Told to isolate - can i collect children from school?

[petitdonkey]

Apologies if this has been done! I’ve just received a notification to isolate for eight days (I went to the supermarket on Saturday and was at work- no other contact!) - my children are at school, perhaps a stupid question but am I allowed to drive to pick up and drop off this week?? I have just emailed work who I guess won’t be thrilled...

What a PITA!!!

I am very fortunate that I do have people who can help and the money to pay for a taxi- many don’t. The bigger issue is whether there is more risk me driving them and not leaving the car or putting them in a car with another person that they could potentially infect...

This thread is crazy.

Obviously OP should pick up her own children and just stay in the car, as long as she doesn't need to stop for petrol etc.

Tbh I wouldn't be too happy if I was another parent and OP asked me to drive her kids home because she's been in contact with Covid, meaning they potentially have too.

@petitdonkey

I am very fortunate that I do have people who can help and the money to pay for a taxi- many don’t. The bigger issue is whether there is more risk me driving them and not leaving the car or putting them in a car with another person that they could potentially infect...

Exactly, it's less risk for you to take them. Unfortunately common sense seems to have fallen by the wayside over the past year.

I'd pick them up and stay in the car. No other choice. Ignore the critics on here.

I would pick them up today (staying in the car) and then try to arrange alternatives for tomorrow onwards.

People can be irrational about this! You could easily have been 2 hours from home at work when the alert came through, you might even have had to travel home on the bus, honestly some posters wouldn't be satisfied if you'd set yourself and the M&S store on fire after the notification

Well yes you would be putting other people at risk by making them give your kids a lift. Common sense is required here.

Sorry you're getting so judged, standard response on here unfortunately, they seem to get off on it.

I would guarantee loads of these are breaking the rules somewhere.

Ring another parent and ask them to drop them off?

Yes, CLEARLY the logical thing to do here is to sit at home and get the children who have spent the past 3 days living with a potentially covid positive person to get in a car with a school friend and their parent and the other child to get on public transport and spread their covid far and wide...OR the potentially positive person drives and stays in their car, picks up her kids and doesnt get out the car and keeps it all within the small bubble in which they live rather then passing it on to mates and friends and a different taxi driver twice a day to and from school or busses full of people...or trains...

Covid really has shown how dense the general public are

@Moonstone1234

It constantly surprises me that many people have no one in the world to help them out, no partner, no family, no friends, no friendly neighbours, dont want to pay out for a taxi etc.

I get the impression they just want to do what they like and when people ask them if they could ask a friend they say they dont have any.

It's not that. It's just nonsensical.

The OP lives with their teenagers in a house/flat where it will be difficult to self-isolate from other family members. Patently, if they have COVID, their teenagers will be exposed and will potentially take it into school.

The risk of the teenagers being additionally exposed in the car, beyond their exposure at home, is negligible.

Conversely, if the OP uses a taxi driver or a friend, then they are exposing that person to their teenagers - who may be infected with COVID. The teenagers are also being unnecessarily exposed to a risk of COVID from being in a car with people from outside their household.

We know the current government are idiots, who have overseen one of the worst COVID-19 death tolls in the world, and their rules are designed for the purposes of the economy, not stopping the actual disease.

Thus, f**k the rules, and do whatever gives the least risk of actually spreading COVID to other people. In this case, it's the OP sitting inside their car, collecting their teenagers, and taking them straight home where - presumably - they won't self-isolate from each other and no one will be wearing a mask.

@BeakyWinder you just actually made me laugh out loud!!!

Look out for news reports of a burning M&S food hall!!

If it’s just the app you’re not even legally required to isolate. So I would definitely take the lowest risk approach which is to drive the DC to school yourself.

It’s only you that has to self isolate, not your kids so a lift is ok.

Oh dear, poor you, OP.

I'd be ignoring the app and taking my children to school and collecting them as normal.

Covid seems to have affected people's judgement about all kinds of things.

Mumsnet is batshit today.

Op, pick up your kids of course. You’re in the car, home, car and back. Job done.

Delete the blessed app - I’m amazed anyone still has it.

As for the poster who was astonished you have no one else to pick them up - don’t be ridiculous, not all of us are resplendent with relatives and friends to call on. I moved 6 to another part of the UK 6 months before COVID hit. I know NO ONE in a 300 mile radius except dh whom I could call to pick up my ds from school.

If it was an NHS app, they wouldn't have paid Tory chums £30 billion for it. The NHS name was just tacked on at the last minute to add credibility to it...just saying.

I’ve no idea why you’ve had so much hostility and rudeness OP, you asked a perfectly reasonable question.

FYI - in similar circumstances the primary school my DD attends has arranged special drop off and pick ups for parents who are isolating so can’t leave cars, so worth asking the schools what they’d like you to do.

To those saying to ‘just phone some other parents’ my DS started high school in September and I only know 4 other parents, 3 of those I could only contact via social media. They all live miles the other side of the school and one I only know because her son beat mine up!

@daytriptovulcan

If it was an NHS app, they wouldn't have paid Tory chums £30 billion for it. The NHS name was just tacked on at the last minute to add credibility to it...just saying.

The £30 odd billion is for NHS Test and Trace programme, which is separate from the app. Dido Harding, a, tory life peer, is indeed head of Test and Trace. She has nothing to do with the app though, nobody paid tory chums £30 billion for the app.

My app didnt pick up my daughters positive result. I put it next to hers on purpose so it would allow me to claim the isolation grant as I'm on a low income and eligible. Claimed it another way but app never detected it.

I only went to M&S on Saturday..... this is not just any contact..... 😂 That did make me titter op. However, I have just read that you are a teacher. No way! There is no way you can leave the house. What if someone from you school found out you were out and about flouting the rules. What if a parent saw you?? Front page red-top dad face picture just waiting to happen. Simple message sorry. Stay at Home.

#sadface!

@RichardMarxisinnocent. Sorry. I wasn't meaning to spread any misinformation. I read an article back in Wired last year that said the app measured the distance between people every 5 minutes using Bluetooth strength and then used an algorithm (taking into consideration this information, when the person tested positive etc) to work out someones risk. But I am sorry if my interpretation of how that works is incorrect.

@UnderHisAye

I'm absolutely not understanding the problem here. Who on earth might you infect by sitting in your own car?

OP, just go!

That. Assuming that OP's car is parked right next to her house, there's absolutely nothing that could happen risk-wise, if she walks out of her front door and into her car. From then on she's as effectively isolated in her car as she is in her home. Of course her teens will have to open the car door to get in, but does anyone honestly think that in the couple of seconds that the car door is open, OP is going to infect anyone outside it?

I wouldn’t hesitate
I’d be driving them every morning and collecting as normal
I wouldn’t get out of car

Absolutely no way are my children missing any more when not even a confirmed case.

Only read OP's posts.

The law firstly does not apply when someone is notified only by the app.

The law also allows a person self-isolating to leave their home where necessary to do certain things. This includes "to fulfil a legal obligation" and "to avoid a risk of harm". Personally I think collecting your children from school definitely comes under the second. And indeed ensuring your children continue to attend school is a legal obligation, so if no other transport is available, driving them yourself would be necessary.

www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1045/pdfs/uksi_20201045_en.pdf