Nursery has been shut for 2 weeks

[wabbeydabbeydo]

Our child's nursery has been shut for 2 weeks due to staffing issues. From what I've heard from other people with kids at nursery, this is pretty much a 'should never happen' thing. Or at least should be resolved quicker than after 2 weeks.

I am planning to move my child to a different nursery mainly because of this. There are a couple of other very minor concerns (being sent home in a dirty nappy a couple of times, lots of screen use in the day) but those are things I could live with/address. But closing feels too much to overlook. They've been pretty blasé about it too, not much communication.

Has anyone else been in this situation? I'm a bit sad at the thought of moving my child but the alternative provision is a good option so it makes sense anyway. I'm just interested if this is actually a common thing and it shouldn't be bothering me enough to look elsewhere.

Lots of nurseries have had this issue partly covid partly funding they haven't got access to the same number of bank staff, everyone and their children are getting ill. My daughter works in a nursery and it's pretty constant that someone is off either becouse they are ill or their children.

It's common at the moment because of COVID. If the staff have the virus and have to isolate, how do you expect them to open?

Our nursery has had to reduce its hours for this half term due to recruitment difficulties, but I haven’t heard of one shutting completely except for covid isolations. If it’s not directly related to staff having covid and is not a complete one off I’d be looking for somewhere else too as you need your childcare to be reliable.

Of course it would help if so many parents would keep sick children home and keep testing.

@supersonicginandtonic tbh I kind of expect there would be access to bank staff as it's a large National chain. There's a new nursery opening up less than 2 miles away and they've not had problems recruiting so I'm not sure there's a massive lack of supply in the area.

It seems a bit odd as all through Covid to date it's never been a problem and now people are vaxxed and isolation rules are relaxed it seems weird they are now having to close. I think the new manager just doesn't know what she's doing sadly

@wabbeydabbeydo
Not everyone is double jabbed.....and the children aren't so staff children getting ill means time off. I know a lot of under 5s with covid many presented with a cold. Then you have the many other bugs like the super cold that's going around.

@wabbeydabbeydo it's still there and still very contagious. Myself, my partner and all 5 kids have just had it. Me and DP both double jabbed and still felt poorly. Several family nembers also caught it.
In regards to bank staff, many nurseries don't use them as they don't know the children. Most parents would rather struggle for a week or two than leave their child with somebody they did not know.

If they can't uphold their contract (which they evidently can't if they close for 2 weeks) then you should be able to end the contract and send your child to another nursery.
It's not possible for everyone to just take 2 weeks off work due to no childcare. Especially if you've already paid for it.

Nurseries have to work with strict ratios. If a few of the staff are off due to covid or isolating because of it it may well be unsafe for them to open. They should be communicating the situation though and when they can open again.

Before Covid nurseries that are part of a chain would just move staff from other nurseries when short staffed but obviously can’t do this now

I’ve never been in this situation. The nursery I send my child to is part of a local chain. They have stayed open throughout covid and have never closed due to staff shortages. If they did for 2 weeks I wouldn’t hesitate to look for alternative childcare.

@Spottyspotladybird
So that would have meant that through the last 2 years not one child or member of staff ever had covid. That's surprising.

@jannier
My setting hasn’t had to close, we’ve been open throughout
We’ve only had one member of staff test positive and because it was after the rule change nobody else had to isolate and we didn’t have to close
Is it that unusual?

@insancerre
Yes my daughter works at a preschool that closed 4 times. Several nurseries around here shut for a week a few times and all the school nurseries were shut more than open.

[quote insancerre]@jannier
My setting hasn’t had to close, we’ve been open throughout
We’ve only had one member of staff test positive and because it was after the rule change nobody else had to isolate and we didn’t have to close
Is it that unusual?[/quote]
I think you're lucky that your staff were all double jabbed! Seems to be a big issue where I am that nursery staff won't get vaccinated so when one member of staff tests positive the rest of the room team have to isolate.

@NellieBertram
They all got jabbed pretty early on as we have links with the local hospital
I sent them all over 2 days and regretted it when they were all off with side effects
🤣🤣
Had to be done though