1140 hours - only going ahead for Key Workers?

[Postagequestion]

Heard from our private nursery last week that the local authority has confirmed that the planned 1140 hours will be scrapped for everyone except children of key workers. 600 for everyone else.
I have asked the nursery to clarify incase I am misunderstanding, but it did seem pretty clear.
Has anyone else heard this?

My nursery already started 1140 hours in October but I received an email from my council education department in march saying this - "We have received notice from the Scottish Government that they are taking steps that will remove the statutory duty on education authorities to make 1140 hours of early learning and childcare (ELC) available to each eligible child from 1 August 2020."

I spoke to my child's key worker who isn't sure whether this applies to all nurseries or just the ones who haven't got 1140 hours in place yet.

Yes the Scottish government rather quietly dropped this bombshell at the start of the lockdown.

Why should key workers get it if the rest of us don’t? We’re all paying tax after all.

@TheMurk I must have missed this at the start of lockdown with everything going on. Has there not been any backlash on this?
Do you know if it's for the whole year? Any other info? I just find it unbelievable tbh. Thanks.

The government said it was up to the LA's to choose.

In ours they've said if they already had implemented the hours then they would go ahead. And the 52 weeks that some nurseries were moving to has been delayed. But going by myjobscotland there's a number of jobs up which would support the implementation of the hours.

They are removing teachers so think that may be some of the jobs.

Just to clarify, the part I find strange is that children of key workers would get the funding and others would not.

All I can find on it is that the roll out has been postponed until a later date.

I'm with Glasgow city council and apparently they aren't doing the 1140 in August. My friend has just had confirmation that her child is getting the 1140 in East Renfrewshire. I haven't heard about the key worker thing but I can't see how that is fair at all. Furlough will end soon so it can't be on the basis of that - anyway that assumes that employers are furloughing everyone who needs it for childcare. My DH and I will both be working our usual hours, and not from home, when nurseries reopen so will need the funding as much as key workers will.

It was postponed at the start of lockdown as nurseries that had not rolled it out would not be able to recruit and hire the staff for it let alone organise the nursery. Also some nurseries were also having buildings built to facilitate the increase in hours as construction had to halt for months these places won’t be ready. It is also not realistic or safe to have all kids in 30 hours nursery spaces from August. Social distancing is going to be hard enough to manage in nursery without all kids being in 30 hours. Schools are going to be on blended part time hours for the same reason.

Key workers children have to be prioritised as there may well be a second wave of the virus plus things will remain different for a long time so they will more likely be working earlier than others.

It’s not ideal and my middle child has been impacted by it but it is what it is. We are in uncharted territory and hard decisions have had to be made.

@Fundays12 this assumption that’s it’s not safe not have nursery kids in full time from August is the problem for me, as even the Scot gov own scientific advice concedes that reopening early years childcare has a very small predicted impact on the spread. Some of the advisors were even advocating reopening schools in full, but all seem to agree that the younger the child the lower the risk. That’s before you even get to ever reducing numbers of cases now which could very well be almost zero in many areas come August, and modelling done in May will likely be looking very out of date by then.

Given the known economic problems that are coming down the track it seems over-cautious/short-sighted to deliberately hobble many working parents at a time when we desperately need people to resume work to kick start the economy.

I understand what your saying but it’s not just about the safety of the little kids. A lot of staff will still be shielding in nurseries and schools potentially so how do they staff these places? They can’t which in itself makes the place unsafe as not enough adults to oversee kids could result in a nasty accident, children going missing or a lack of basic care for these kids.

Also if the kids go back to full time nursery and schools it means the parents go back to full time work so how many elderly grandparents who are vulnerable will start having to collect kids from schools/nurseries etc again?

I actually agree with you about the economy but I do also see the other side of it. I don’t know what your area is like but my sons nursery was at full capacity and could not manage with less staff and loads of very elderly grandparents collected young kids here.

I think it's those of us who don't have the luxury of grandparents to help with the kids in any capacity that need fully opened nurseries the most! I wouldn't want the opening of nurseries to be based on this when surely the majority of people who use nursery for childcare reasons wouldn't have this problem.

Also, what's wrong with parents going back to full time work? Many need to in order to pay the bills.

The guidance for early years hasn't been released yet, so until that comes out a lot of nurseries in my LA are waiting on that to start planning how things will work.

There was a number of nurseries being built and now the company with the contract has gone into administration so that's holding things up too.

I've not heard anything about only keyworker children being in. There was a suggestion that children who would be returning to nursery would be the first ones to return for the first wee while.

glasgow.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=49387&p=0

^ this was FCC’s letter to parents

Falkirk were doing the full 1140 hours last year. They tweeted late on Friday night that it will now be 600 hours and everyone had to re-register for it so the head teacher was in school yesterday ringing everyone affected. My son will be four in September. The choices are either Monday Tuesday full days and Wednesday morning OR Wednesday afternoon, Thursday Friday full days. It states this is for phase four, whenever that may be, there are still no firm plans for August if we haven’t reached phase four before then. Doesn’t say anything about key workers being given more hours which we would qualify for (police officer currently on maternity leave but due back in September).

Has anyone heard anything from south Lanarkshire? I've had a letter confirming our son's place but saying the 1140 hours have been delayed. It doesn't say when it's delayed to!

Also, what's wrong with parents going back to full time work? Many need to in order to pay the bills.
This
People need to get back to work

I don’t think anyone said there was ever any issue with parents going back to work full time. Me and Dh are both working parents and have had to continue to do it from home while looking after 3 children including one with complex additional needs and a baby.

I would love nothing more than the nurseries to go in 30 hours in August but if they can’t get enough staff due to shielding or don’t have the premise to facilitate it due to construction companies closing down it’s not an option unfortunately . It’s far from ideal and I hope the government are going to continue too offer financial help for families who can’t get childcare. It’s those like myself that rely on the nurseries who are going to be hardest hit again. DH is actually a key worker and has been working 55 hour weeks to ensure the hospital he supports continues to run effectively. We have so far been unable to get a key worker space even for half a day a week.

I think the default will be that people continue to work from home, so only key workers should need childcare.

There is a big difference between education & childcare.

For those of us who work full-time, at least we'll not be trying to educate fully on top of working, with the blended learning.

Hopefully we will know around the week beginning 15th when the government will share it's plans.

Glass neither myself nor DH are keyworkers but we can also not work from home and are needed by our employers so not able to be furloughed. We rely on the nursery to be open to work.

@GlassOfProsecco how do you work that out?

A 9 month old and 2 year old need full time care and attention every moment they are awake.

Are you suggesting, like my employer, that I work either side of their waking hours?

@TheMurk - I'm just muddling through like everyone else.

Right now I am planning the homeschooling for tomorrow for my 2 children. Not what I fancy doing at 10.30pm but needs must.

I'll log on to work tomorrow at 7.30am & do what I can.

I'm NHS but don't qualify for childcare as here it's only if both parents are key workers & cannot WFH.

I was in work all last week & their dad had to do homeschooling on top of working full-time.

It's shit all round.

Yes it’s shit all round but I’m not doing homeschooling, I have a baby that wakes at 550am and a toddler that gets up at 7 and both of them are non stop until 8pm. So if I’m to find any way to do any meaningful work for my company on any day of the week, I would need to be doing it while they are asleep, and still find some time for my own sleep.

Or, the government could allow nurseries to reopen.

Really simple.

Agree with @TheMurk. I'm back to work today after two months of being furloughed as my work need me back. DH is now taking 3 days of unpaid leave from his FT job to watch them while I'm at work. He could do some of his work at home theoretically, but certainly not with a 13 month old and a 3 year old at home. There's no way he could get any work done during the day which primarily entails a lot of phone calls. It's great that you can middle through but it's not the case for everyone.