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.

Again OP you seem to be fixated on the Government Guidance. Yes it is permitted at the Government level but then on a more local level Councils are allowed and private organisations such as Nurseries to follow different procedures.

The Government has a generalised approach - it is clear that different areas peak and drop at different times so a localised approach is sensible

So that adults can still go to work. That's it. It's that simple.
Exactly. And I’m one of those who needs to go to work! How are adults supposed to go to work if nurseries aren’t abiding by government guidelines?

Why do you think you're more important than anyone else?
I don’t. I think the same rules should apply to me as everyone else. Government guidelines say that regardless of whether a family member has Covid, if you test negative you can go to school and work. So I expect that to be applied across the board.

DS's school have had to close a few year groups and send them home for remote provision for a couple of weeks, due to the high number of cases and lack of staff. This letting household contacts to carry on as normal and not isolate is not going well!

@DinoRoar345

So that adults can still go to work. That's it. It's that simple. Exactly. And I’m one of those who needs to go to work! How are adults supposed to go to work if nurseries aren’t abiding by government guidelines?

Why do you think you're more important than anyone else?
I don’t. I think the same rules should apply to me as everyone else. Government guidelines say that regardless of whether a family member has Covid, if you test negative you can go to school and work. So I expect that to be applied across the board.

The government care about the country's economy. The nursery care about children's health.

They don't have to follow the guidance. It's guidance.

It's not the nursery's responsibility to ensure you can go to work. It's to protect the children in their care.

If you had a childminder doing wraparound after school care you'd have the same issue.

Schools only open because they have to.

I'm sorry but the nursery has done the right thing. You shouldn't be sending your child in to nursery with a case of covid at home.

Jesus op.

All this " the gov says this and that"

You are your own person! You can think for yourself. Yes they can lay down the base rules but the nursery and every individual organisation (along with people) have every right to make their own risk assesments.

You act as if the goverment have got everything right. If they told you to jump of a cliff would you just because they said so? They have been very flawed dealing with the pandemic so far. So dont take it so literal.

Think of others!

If your child is in that much of a intimate contact with covid dont take him to a place where theyre are other children and families that can be exposed to.

USE. YOUR. BRAIN.

How are adults supposed to go to work if nurseries aren’t abiding by government guidelines

Guidelines being the main word here.
Nursery's and other places can of course have their own rules in place.
It's their duty to protect.
I would be livid if I knew a parent sent their child to my DC nursery when his parent is positive.
It's honestly common sense op.

I understand. I don’t think you sound entitled. I think you sound like someone in a bind.

My youngest is off nursery with covid. I wanted to keep my older kids off school (and did so for a couple of days) but was told the school expected them to be in.

I don't understand the outrage against the OP. Covid is moving from being pandemic to endemic. We've all got to live with it and get on with our lives. At least we have weapons against it that we didn't have at the start of the pandemic, including vaccinations and more effective drugs and treatments.

Our local authority has had to invoke emergency procedures as local cases are rising so quickly.

Siblings of positive children or children with positive parents are having to stay home again. It's not ideal, but the speed it's passing between children at DS's school is frightening.

It may be that your local authority is in a similar situation, although ideally this should have been communicated to you before you tried to drop your child off.

The nursery manager has a duty of care towards the other children and all the staff. If they feel they do not want your child to come in, they are entitled to tell you that. I know it's annoying OP, but can't you try and see it from the manager's point of view? They don't want to be responsible for an outbreak at the nursery. As others have said, the rules ypu keep referring to are only guidelines, the nursery can do what they think is right.

Would you want a child with a sickness bug to be in nursery next to your child?
Would you want a child with diarrhoea to be in nursery next to your child?
Would you want a child with chickenpox to be in nursery next to your child?
Would you want a child with a hand, foot and mouth to be in nursery next to your child?
None of these are governed by law, but nurseries and parents make sensible, logical choices about keeping them and others safe in these situations. It’s a pity you can’t do the same for Covid.

There’s a big difference between a 48-hour exclusion and a ten-day exclusion though.

@Namechangehereandnow. But in all the cases you've mentioned, the child is actually ill.

This child does not have Covid.

You are conflating "You don't have to self-isolate if you have a negative PCR" with "Nursery staff must expose themselves to risk of Covid infection".

Your DH will need to look after him. I appreciate you don't want to take the risk that your DS might get Covid from your DH, but I think you need to ask yourself why you then think it's okay for everyone else to take that risk.

My point is nurseries have their own rules for the safety of everyone. Their Covid rule is just another example. OP’s child could be carrying the virus and pass it on. Common sense should prevail here surely? If the child’s father has Covid, why would you send your child to nursery to possibly infect others? Just why? Common sense needs to be applied here.

And I’m one of those who needs to go to work! How are adults supposed to go to work if nurseries aren’t abiding by government guidelines?

In your specific case you have a perfectly viable alternative - the child's father who is at home could look after them - you just don't want to take it.

[quote Gliderx]@Namechangehereandnow. But in all the cases you've mentioned, the child is actually ill.

This child does not have Covid.[/quote]
The child could be a carrier though

No one seems this bothered about school kids being required to go in when they have positive family members 🤷🏻‍♀️

Speaking as someone whose nursery have a cluster of staff members off with covid, I'm afraid I'll have to take the side of the nursery! I work full time and yes it's an absolute nightmare when the kids are ill or need to self isolate waiting for PCR results etc but it's to keep everyone safe. It's a constant worry at the moment that if more nursery staff members test positive that nursery will have to shut leaving me with no childcare. They're doing everything they can to stay covid free and I'm more than happy to support them.

I also would hate for you to be in work. My colleague at work has been risk assessed as safe to attend work despite a member of the house testing positive because it's government policy. Actually all it's likely to do is wipe out an entire department and ruin my Christmas plans with the children and CEV family members.

Just out of curiosity, if your child was not at nursery but being looked after by Grandparents whilst You and you dh work, would You be willing to send them there still in this situation? Would the grandparents be happy to have them in this situation?

The child could be a carrier though

So could literally anybody...

Actually all it's likely to do is wipe out an entire department and ruin my Christmas plans with the children and CEV family members

Only if the colleague actually has Covid surely

OP’s child could be carrying the virus and pass it on.

On this logic, none of our children would ever go to nursery. Children could always be carrying nasty bugs which they pass on.

Over the past 3 months, my child's nursery has had hand, foot and mouth, repeated colds, a vomiting bug, chicken pox and 2 covid cases. My child could have had any of these at any point since he has been exposed to them at nursery. Aside from the colds (he's had a cold for the past few weeks), he hasn't shown symptoms of any of the rest so off to nursery he's gone. For the Covid cases, the nursery asked the parents to arrange tests for close contacts which we did.

If we excluded every child who was an infection risk, there would be no children left in the nursery. That's why usually only actually ill children who have the infection in question are excluded. The reason for requiring the PCR test for Covid cases is because often it is asymptomatic.

The child could be a carrier though

The child is actually much less likely to be a carrier than the other children in the nursery since he's been tested and has a negative result.