Nursery Return, Maternity, School Age and Over 70's

I urge the Scottish Government not to put our children and their key workers at risk by reopening nurseries in response to pressure from some groups. As a parent, I would be happiest if nurseries were not reopened until we were confident our children are not at risk of getting ill, even considering the apparent milder symptoms and if that means our children will not return to nursery until 2021. In my view, this would have a much more detrimental impact on the long term mental health of our children, their families and their key workers who would be put at risk of falling ill and succumbing to the virus.

As a result of this I think it would be helpful to raise the school age by one year (until at least 2026) to allow parents discretion to ensure their children have attained at nursery prior to starting school.

I ask the Scottish Government to ensure Councils are releasing funds promised to private nurseries that would have been allocated as part of free childcare schemes to allow these nurseries to continue to pay key workers to ensure these people are there to care for our children when nurseries are able to fully reopen.

As a key worker who is able to work from home I ask the Scottish Government to Be clear that home working still applies to those who are classed as key workers where they are able to do so.

Employers of key workers should be mandated to consider the needs of key workers who have to care for their children including consideration of paid and unpaid leave, compressed hours, flexible working patterns and allowing employees to care for their children whilst working from home (accounting for potentially less productivity without reprimand).

As a parent on maternity leave I ask the Scottish Government to extend the parental rights to paid leave for a further three months to ensure we have more quality time with our children. In my position, even if nurseries were to reopen with social distancing in place, the reality is I would not be able to ‘settle’ my son in nursery and I am not prepared to drop my son off at the door of a care environment that is new to him and with people he doesn’t know. Employers need to make consideration for this.

I think that the Scottish Government should set better expectations to those in the shielded group and those over 70 or pregnant on timescales and the reality of lockdown for a considerable period of time – perhaps extending beyond the end of the year. As a daughter-in-law of a parent over 70 and with underlying health problems I think it would be better to begin to prepare this group mentally and to allow their families to give more consideration as to how they engage in different ways.

In terms of the paper decision making framework:

Page 6 – Principles on how we make our decisions:

Key point missing – Consultation – We will consult with Scottish Businesses, the Scottish Care Sector (including nurseries and schools) the Scottish Professional Community and the People of Scotland to ensure our decision-making is collaborative and impactful.

Why the contribution is important

Rationale set out above but to reiterate we must not put our children at risk in an experimental way.

by LRCLOW on May 06, 2020 at 09:46AM

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