Nursery staff feel “vulnerable” whilst open during pandemic

STAFF from local nurseries have said that they feel “vulnerable” and “overlooked” by the Government as calls for routine Covid-19 testing and vaccinations for all key workers in early years settings increases.  

Following news of the national lockdown, schools across England closed their doors to most pupils this month, whilst most early years settings remained open.

And whilst they are “happy” to stay open, staff at Whitley’s Daisychain Day Nursery say that they are concerned about the risk of catching Covid-19 as they are mixing with so many children from different families. Whilst staff at Little Joey’s Nursery at Boomerang Family Play Centre in Bowerhill, have demanded that staff in nurseries and Early Years education settings be given “priority” for the vaccine alongside other frontline workers.

And the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (Pacey), Early Years Alliance (EYA) and National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) have also said that they want staff in nurseries and pre-schools to be given priority to receive the vaccine, and for mass testing in early years settings.

Manager of Daisychain Day Nursery, Sarah Radford, told Melksham News, “On the whole (we are) happy to be open. However, we do feel that we have been overlooked yet again by the Government. We are often the first point in a child’s crucial education and we never seem to receive any recognition for this. We are in a vulnerable position, but we have put a wide range of precautions into our daily work life to enable us to continue as safely as possible.

“But we feel the situation is now beginning to make us all feel rather vulnerable as we are mixing with so many children from different families.”

Whilst staff wait for news about when they will receive the vaccine, Daisychain Day Nursery has continued with all the safety measures they introduced in June, attracting praise from parents and carers.

“We have had lovely comments from parents,” said Sarah. “They are generally surprised that we were not included in the education shutdown with the schools, but at the same time, are relieved that we are open. Many parents are now faced with working from home as well as taking over the educating of siblings.

“Thank you to all our parents who follow our nursery policies and for working with us to keep everyone safe.”

Nursery manager at Little Joey’s Nursery, Kirsty Cottrell said, “We are happy that the nursery remains open to all, and that we can support families during this unusual time. However, we do feel as though nurseries and Early Years education has been overlooked by the Government once more. We are told that nurseries are safe, which we believe that as far as possible they are, but at the same time are told that it is not advised that outside agencies can make face-to-face contact with us, therefore not being able to offer the best support they can. 

“We feel that we should be prioritised due to the nature of our work and the fact that socially distancing is not possible in Early Years. We cannot understand how many other frontline workers will be prioritised but not ourselves.”

About the safety measures they have in place, Sarah at Daisychain Day Nursery explained, “We don’t mix children between rooms, staff remain in their teams and don’t mix with other teams around the nursery.

“Daily cleaning of the nursery and resources remains vigorous, we have recently purchased a portable room sanitiser, each room is ventilated throughout the day as well.

“We change into our uniforms at nursery and then back into other clothes before leaving, everyone has fresh uniform each day, we wear aprons throughout the day, gloves at key points of the day and masks when letting children in and out of nursery when we have closer contact with parents.

“Parents provide spare clothing, coats and comforters, all of which remain at nursery and are washed on site, children’s bedding is washed daily. 

“Children are handed over and received at the door at the beginning and the end of their session.

“Both staff and children’s temperatures are taken before being admitted into nursery and hands are sanitised at arrival and leaving.

“We use our online learning journey more now and we have put into place regular telephone calls with parents to update them on their children.

“Unfortunately we are unable to use our lovely large soft play, it would be impossible to clean this before each group of children.”