Nursery rejected DC because of Covid contact

[DinoRoar345]

DH has Covid. DS and I don’t (negative PCR and multiple LFTs). So I need to take DS to nursery and go to work. I said to nursery, if DS seems unwell please call me because he’s been exposed to Covid. And they said he can’t come in, please take him home!

Government policy is if you’re double jabbed or under 18 you do not have to isolate even if you’re a contact of someone with Covid. I need to go to work but now I have no childcare! Can I complain to council or Ofsted or something? I can’t stay off work for ten days when I don’t even have Covid.

Are you maybe in an area where the council/public health have issued advice that close contacts should isolate and not attend education settings?

Maybe they have vulnerable staff and their risk assessment shows that having close contacts in would pose an unacceptable risk and an unsafe workplace for those staff?

I think this is the case with some schools as well, they seem to make their own rules. Even test and trace are asking close contact family members to isolate.

Gosh, how entitled (and I speak from being a working mother so I do appreciate the traumas of childcare). The Nursery are quite within their rights to decide when it is safe to accept a child, they have to think of all the children in their care. Whatever the government policy is, as individuals and organisations we have to make our own decisions on how we protect ourselves and others. Covid has not changed just because government policy has, and your DS has not been vaccinated so the risk is exactly as it was before the policy changed as a result of vaccination. What do you think the other parents would think if they accepted your DS and their children were exposed to that risk? We are in a pandemic, much worse shit is happening.

Although if their policy had changed surely you’d have been informed via letter or email?

I don't blame them. They may have vulnerable workers or children.

The rules are you don't have to isolate. You don't. But they are under no obligation to accept you.

Lots of places have a similar policy. As a PP said Government guidance might have changed but Covid hasn't and settings have to consider all their families and staff.

Our nursery have the same policy - they won't accept a child where there's Covid in the household, even though the government rules say that child doesn't need to isolate. I think it's pretty reasonable, but then I think that probably household contacts should still be required to isolate in general. Nursery did send out a specific email advising us of this policy though, so I do think yours should have communicated it.

Also, how unwell is your DH? Is he really going to be completely incapable of caring for your DC for the full 10 day isolation period? Because surely once he's up to looking after them you can go back to work.

Gosh, how entitled
It’s not entitled at all. It’s government policy. Close contacts do not have to isolate if they test negative. It seems unfair to me that nursery are allowed to ignore government policy and refuse access to childcare that I’m paying for.

Also, how unwell is your DH? Is he really going to be completely incapable of caring for your DC for the full 10 day isolation period?
I don’t want DC to catch it. DH is isolating in the bedroom.

I’m NHS and my ward took the same stance when ds2 had COVID. I couldn’t come to work and had to wfh for the duration. Not ideal as a nurse but done to protect vulnerable patients.

I understand the challenge you are facing with having to,work but completely understand why the nursery are saying no. This is still a very infectious illness.

How unwell is your DH? Ds2 had cold symptoms for a few days and then just tiredness. Maybe your DH could look after your dc after a few days? Or could you wfh?

And so you will learn that doing as you are told and following government rules does not pay off.

This is why people keep quiet about stuff. Not because they are evil, but in order to do what they need to do.

The isolation point and the nursery not admitting your DC aren’t overly relevant. You don’t legally have to isolate with chicken pox or HFM either; but nurseries are well within their rights not to accept you if you have either, and at least locally to me, they won’t accept siblings of children with those conditions until they’re better either.

It’s unfortunate because you need to work, but the nursery has to legally risk assess for their staff and other families, too. And if you don’t want DC to catch it from DH, surely you don’t want nursery to admit close contacts either, so that your DC has less chance of getting it from there?

It does leave you in an awkward position this week if you have no other options than DH, but I think that’s just unfortunate… it’s not unreasonable on the nurseries part.

But surely given that you're taking really quite extreme measures to avoid your own child getting Covid - most people wouldn't isolate away from their own child for 10 days - you can see why the other parents at nursery wouldn't want a child with a household member with Covid at nursery?

I think they’ve done the right thing sorry. They need to protect the other kids and the adults working there.

You don't want your DH to look after your DC because you feel it increases your DC's risk but you expect the nursery to increase everyone's risk by letting children attend when there is Covid in their household. That's quite a selfish attitude. As for your work, it's your decision regarding your DH and your DC that's impacting whether you go to work or not. FWIW I know lots of adults who have stayed home for the first 5 days after their DP's positive test just to make sure they don't test positive too.

I wouldn't dream of taking a close contact to nursery, government policy or not. Its very unfair to spread the virus to others. Your little one isn't even at an age where you can do daily lfts. Is your dh too ill to look after him?

I agree with the above - you are isolating your DH away from your DC because you dont want them to get it - can you not see how the Nursery (and other parents) may not want your DC in due to the increased risk of him having it and still living with a close contact.

Also there is a difference between not isolating (he doesnt have to) and a Nursery having their own rules as to how they want to approach it which they are perfectly entitled to do (and do for other illnesses). For example the 48 hours after sickness etc isnt a government policy, you dont have to isolate at home for 48 hours after sickness but you arent allowed in school.

Well. From Nursery's point of view, you have admitted that DS has been exposed to Covid & that, although his PCR test was negative, he could potentially still become unwell with it.

You are in a pickle now, but imagine the nursery's situation if they let DS in having been given all of that information & end up with Covid in DSs group & half of the staff off either positive or awaiting PCR results.

So are you ok if other child with household covid case was allowed to attend and potentially infect your child, and you had to take time off work because of it?

Maybe you should think about this situation from other parents' pov, and maybe you'd be happy that your nursery has this policy.

In a similar situation here but I'm not sending DC in. I don't think it's responsible to take the risk when small children have no concept of social distancing and are generally cracking germ spreaders

@DinoRoar345

Gosh, how entitled It’s not entitled at all. It’s government policy. Close contacts do not have to isolate if they test negative. It seems unfair to me that nursery are allowed to ignore government policy and refuse access to childcare that I’m paying for.

They're not ignoring it. They aren't saying she has to isolate. They're saying she can't come in.

You practically handed her over saying "call me if she's caught covid off her Dad". And you can't see why they might have an issue with your quote possibly covid child slobbering over other kids and being cuddled by staff?

Lots of workplaces are adopting their own policies based on individual risk assessments. I manage a care home and according to government policy staff can come into work even if they live with someone with covid. My risk assessment states this puts my residents at risk so I don't allow it.

OP It really is entitled when the nursery has a duty of care to all their families and your child represents exactly the same risk as they would have done before the government policy changed. I know a family who isolated for two weeks so that they could spend last Christmas with the grandparents (who had shielded since March) apart from sending their baby to nursery. This was when they were saying babies couldn’t catch or transmit Covid. The baby did catch Covid at nursery, they all caught Covid from the baby and one grandparent ended up in hospital. It may well be that the Nursery has had similar experiences over the last nearly two years so their caution is understandable.

And unfair as it is sickness is always an issue when you are working and have childcare whether it is Covid or Chicken Pox. One of the most stressful times in my life as a working mother was when both my DCs went down with Chicken Pox, one very badly affected, and I couldn’t go into work for over two weeks. We have already had to isolate three times as a result of Covid, that is in the nature of being in a pandemic of a highly transmittable and dangerous virus. My employer is actually more understanding of that than when it has been normal childhood illness. In the end though the buck is always going to stop at you when it comes to sickness and childcare.