school start delay threat - am I alone being worried and annoyed at the prospect of childcare nightmare for working parents?

[exrebel]

I am so worried at the prospect of school start delayed until November. I am screaming insside with worry. How are we going to find childcare? Because some of us will have to go to work. I am applying for jobs at the moment and the last thing I want to say to a new employer is: sorry but there is no school until November so I cant come into work because I cannot find childcare.

I hope it does not come to this, I want to scream at the scientists who are promoting the idea to curb the spread. we are not going to keep our children in quARANTINE are we? They will still be mixing with other children in the park, in play areas, in playdates, and everywhere we take them to keep them entertained. Or for those that can find childcare, with the other children in the group.

has anyone started to think how they are going to cope if they go ahead with the closure?

(I mean, obv. I have to cope over planned holidays but this would be something quite different, where there is no childcare available - because if school is shut they certainly ain't going to be running any holiday clubs, are they?)

I don't think for one moment that schools will shut on masse. We had a confirmed case if swine flu and the member of staff obviously stayed at home but the head made it very clear we would not be closing. We are still recovering from the bad press from snow and wind closures ( even though on the day in question we did not choose to shut but were forced by parents and bus companies ) and I am sure other heads feel the same.

Flatcap,

I though the government could just order all schools shut if they decided it was necessary

is this possible in principle? I know this is unlikely but possible?

If it happens it will be a very last resort according to the health minister this afternoon.

I suppose it is possible, more likely to happen by LEA rather than nationally and even then I would have thought unlikely.

People are naive if they think that companies won't sack people or make them take unpaid leave for taking time off to look after their children. And tbh one can't blame the.

Ultimately businesses still have to keep operating. If workers are taking time off to look after children then they would be well within their rights to make them take unpaid leave, and in some instances it will even result in job losses, because given the choice between losing one's livelyhood and a potential court action most businesses will take the chance in court over the loss of their business. And there are enough unemployed out there atm that sacking current employees and taking on new ones won't be a problem.

Closing schools may be the answer from a scientific pov, but it certainly isn't from an economic one.

I really cannot see how closing the schools will help. In ds's school one child had confirmed swine flu 3 weeks ago. Not a single other child became ill with it. So it really is not that contagious. The child in question is one of ds's friends and they are in the same class. Not one of their friendship group has caught swine flu from this boy.

Likewise, in dd's infant school there were 2 cases. One in the nursery unit and one in dd's yeargroup (but not class) This was also around 3 weeks ago. So far no-one else has become ill with it.

If it was spreading through schools like wild-fire then yes, I could see the point. But it seems less contagious than chickenpox! Certainly in our school.

First of all we know bugger all yet, so there really is little point in getting agitated. You can't change things after all. This is all based on a great unknown - which is: what happens in the next six weeks.

Let me explain:

the kids are off on holidays - the virus should spread more slowly and peak in certain parts of the UK (of course we are all going off on holiday and bringing variants in and out of the UK that way too but let's put aside that bit).

Traditionally, the virus starts again just after the kids are back at school - people stay indoors more because the weather gets worse, close quarters mean more infections, kids are bloody great at spreading things because they are faintly murky at all times and tend to see all ends of the family in generational terms and they get close together. No, not your children obviously, yours are pristine .

Let's take the example of Birmingham - lots of infected people (probably no testing has been done for weeks), particularly in schools. Some schools closed and you can plot the infection drop on the recording maps in those areas.

If we have at say the end of August started mass vaccinations and we knew (knew) that if we could keep the schools off till October 1st we could have all the school age kids vaxed as well as the health compromised (vulnerable) adults, then we could probably severely limit the spread in one fell swoop.

Virii need hosts. If you remove the host you remove the problem. It cannot survive without humans to live on (unless it jumps species and then you have more to worry about than missing work on Monday).

Yes it would be a complete PITA to start school late. DD starts preschool - we'll never hear the end of it if she has to wait, but I'd rather that than risk giving this virus one more day to kill the vulnerable. Most of us are bloody lucky - we are healthy and our kids are - but if you can think back to when you were first pregnant or when your first child was a few weeks old and imagine you are in that position now, you perhaps can see that we may need to just suck up whatever the plan is, however painful.

This seems a crazy idea to close schools and nurserys. I read today that about 1/3 of health care and social care workers have dependants .Who is going to care for the sick if all the nurses , doctors , social workers , health care workers are at home on unpaid leave( the nhs will certaintly not be paying for being off work ) .I work in mental health and the implications of workers not been able to go to work for 2-3 months could cost the government more that stopping swine flu !! Rant over ..

Yeah, I understand all that, WMMC, thing is if schools are shut on government advice, I don't earn any money. How much hope should I hold out that they will step in and keep us fed for a few weeks?

It wouldn't be that long though - seven days would make a huge difference. If everyone in the UK stayed at home for seven days and we close the borders we could beat this thing.

There is no question about that - if we as a country decided to self-quarantine on a certain date, all stayed in and cleaned all surfaces inside the house then sat on our bums and watched TV (possibly not reruns of Survivors ) this would go away.

It was on the news today that it was highly unlikely schools would be closed for any extra time after the hols.

I work in a childrens hospital

Along with about three-quarters of my colleagues I have school-age children

My DH is the major, self-employed wage-earner. If he doesn't work, the bills don't get paid

So I, along with my mostly female contemporaries, will have to take time off work if they close the schools (not debating if this is right or wrong, tis just fact)

Hence, childrens hospital staffing becomes critical, wards have to close

how the feck will that help ??

Wonder if there are plans of some sort to help working parents for a week of school closures, financially?? Possibly a very naive thought, but....

What about sewage workers & hospital staff & electricity producers & people who maintain servers?

Would you close all the shops/restaurants/cinemas/theatres etc as well?

& banks?

That said, did see same news as Fimbo. Think its very unlikely.

Actually we could effectively run the country on 30% of the staff if everyone else stayed at home. Sorry but we may have to do this and it will be hard because people do not like having their freedom curtailed but honestly if this is the only way, I'm up for it.

I can stand living in my house with my family, with powercuts etc. for one week if it makes the difference.

It doesn't seem like that much of a sacrifice to me.

It might even save your life. Or that of your child.

If it saves the life of anyone's child, I'm up for it.

saves the lives of children ??

come on ladies, you really are buying into the media-fuelled hysteria

wmmc - well said!

This PROPOSED school closure is about potentially SLOWING the spread in order to allow vaccination programmes to be carried out!

But I do agree how the hell it would work in todays society with working parents etc is beyond me!

I really dont see it as anything worth getting your knickers in a twist about atm. ALOT can happen in the next 6 weeks and its looking unlikely they will follow this through nationally.

The other way to look at it is - if a family of 4, mum, Dad, dc1 and dc 2 catch SF at some point you could potentially be off work for 2 to 3 weeks anyway caring for your kids before you succomb to the blasted virus as well! That too will effect all the same work forces as school closures would. Meaning everyone staying at home with their kids, because this virus WILL peak, with VERY high numbers of people ALL infected at the same time!

Anyway, I am hopefully (assuming me nor my kids have been infected with SF) are off on our hols to Cornwall this weekend! I just hoe we get away with it until we get back! September is too far away for me start panicking yet!

WMMC, now you are admitting to power cuts, even while I was planning to post that there won't be much TV if the country is on shut down and the TV people can't get to work. Even broadcasting repeats depends on actual human beings making it happen.

Am sure they'd keep Radio 4 going though. At least, that was the plan for nuclear war, I understood (when my mother was involved in civil contingency planning eons ago).

Who moved my chocolate - you can't even get some people to nit comb their DCs hair. Do you honestly think that those people will keep their children inside the house for a week?

I wouldn't mind making the sacrifice but manage a GP practice and we cannot function on such a reduced work force. So then what will happen to people ill with other conditions? Asthma, diabetes, children with suspected meingitis? These are the kinds of people we are seeing all the time, swine flu or not.

The NHS is already struggling to cope, how will it be when there are thousands more cases and fewer staff?

Shit, what if the schools were shut AND Cbeebies/CBBC were off air, too?

We'd have to go back to the Good Old Days of Making Our Own Entertainment. But with the additional twist of being confined to barracks.

Am not sure I'm motherly enough for all this. Need to draft in Marmy from Little Women, she'd know how to cope!

If there hadn't been a funding dispute between the DoH and the Treasury the vaccinations would already be available and we wouldn't be having this debate. Now that's a question for Andy Burnham.

I will just take ds into work and keep him in my desk drawer as per The Brittas Empire .