of Covid?

The amazing thing with “the young” is that they have parents, grandparents and teachers.

This I don't care one dot about somebody else's snotty darling. I do care about nursery staff and their families catching the virus.

A professional would hand in the section 44 before a child was left distressed and alone if that’s how they felt

@Wherehavetheteletubbiesgone

If I was a nursery worker I would just work with full PPE and socially distance anything less then section 44 health and safety act letter goes in. Child falls over and bumps head then just let him get up himself. If he spends all day crying then fine no cuddles for anyone. That would soon bring things to a close. The problem with nursery workers and I live with one is they care too much and won't stick up for themselves by joining a union. Us software engineers wouldn't be 2 meters from a crying snotty kid in the present circumstances.

Thank God you're not a nursery worker....

@Wherehavetheteletubbiesgone I get your point but surely that would be cruel and unnecessary. It would be less cruel and more effective to just go on strike or something. Saying that, everyone expected HCPs and care staff to continue working throughout the first wave even without adequate PPE. I'm wondering if you would have supported all of them to just refuse to treat anyone in that period?

@Wherehavetheteletubbiesgone

If I was a nursery worker I would just work with full PPE and socially distance anything less then section 44 health and safety act letter goes in. Child falls over and bumps head then just let him get up himself. If he spends all day crying then fine no cuddles for anyone. That would soon bring things to a close. The problem with nursery workers and I live with one is they care too much and won't stick up for themselves by joining a union. Us software engineers wouldn't be 2 meters from a crying snotty kid in the present circumstances.

Helpful

They’re just being provocative

[quote MeadowHay]@Wherehavetheteletubbiesgone I get your point but surely that would be cruel and unnecessary. It would be less cruel and more effective to just go on strike or something. Saying that, everyone expected HCPs and care staff to continue working throughout the first wave even without adequate PPE. I'm wondering if you would have supported all of them to just refuse to treat anyone in that period?[/quote]
So you are just going to grumble and put up with it. I fully support nursery workers right to strike over this.

About HCP working without PPE then absolutely true i agree there too everyone has a right to work in safety no PPE no work.

@Wherehavetheteletubbiesgone you don't care about other people's children but want people to care about nursery workers....

And let's be honest you only care about your dp, and the way you refer to your dp sounds like you are a controlling bossy twat.

They don't stick up for themselves, blah blah blah, and us software engineers wouldn't have it.
I've come across tonnes of software engineers who are happy to break lockdown to get a shag

@Wherehavetheteletubbiesgone

If I was a nursery worker I would just work with full PPE and socially distance anything less then section 44 health and safety act letter goes in. Child falls over and bumps head then just let him get up himself. If he spends all day crying then fine no cuddles for anyone. That would soon bring things to a close. The problem with nursery workers and I live with one is they care too much and won't stick up for themselves by joining a union. Us software engineers wouldn't be 2 meters from a crying snotty kid in the present circumstances.

Well aren’t you just delightful

@Sitt

I can absolutely see that different settings have different capabilities in terms of keeping groups separate and areas ventilated. My child’s nursery has several different rooms, each with separate outside space, around a larger central room, so they have been able to restrict small bubbles to the smaller rooms and outside space easily. The preschool he will go to next year is just one room with all the children and staff in it together

DS’ nursery is like this too. The staff there are absolutely fantastic. Luckily not one of them has the mentality of Wherehavetheteletubbiesgone Who, quite frankly, scares me with the use of language on referring to other people’s children.

The problem with nursery workers and I live with one is they care too much and won't stick up for themselves by joining a union. Us software engineers wouldn't be 2 meters from a crying snotty kid in the present circumstances.

Well you might as well hug a snotty kid if you live with someone who is.!

I think Nursery staff should seriously consider handing in the section 44 to their employers, I’m certainly considering it. We don’t wear PPE and we can’t socially distance. Therefore we cannot be called “Covid secure”

This government should be damn well ashamed at their failure to stick to their own message of “stay at home protect the NHS”. It’s pure hypocrisy to keep Nurseries open to any Tom Dick or Harry. They either want to drive down community transmission or they don’t. Nurseries should not be open for anyone except keyworkers kids. And the term “Keyworker” needs to be strictly defined, oh and both parents should need to be Keyworkers. We have parents who don’t work but are still dropping their kids off with us, it’s pure bloody selfishness.

My dh is a hospital Dr and is gobsmacked that Nurseries are open. His hospital has over 300 Covid cases and they are cancelling much needed surgery and cancer diagnostic tests. It’s chaos.

They either want to drive down community transmission or they don’t.

Surely, they must have lots of evidence suggesting that nurseries aren’t drinking up transmission?

@OverTheRainbow88 if they have that evidence perhaps they should share it? But I don’t believe they do. On BBC breakfast news the other day a member of SAGE made it quite clear that keeping nurseries open was wrong, and that it had been a purely political decision not a scientific one.