No staff at nursery

[catlady1234]

Hi,

My DC (10 months old) has just started nursery, this should be their 3rd week. They go 3 days a week.
Last weds they were sent home with upset tummy as they are teething. Had to have Thursday off too as per their policy.

They should have gone in today but at 7:30pm last night we get a message via the app saying they have no staff and they can't go in.

Is this common?

I'm worried they have staff issues and also the last min communication is a huge issue for us! We don't have easy solutions and it gave us no time to find any options.

*Had a huge financial impact
As it does on most of us in the same position.

@catlady1234

They told us when viewing that bank staff would cover any absences

But if the agency don't have staff available, then what else can they do? All it needs is for a few nurseries to have staff off and needing agency/bank staff, and the bank staff will all be used too!

A lot of large chains of nurseries work on the model of having a ratio of as many Modern Apprentices as they can legally get away with to minimum amount of qualified staff. Most MAs are thrown in at the deep end with little to no training and sometimes left alone to deal with large groups of kids. Thus maximising profit which lands in the owners’ wallet. A pretty penny to be made too from extortionate fees, poorly paid staff, bare minimum spend on food( although they do a good job of making menu sound good) the money doesn’t get spent on your kids or the staff. Nice houses, life style and cars for owners

Just get on with it?? I take it you don’t work, I certainly couldn’t just get on with my job and look after my child. As for paying for alternative care at the last minute…pay who?!?

Exactly this my daughter worked in a Tattler top ten, pay was low despite being in London and taking celebrity children. She was in for 8am and often still there making it look good at 8 or 9pm when children left at 5. It was term time only so only paid 39 weeks but expected to do all learning journeys in her own time so 3 to 4 days working unpaid each school holiday plus weekends and evenings. The stress wax awful. Works for DHL now more money, leaves work at work and no stress. .....and not being asked to risk her health lifting or working unprotected through Covid. That was the final straw 2 years of worrying about bringing it home no ppe allowed.

You do realise huge numbers of nurseries have been closing down in recent years due to not being profitable enough to run?? You seem to think they're a money making machine just because you perceive their charges to be expensive. But that takes no account of the overheads they have to pay, which like everything, are increasing, and have been increasing for a few years now, i.e. minimum wage rising faster than inflation etc.

Nursery staff were not out of work they stayed open...lockdown 1 for keyworkers but so many got sick extra cover needed...lockdown 2 was open to all.
No ppe as it was not advised as children need to see faces to learn speech etc. Meant high risk as people sent children even if they were ill themselves, close loving contact with children added to the risk from the supposed non carriers and no early vaccines unlike teachers who often were distance working.

Plenty of nurseries DID close during covid. Your's may not have done, but plenty did. The one in our village closed down completely during the first lockdown and stayed closed until the Autumn, re-opened for a few months, and then closed down again in January 21 lockdown and then re-opened after Easter 21. It didn't stay open for key-workers at all - they had to find somewhere else.

What is the extortionate hourly fee please? I would love to know.

@Tillsforthrills I said I'm in a high position I didn't say I was well paid. I have a lot of responsibility but that doesn't come hand in hand with a great salary.

Not normal at all, 3 kids 2 nurseries, 2 childminders and 1 pre school, my youngest is now nearly 4, and none have ever cancelled childcare. Once they asked if I could pick up by 4.30 instead of 5 but I'm usually there by then anyway, that was a childminder.

@Tillsforthrills at £18ph that would be double what we pay for nursery. We simply couldn't afford that.

@PanettoneMoly
That's a good idea. Il have a look to see if anyone local offers a short term baby sitting style service for emergencies.

I did wfh yesterday and had a grizzly baby in the background of an important call that couldn't be moved 🙈

I have a 1 and 3 year old in nurs

Sorry posted too soon! I have a 1 and 3 year old in nursery and this has never happened to us. We use one of the big chain nurseries, busy bees so I'm not sure if that makes a difference

Look for another nursery or childminder. It will be worse, especially during half term holidays (as staff simply call sick because they don't have where to leave their own kids or want to go on holidays) and December (if they are struggling with staff levels now, they'll probably have to close in December).
It was the same story for us - first, they started to call for "sickness", then reduced our hours and finally closed the nursery for 2 months. I had to leave my job. I simply couldn't work asking for every second day unpaid leave or leave during all December.

With all 3 year olds entitled to funding and funding rates being well below normal fees most nurseries unless thoese set up for the super rich are making losses and a high proportion are shutting or selling to the super chains who can use economies of scale to fet by while waiting for sensible proposals

Apologies.

Your nursery does sound like a very reasonable cost as our CM is £10 p/h. Nurseries roughly £12 or slightly more and Nannies £15-20.

If you’re in London there are some good emergency agencies about that can supply a nanny at short notice. I hope nursery don’t charge you when they’re closed to you.

My area of London cms are £6 or less nurseries £10 so it does very.

For avoidance of doubt I am talking about large nursery chains as per my post - not smaller ones

Frankly speaking the having to have last minute time off is bloody hard work. I've never experienced the closed nursery due to staffing bar one day that it was first come first serve.

Just make sure your husband is sharing the responsibility with you. Just be warned when the outbreaks of hand, foot and mouth and chickenpox hit as it can mean several days off (up to 2 weeks for chickenpox) I genuinely was considering the chickenpox vaccination to avoid it all together. Luckily both kids caught it whilst I was on mat leave.

Ah we’ve literally just sent DS back to nursery yesterday after his hand foot and mouth. By 11am today, we had an email about an outbreak of chicken pox 😩

£6 per hour or less and out of that comes food, wear and tear, toys etc for the CM. That is a pittance for London! No wonder there’s a childcare crisis.

My DC has been going to nursery for a year and he’s never been prevented from going due to staffing issues.

Especially when 2 out of 3 are on funding which is less than £5.