Should men be banned from working in nurseries?

Should add, this is the second male nursery worker caught for child sexual abuse within a few months.

I don't think a blanket ban would be a good thing. Perhaps nurseries needs to look at intimate care policies and ensure that two adults are always there when changing children. Of course that has staffing issues

Very difficult this one. However, it's a sad fact that predators do tend to gravitate towards jobs either with vulnerable people/ access to vulnerable people and children, also jobs with positions of power. I tend to think the vetting process needs looked at. I do agree , I don't think men really should be doing intimate care for very young children or women really. It's so difficult with all the staff shortages. Either the vetting needs looked at or you pair workers up? Anybody else have thoughts on this?

I think that before a ban is enforced we would need to see the data relating to child abusers in the nursery setting, and make an informed decision on that.

I do think it is important that children have both male and female role models in their lives, and as the majority of their waking lives are often spent at nursery, the male role model is important, particularly where a child does not have a permanent father figure.

https://signal-corridor.live/uploads/talk/202512/medium-13zwju-img-7627.jpeg%3C/span%3E https://signal-corridor.live/uploads/talk/202512/medium-atpe2u-img-7628.jpeg%3C/span%3E

Homestead62 I really don’t know the answer, but a quick google comes up with female nursery workers who have abused children in their care ….. it’s not just males who are a threat.

There have been cases of women abusing children in nurseries too. Whilst I think it's pretty unusual to have men working in this sort of environment, maybe not a natural choice, I'm not sure about a blanket ban. Should there not be video cameras monitoring what goes on in the areas where they are changed and the carers would be alone with the baby/child. There was a case where I used to live of a young woman abusing the children, not sexually, but pinching them leaving them with marks on the body. How awful for any parent, paying a fortune to boot, to not have the confidence as to whether their offspring are being cared for properly, worse still the horror to find out that they are being abused.

Not had children - but I've certainly heard of women being abusers too. I don't think it's to do with what sex the helper is - it's either they're that sort of person that goes in for doing abuse or they're normal.

Some people of both sexes are useless or worse with children. Some people of both sexes are really good with children/care for them/etc.

Out of my parents - it was my father who was the "child" person/really likes children and my mother who just "did the necessary stuff" so to say.

Ditto - years back with a younger boyfriend of the time and cue for me saying the way he reacted with children - you'd only got to watch him with a "soft" look on his face when he saw children/any children and I said to him "Your job isn't good enough for you/you could do better than that. I don't know quite what sort of job for you - but I think it should be something to do with children - as that's what you obviously like". Cue for - many years later - and that is precisely what he is doing/has been doing for years now (ie he did further studying and then became manager of a home for troubled teenagers and seems to be doing quite well at it from what I can make out). Some people just are "child people" and some aren't and then there's the ones who treat them badly - the sex of the person isnt the determining factor.

www.norland.ac.uk/i-have-surprised-myself-and-achieved-more-than-i-thought-i-would-kias-story/

Norland Nannies train boys too.

It is very tricky, I agree that male and female role models are needed but that could happen in schools, where there is less personal care, children are more able to articulate what is happening to them, etc. With regards to females abusing children the last figures I saw were something like 99% of child sex abuse perpetrators are male. I think you have to accept that if males are nursery workers the risk to children is higher.
Now it might be on balance people think that risk is worth it, because of where those bans can lead.

I think that because its still rare to have men working in nursery's theses cases get way more publicity than when a female is prosecuted
Banning unfortunately just moves a problem elsewhere
Re the intimate care aspect I was a nurse and now a support worker and have worked alongside many men in caring roles and never seen any issues

In newer to the OP it’s a no from me.

We shouldn’t demonise all men due to one vile individual’s actions.

So, what about male nurses, midwives, doctors, surgeons, all of who may be involved in intimate care of women and young children/babies - ban them all?

I think, as has been said upthread, that children should have role models of both sexes. I wish more men would work in nurseries and I suspect they would if the pay was not so poor.

Women abuse children in nurseries too and we don't think of banning women.
Most people whatever sex, would not abuse children. Only the minority do such a thing.

Personally I think its very strange that a man would want to work in a nursery, in any case women have abused children as well, I’m surprised that workers are allowed to change a nappy unsupervised.
Yes, it’s going to cost more but how much supervision is needed.

I don't see why anyone would think it strange for a man to work in a nursery. As I've pointed out - men vary. Quite a high proportion of men = maybe not. But then there's the ones who really like kids and the children like them back. Both that ex-boyfriend of mine and my father could be seen any day of the week "batting their eyelashes" at any young children that they were anywhere near. There was no point in trying to keep the attention of either of them if there was a cute little child nearby - they were focused on watching them and having a chat with them if they could manage it.

Cue for my fathers proud tale one time of asking his pupils (when he was a teacher latterly) why they played up when Miss X (whatever her name was) was teaching them...but they never played him up. Little tyke amongst them was "Oh well...sir...we don't like Miss X. But we do like you". That was him told then.

More important that adequate safeguarding procedures are in place. As others have mentioned, abusers in nurseries are not only makes.
We were in Plymouth at the time so my recollection of the 2009 Plymouth child abuse case still shocks me. It involved a child abuse and paedophile ring involving at least five adults from different parts of England. The case centred on photographs taken of up to 64 children by Vanessa George, a nursery worker in Plymouth. It highlighted the issue of child molestation by women, as all but one of the members of the ring were female.

The risks are much higher for males. Yes of course there are incidents involving women but males are a higher risk.

ixion

www.norland.ac.uk/i-have-surprised-myself-and-achieved-more-than-i-thought-i-would-kias-story/

Norland Nannies train boys too.

One or two a year, perhaps.
Norland is a business, 17,000£ a year, plus £1,000 for uniform, weeding out the career minded from the predatory opportunists (one would hope)

David49

Personally I think its very strange that a man would want to work in a nursery, in any case women have abused children as well, I’m surprised that workers are allowed to change a nappy unsupervised.
Yes, it’s going to cost more but how much supervision is needed.

Personally I think its strange that you have such an opinion 🤔....so what do you base that on?

Why? Women have been caught abusing children as well as men. You can’t paint them all the same!

david49 why ?? Many men are carers, certainly with old people male carers are bathing them helping them on and off the loo and who s ever expressed OMG moment at a female bed bathing a male
Surely the same with babies / toddlers some men are better at looking after little ones than sone women
Men can be rotten abusers
Women can be rotten abusers
Neither should be alone to do any private care with a baby toddler or elderly or anyone unable

So are we only going to have female paediatricians, children’s nurses, neonatal unit staff? The two nurses who inflicted the worst abuse imaginable on defenceless babies and children were both females.

Because the risk for child sex abuse is higher for males. People do need to understand that. As I say you can accept that the benefits of having male staff outweigh the risk but you can't pretend you aren't increasing the risk.