Creche charging for child's place during closure.

Pawwed Rig · 30-04-2020 11:21am

Daz_ wrote: »

Lots of Au Pairs already living in Ireland that need a new family

Are there? We would be looking for a live in arrangement from June to end of August. Slightly difficult if they are already here and so have to leave where they are living for 3 months and then find somewhere else in Sept. Also if it doesn't work out and then they have nowhere to go in June or July.

lazygal · 30-04-2020 1:44pm

Au pairs aren't for full time work though, you couldn't have the same hours as with a creche. I'd be worried about what happens if they get sick etc. Then you have the logistics of doing their tax as they're a classed as an employee.

Toastytoes · 30-04-2020 3:59pm

maxsmum wrote: »

We have hired a girl who was in my son's creche and he knows still from afterschool in the creche. We figured things wouldn't change much when the Govt make their announcement tomorrow. My mother minds him usually during holidays and obviously that's a no go now. So we are hoping she'll stay with us until September. It's cash in hand for her plus her Government payment so we are all happy with the arrangement. It will make things tighter financially but we will manage. We looked at childminders online and they cost a fortune, we would have had to take a mortgage break. Funnily we made the decision the same day HSE announced I could effectively get paid if I couldn't organise childcare, but I am itching to get back to work and some sort of normality.

Someone from the crèche would have been our preferred choice too but there was no one available when we asked. I had a look at the online childminder resources too but there aren’t that many in our area it seems.

Both my own and my partner’s occupations were included in the list of essential workers when it was published back in March ( tho our offices closed voluntarily so we’re wfh) so I’m wondering if we will actually be considered essential too when they stated to reopen crèches.

Hopefully we’ll know more tomorrow.

Toastytoes · 14-05-2020 1:07pm

Has anyone had any correspondence from their crèche regarding phased reopening from end of June?

One of my friends got a message from their crèche to let them know they would start reopening June 29th.

We emailed our crèche as hadn’t heard from them in months and was told expected phased reopening for front line workers in June but if reduced ratios in place “lots of people” will lose their places.

As I understand it 29th June replies to essential workers, not just front line and that crèche places had to be guaranteed to avail of the government scheme currently in place.

Are individual crèches going to be allowed to make up their own rules as regards who is facilitated once they reopen I wonder.

salmocab · 14-05-2020 1:35pm

Toastytoes wrote: »

Has anyone had any correspondence from their crèche regarding phased reopening from end of June?

One of my friends got a message from their crèche to let them know they would start reopening June 29th.

We emailed our crèche as hadn’t heard from them in months and was told expected phased reopening for front line workers in June but if reduced ratios in place “lots of people” will lose their places.

As I understand it 29th June replies to essential workers, not just front line and that crèche places had to be guaranteed to avail of the government scheme currently in place.

Are individual crèches going to be allowed to make up their own rules as regards who is facilitated once they reopen I wonder.

I’d say there is far too much to be ironed out on that front, essential worker is far too loose a term. What if one parent is essential but one isn’t? What if too many people claim they are essential as that bar is set quite low but is moveable and the crèche can’t follow guidelines.
I’d say the answer to your question is nobody knows how it’s going to work yet.

Toastytoes · 14-05-2020 1:51pm

salmocab wrote: »

I’d say there is far too much to be ironed out on that front, essential worker is far too loose a term. What if one parent is essential but one isn’t? What if too many people claim they are essential as that bar is set quite low but is moveable and the crèche can’t follow guidelines.
I’d say the answer to your question is nobody knows how it’s going to work yet.

Agreed there is a lot up in the air yet it seems, but I’d at the very least expect crèches to be doing some kind of analysis or fact gathering about who on their books falls under the essential workers heading (as defined by the government already) to get an idea of where they are. Surely they need to be doing some planning for reopening given it’s only 6 or so weeks away.

There has been no correspondence regarding clarification of who is even considering themselves essential. Maybe they will have enough places for all or maybe they won’t, but they won’t know that without actually asking us so they can at least come up with the numbers.

It’s seems like the first step to me but maybe I’m missing something.

kennethsmyth · 14-05-2020 2:01pm

Guys its simple you won't be able to do social distancing with kids and just like the restaurants if creches are not allowed to have a reasonable level of capacity they simply won't open again as the costs to run it for less children do not make economic sense. This is one area that social distancing will have to be overlooked but hygiene and other safety measures increased instead.

salmocab · 14-05-2020 2:55pm

Toastytoes wrote: »

Agreed there is a lot up in the air yet it seems, but I’d at the very least expect crèches to be doing some kind of analysis or fact gathering about who on their books falls under the essential workers heading (as defined by the government already) to get an idea of where they are. Surely they need to be doing some planning for reopening given it’s only 6 or so weeks away.

There has been no correspondence regarding clarification of who is even considering themselves essential. Maybe they will have enough places for all or maybe they won’t, but they won’t know that without actually asking us so they can at least come up with the numbers.

It’s seems like the first step to me but maybe I’m missing something.

If they ask who’s essential everyone will claim they are, they need clarification before they get anyone’s hopes up I’d think and the list as stands is far too loose.
This has another farce from Zappones department written all over it and crèches are right to do nothing until everything is worked out.

neris · 14-05-2020 3:09pm

If youve been paying attention to the scheme that the incompetent minister tried to ram through this week you,ll know they dont have any plans or ideas of how they will get creches to reopen in June & to who. The creches are waiting for guidelines and instruction from the dept before they have to figure it out themselves and plan. If you think a creche is going to reopen to a load of kids at one time your deluded and I think it,ll be a long time before children will be doing the same times and days as before.

Also the creche operators know about as much as parents as everything is released in the media and creches arent getting information thats not available to parents. So if your creche arent updating you it more then likely means theres nothing to update

cherryghost · 14-05-2020 3:14pm

Considering the information coming out about kids not being superspreaders, the idea of lack of social distancing in creches doesnt seem to be such a big deal anymore. Forcing kids at 2-5 to social distance, and play on their own will be mentally distressing and scar the child for life.

I would be cautiously optimistic of slow reopening. It is vital that if people/government want to get the economy back on track towards where it was, backbone services such as childcare MUST start opening.

Japan should be taken as a clear model. It's a very simple-to-follow model. Parents do not enter the building. Their masks are disposed of outside (or handed back to parent if it is re-usable). Kids temperatures are checked before entering rooms. Some have taken up app monitoring so they have quick and easy access to monitor temperature history. Buggies are wiped down and stored. Kids hands are washed, kids feet are even sprayed with disinfectant, all before setting foot in their respective rooms. Any child with sypmtoms is sent home for a week. Inside the rooms there is no social distancing but regular cleaning (which imo most creches do really well in this country already).

rainemac · 14-05-2020 9:59pm

neris wrote: »

If youve been paying attention to the scheme that the incompetent minister tried to ram through this week you,ll know they dont have any plans or ideas of how they will get creches to reopen in June & to who. The creches are waiting for guidelines and instruction from the dept before they have to figure it out themselves and plan. If you think a creche is going to reopen to a load of kids at one time your deluded and I think it,ll be a long time before children will be doing the same times and days as before.

Also the creche operators know about as much as parents as everything is released in the media and creches arent getting information thats not available to parents. So if your creche arent updating you it more then likely means theres nothing to update

This is 100% correct. No communication with creches to advise anything re reopening.

jon1981 · 15-05-2020 7:57am

Anyone getting alittle angry at the zero risk approach to opening back up or is that just me?

Also with reduced numbers no creche will be able to take on new children. Where does that leave people? Potentially driving them out of the work force?

Zero risk is a dangerous goal.

salmocab · 15-05-2020 8:04am

jon1981 wrote: »

Anyone getting alittle angry at the zero risk approach to opening back up or is that just me?

Also with reduced numbers no creche will be able to take on new children. Where does that leave people? Potentially driving them out of the work force?

Zero risk is a dangerous goal.

Not sure how you think it’s zero risk, if they open it won’t be at zero risk,

jon1981 · 15-05-2020 8:11am

salmocab wrote: »

Not sure how you think it’s zero risk, if they open it won’t be at zero risk,

The concern is the rules to reopening are so strict that it severely reduces numbers of creche places available. The industry is under enough pressure as it is.

Daragh O'Connor of SIPTU warned that reducing the capacity of childcare providers without additional funding would threaten the future of the sector.

He said: "If there's a reduced capacity, which there will be, how do you allocate how can people apply to avail of it?

"The financial model that creches and pre-schools have goes out the window. It's completely unsustainable financially."

Mr O'Connor added that the sector's staffing crisis will not have disappeared.

He said: "We have a staff turnover rate of 40% on average in full day services.

"It's over 90% for some other services as well. So that presents a huge challenge."

https://www-rte-ie.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.rte.ie/amp/1138505/

salmocab · 15-05-2020 8:25am

jon1981 wrote: »

The concern is the rules to reopening are so strict that it severely reduces numbers of creche places available. The industry is under enough pressure as it is.

Daragh O'Connor of SIPTU warned that reducing the capacity of childcare providers without additional funding would threaten the future of the sector.

He said: "If there's a reduced capacity, which there will be, how do you allocate how can people apply to avail of it?

"The financial model that creches and pre-schools have goes out the window. It's completely unsustainable financially."

Mr O'Connor added that the sector's staffing crisis will not have disappeared.

He said: "We have a staff turnover rate of 40% on average in full day services.

"It's over 90% for some other services as well. So that presents a huge challenge."

https://www-rte-ie.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.rte.ie/amp/1138505/

Absolutely the industry is under massive pressure but they can’t just open their doors in a few weeks time and have everyone back. They like every other industry are going to have to do risk control and it’s tougher for them than most because of the nature of the business. I’m not sure what you expect your first post suggested it’s too much and your second talks about the pressure they and I presume by extension parents are under. If they open and there is a couple of outbreaks in crèches in the early days it will be shut down again leaving everyone worse off especially parents who might just have got working again.

JimmyVik · 15-05-2020 8:32am

Delete. Probably off topic

maxsmum · 15-05-2020 8:47am

Is it not next to useless to open a creche or a school gradually? It should be either full time or nothing? I don't know about anyone else but my job doesn't exactly mean I can swan in on a Monday or a Friday and still get paid!

pc7 · 15-05-2020 8:55am

We got a survey via text from our creche asking where we coming back etc. when they open.

Olivia Pope · 15-05-2020 9:00am

We got an email last week, asking when we want to send our children back to Creche. They are going to collate all the information and see what they can do for people. We have also had a few zoom calls with the creche and the children's friends to mark a few birthdays.

Pawwed Rig · 15-05-2020 10:55am

With increased working from home I wonder will creches ever see the same level of demand again. I can see demand for 2 ecce shifts per day maybe but I reckon there will be a drop off in demand for full time hours.

salmocab · 15-05-2020 11:05am

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

With increased working from home I wonder will creches ever see the same level of demand again. I can see demand for 2 ecce shifts per day maybe but I reckon there will be a drop off in demand for full time hours.

Things might change but I don’t think many will have kids at home full time whilst they work from home. I know a few people who do days at home every week and drop the kids in to crèche. One mate was saying it’s a nightmare at the moment trying to work and keep kids happy. After school care might be different with older kids but they usually go full time during the holidays.

Slattsy · 15-05-2020 11:54am

We couldn't work from home with the kids. Absolute no brainer to send them back into crèche, whenever the open again.

Try to keep it normal for them, there's no benefit to young children being at home with two parents trying to go about their work.

jrosen · 15-05-2020 12:00pm

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

With increased working from home I wonder will creches ever see the same level of demand again. I can see demand for 2 ecce shifts per day maybe but I reckon there will be a drop off in demand for full time hours.

Not if people still have jobs. Anyone working will still require childcare. I would wonder if we will see more people using child minders though V's creche

shesty · 15-05-2020 12:29pm

Posted this elsewhere....found this to be an incredibly common sense approach.

https://rollercoaster.ie/childcare/this-is-how-creches-may-work-once-they-reopen/?fbclid=IwAR2pNqtWBCaWoJebPfQm443VfrHnxqlLK3xchETk_qUCMbEKzm_GHYEm8e4

Now obviously it may not all work for all creches, and may require tweaks when up and running, but I thought it was a very good practical start.

Pawwed Rig · 15-05-2020 1:18pm

jrosen wrote: »

Not if people still have jobs. Anyone working will still require childcare. I would wonder if we will see more people using child minders though V's creche

We are keeping 2 full time jobs going and looking after the 2 kids and are all doing ok. We have flexibility in our timing whereby she works and I mind and then vice versa. It is not ideal but when all this is over school will be there and ecce so we can easily make up.the difference then without working until 8 or 9pm. Saving commuting time, lunch breaks etc. Actually getting more work done as my phone is not constantly ringing or people popping over to my desk.
Outside of school we will probably get a childminder for 2-3 hours a day.

Wife just got told that working from home is now a permanent option

iAcesHigh · 19-05-2020 1:11pm

Will be interesting to see if Gov changes approach: Plan to reopen economy will fail if childcare not taken seriously

shesty · 19-05-2020 1:20pm

Honestly they would want to start thinking pretty damn fast....I already know of 2 sets of parents that have involved grandparents in the last week out of complete desperation.This problem is only going to get bigger.

Cabaal · 20-05-2020 7:49pm

iAcesHigh wrote: »

Will be interesting to see if Gov changes approach: Plan to reopen economy will fail if childcare not taken seriously

They need to totally scrap the current system,

It doesn't benefit parents due to costs and child care staff get screwed on pay and working conditions.

Now is the chance to bring it under department of education, overhaul the entire system for the benefit of workers and parents.

Pawwed Rig · 20-05-2020 7:56pm

Cabaal wrote: »

Now is the chance to bring it under department of education, overhaul the entire system for the benefit of workers and parents.

The government cannot provide anything efficiently. It would end up costing twice as much if you put it under the DOE.

shesty · 20-05-2020 8:25pm

Not the DOE.Definitely not.

neris · 21-05-2020 12:19pm

Cabaal wrote: »

They need to totally scrap the current system,

It doesn't benefit parents due to costs and child care staff get screwed on pay and working conditions.

Now is the chance to bring it under department of education, overhaul the entire system for the benefit of workers and parents.

and the providers get shafted having to pay sky high rents, rates and other costs which have to passed onto the parents and thats why the costs are so high and staff underpaid.

another thing the govt havent clarified is after June who is going to be paying for the childcare. If creches open to heavily reduced numbers theres no point in them opening and charging parents as tey wont cover costs or wages so the govt have to step in and make it viable for both parents and providers

salmocab · 21-05-2020 12:33pm

neris wrote: »

and the providers get shafted having to pay sky high rents, rates and other costs which have to passed onto the parents and thats why the costs are so high and staff underpaid.

another thing the govt havent clarified is after June who is going to be paying for the childcare. If creches open to heavily reduced numbers theres no point in them opening and charging parents as tey wont cover costs or wages so the govt have to step in and make it viable for both parents and providers

Zappones latest announcement seemed nonsensical, Lower numbers kids with The same staff member all day kids taken from the car by the staff member who is already apparently with other children. She hasn’t helped at all and seems to just announce whatever comes to her.

shesty · 21-05-2020 12:55pm

At this point I think the whole lot of them....teachers, the Dept of Education, Dept of Social Protection, childcare providers and all associated...would all do better to direct their energies into solving the problems, rather than making and contradicting media statements, for a few weeks.The amount of conflicting information out in the last week around children and schools is unreal.

neris · 21-05-2020 1:08pm

shesty wrote: »

At this point I think the whole lot of them....teachers, the Dept of Education, Dept of Social Protection, childcare providers and all associated...would all do better to direct their energies into solving the problems, rather than making and contradicting media statements, for a few weeks.The amount of conflicting information out in the last week around children and schools is unreal.

Childcare providers have to contradict statements that are put in the media by Zappone and her cronies. Zappone has tried ramming schemes through without discussion or even listening to provider concerns while telling the media in a Hitler like way that what she says her plans are the childcare providers will do.

salmocab · 21-05-2020 1:11pm

neris wrote: »

Childcare providers have to contradict statements that are put in the media by Zappone and her cronies. Zappone has tried ramming schemes through without discussion or even listening to provider concerns while telling the media in a Hitler like way that what she says her plans are the childcare providers will do.

This is a huge problem yet again she has made a pronouncement on how something is going to work without asking the people involved if it’s workable. It would be laughable if it wasn’t such a serious subject.

pc7 · 21-05-2020 1:26pm

I am very concerned about some of the things I'm hearing, split school days (how will that work with creche), reduced numbers in creche, who decides what families lose their spot. We are currently are paying one of the staff members from our creche to mind our children in the house while we work. We couldn't keep going the way we were, so far so good, not sure what we will do when she goes back to work, but that is another days problem.

salmocab · 21-05-2020 1:32pm

pc7 wrote: »

I am very concerned about some of the things I'm hearing, split school days (how will that work with creche), reduced numbers in creche, who decides what families lose their spot. We are currently are paying one of the staff members from our creche to mind our children in the house while we work. We couldn't keep going the way we were, so far so good, not sure what we will do when she goes back to work, but that is another days problem.

Crèches are probably going to have to reduce numbers under current proposals and I’d say after school care will be first gone, then the higher ratio stuff which I think is U2’s.

kennethsmyth · 21-05-2020 3:14pm

salmocab wrote: »

Crèches are probably going to have to reduce numbers under current proposals and I’d say after school care will be first gone, then the higher ratio stuff which I think is U2’s.

And what will they expect parents of kids under 2 do?

They need to ask the creches what is actually feasible and then max out the hygiene but it maybe that they run as previously with additional realistic procedures otherwise like the restaurants they will open for a while and shut due to income levels.

Zappone needs to go away, no just no.

Additional to all of this is the young kids mental state, we are looking as segregating them into "pods" etc. This is not going to end well in the future socially.

shesty · 21-05-2020 3:47pm

To add to the dislike of the idea split school days, I don't like the sound of "continued online learning" which is supposed to exist alongside that. Who is going to do that?? Is the teacher going to teach and manage online learning? How on earth can a teacher do that.Are the parents going to have to continue homeschooling? How can we homeschool to a sufficient extent that a child keeps up with a full school day's worth of work every other day or week, in order to keep them all up to date, and keep working ourselves? It is beyond impractical.

We are making an awful meal out of this. There is a degree of risk involved in bringing kids together no matter what, but all we can do is manage the risk, we cannot eliminate it. Turning ourselves over backwards and inside out to try and completely prevent this virus from existing at childcare and school levels is going to cause more harm than good at the rate we are going.

pc7 · 21-05-2020 3:53pm

shesty wrote: »

To add to the dislike of the idea split school days, I don't like the sound of "continued online learning" which is supposed to exist alongside that. Who is going to do that?? Is the teacher going to teach and manage online learning? How on earth can a teacher do that.Are the parents going to have to continue homeschooling? How can we homeschool to a sufficient extent that a child keeps up with a full school day's worth of work every other day or week, in order to keep them all up to date, and keep working ourselves? It is beyond impractical.
.

I have a child in Junior Infants, they receive one email a week with work, that is it. No video, online learning etc (not that I'm sure it would work for that age). They really rebel against doing any work for me and I can't blame them, I am not a teacher. Its a real worry about how they will catch up, we are trying our best, but we both work.

salmocab · 21-05-2020 4:15pm

kennethsmyth wrote: »

And what will they expect parents of kids under 2 do?

They need to ask the creches what is actually feasible and then max out the hygiene but it maybe that they run as previously with additional realistic procedures otherwise like the restaurants they will open for a while and shut due to income levels.

Zappone needs to go away, no just no.

Additional to all of this is the young kids mental state, we are looking as segregating them into "pods" etc. This is not going to end well in the future socially.

Regards the U2’s or indeed anyone that loses out if any of these plans come through I’d imagine it will be tough luck. If numbers are cut it will have to be done in the most logical manner and after schoolers is the most obvious as they aren’t full time all the time and U2’s as they take up twice the space and staff as the older kids (not sure of the exact cut offs for the ratios). This isn’t something the crèches are going to want to do but something will have to give soon.

Cakerbaker · 21-05-2020 4:42pm

There isn’t a huge difference in staff ratios between 1-2 and 2-3, it’s 5 and 6. 3-6 is 8. Under 1s is 3 but my crèche doesn’t take them anymore.

I’m not so sure about cutting the after-school, in my creche the staff that run the ECCE class in the morning do the after school in the afternoon so it’s almost a separate bubble to the rest of the crèche. They’d nearly have to get rid of the ECCE class too if they were going to get rid of the after school. The after-school is also probably the most profitable part of their business if you compare the cost of that to the full time rates.

I’m just glad that I’ve an understanding employer who understands i May need to be primarily based at home until this is sorted. Thankfully I’ve a job where that is possible.

shesty · 21-05-2020 4:53pm

pc7 wrote: »

I have a child in Junior Infants, they receive one email a week with work, that is it. No video, online learning etc (not that I'm sure it would work for that age). They really rebel against doing any work for me and I can't blame them, I am not a teacher. Its a real worry about how they will catch up, we are trying our best, but we both work.

I am the same PC7, I can't criticise the teacher as it is JI, so there is not much else she can do really.It's the writing and reading, I am keeping her ticking over now, but there is no way what she is doing now would constitute a full day's work...enough to walk into a school next week and be "up to date" with say last weeks's work.And I can only imagine the workload increase as they go up the school.It isn't feasible tbh, what she is doing now is fine, but if she was to go back in Sept and they were to do a week on/week off, I simply could not keep her up to date in the week off to the extent needed.And the teacher couldn't manage full time teaching hours plus keeping the online up to date.It's too much.

mirrorwall14 · 21-05-2020 5:33pm

shesty wrote: »

I am the same PC7, I can't criticise the teacher as it is JI, so there is not much else she can do really.It's the writing and reading, I am keeping her ticking over now, but there is no way what she is doing now would constitute a full day's work...enough to walk into a school next week and be "up to date" with say last weeks's work.And I can only imagine the workload increase as they go up the school.It isn't feasible tbh, what she is doing now is fine, but if she was to go back in Sept and they were to do a week on/week off, I simply could not keep her up to date in the week off to the extent needed.And the teacher couldn't manage full time teaching hours plus keeping the online up to date.It's too much.

To be honest I’m the complete opposite. We are getting dojo daily videos, a weekly plan and a daily plan (because parents wanted it both ways) and all the resources to go with it for my five year old. Creche are even sending materials for my 18 month old!!! I cant deal with it all on top of teaching myself to second level and minding both of them. I ended up emailing her at Easter and just saying I can’t

Junior infant here too, I’m getting him doing 1/2 pages of the maths book, 2 pages of pen control or letters books and as much freehand drawing and colouring I can because his pen control was weak (he finally chose a hand in January). I can’t deal with lesson plans etc. I’m just turning the page to the next one while distracting the 18 month old from annoying him while he works. Some days we get nothing done. Other days we get back to it two or three times (I do 10 mins max at a time)

shesty · 21-05-2020 5:45pm

That's the reality Mirrorwall it has only settled into an email a week for us since Easter.Before that, it was total OTT.Not the teacher herself, just the school.She sends a week's worth of work and says pick and chose what you can depending on your situation.We are both working and I have 2 younger kids, so once the JI is ticking over with a wee bit each day, it's the best we can do.Would it be enough to do on a weekly basis, though, come September, if they were week on/week off??No, not at all.

mirrorwall14 · 22-05-2020 8:16am

shesty wrote: »

That's the reality Mirrorwall it has only settled into an email a week for us since Easter.Before that, it was total OTT.Not the teacher herself, just the school.She sends a week's worth of work and says pick and chose what you can depending on your situation.We are both working and I have 2 younger kids, so once the JI is ticking over with a wee bit each day, it's the best we can do.Would it be enough to do on a weekly basis, though, come September, if they were week on/week off??No, not at all.

Yeah I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Because I’ve no idea how it would work. At least they’d be in semi regular contact so it could be demonstration week1 by week 2 practise at home.

pc7 · 22-05-2020 9:07am

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

Yeah I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Because I’ve no idea how it would work. At least they’d be in semi regular contact so it could be demonstration week1 by week 2 practise at home.

i'll find that very hard working from home, I don't know how long employers good will will last on this if parents dont get a good outcome/solution for the kids.

shesty · 22-05-2020 9:38am

The same and I don't think it's practical if you have 2 or 3 kids in school at different levels, potentially in or out on different weeks and trying to keep them all going at home in the interim.It isn't really workable.
September is a long way away yet though.

salmocab · 22-05-2020 9:49am

shesty wrote: »

The same and I don't think it's practical if you have 2 or 3 kids in school at different levels, potentially in or out on different weeks and trying to keep them all going at home in the interim.It isn't really workable.
September is a long way away yet though.

Your right on the long way away, we will have information from other countries reopenings of schools and months of our data on the spread as well as others at that stage.

El Gato De Negocios · 22-05-2020 10:12am

We had to complete a reopening questionnaire for our creche last week. Looks like they are aiming to reopen, at least partly, from late July. My wife and I are both working from home currently. My job would be a bit more flexible and my employer is looking at bringing people back to the office starting from late July but initially only at 25% capacity so no immediate pressure on us but I think for the kids (one just turned 3, the other is 22 months) will benefit greatly from a return to a normal routine. We are juggling currently depending on who needs to be available during the day, for example, I logged on at 6 yesterday morning for 3 hours, my wife was on conference calls most of the morning so I did 2 hours in the afternoon and 2 hours from half 7 last night. Not ideal but needs must. Its not fair on the kids or us trying to work full time and provide full time care.

Creche charging for child's place during closure.

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