Should men be banned from working in nurseries?

Definitely not. Most men are good people and perfectly harmless. It is good for youngsters, especially boys from one parent families, to see that men are fine.

It is very wrong to paint every man with the same evil brush.

To be honest, I feel this is a rather sexist and discriminate comment to make. I am sure if you look at all statistics available, there have been a great deal more reported incidents of females working in nurseries who have been found guilty of sexual abuse. If someone is sufficiently qualified, they should be allowed to apply for a nursery job. Based upon your comment, I am sure you are also of the same opinion that all paramedics, nurses and doctors should be female and males should be banned from the profession, just in case they need to treat a female patient.

Surely many Dads change their babies nappies now. Bathe their children and so on. Would we say no father should have any physical intimacy with his children? But there are fathers who sexually abuse their own children. A terrible thing.
We need to look at abuse, how and why it happens, how it should be dealt with, how it can be prevented.

Mojack26

Absolutely not. My grandaughter's nursery has a man and he's wonderful! You cannot tar everyone with same brush. Thereshould be rigorous child protection measures in place....

No, you can't, of course not, but nurseries have a duty of care to ensure all their staff are good and trustworthy.

If that means Government funding for nurseries then so be it, but better that than another abused child.

Daisycuddles

That's completely sexist. Also it ignores the fact that there are female abusers out there as well.

Yes, about 8% compared to 92% who are male.

Absolutely not. My grandaughter's nursery has a man and he's wonderful! You cannot tar everyone with same brush. Thereshould be rigorous child protection measures in place....

Will we be banning male nurses and midwifes too. Females can carry out abuse too.

Kamj

So not with their father?

Sorry this was for the poster who said she wouldn't have left her children in the care of a male carer

So not with their father?

That's completely sexist. Also it ignores the fact that there are female abusers out there as well.

Personal experience. In the nursery my grandsons attended, on pick up one day a toddler was having a complete tantrum having thrown himself in a he floor and crying and screaming. The young male nursery worker was absolutely fantastic. Calmly talking to the boy and staying at his side I was in awe of his patience and kindness

Of course not, that means every male role need's to be banned? Sports coach, teacher, heath worker etc etc?
And father's? Unattended with their children

There are sick individuals out there male and female.. I bet if you read about all the abuse that happened in nurseries the % would be higher in females (I appreciate that more females work in care but on the law of averages)

How about all the female caregivers that are guilty of neglect, some even leading to the deaths of the children in their care? Should all women be geld accountable for their crimes? You can’t punish an entire gender based on the despicable actions of a few.

Also, I do wonder if training of nursery nurses is adequate . Nursery nurses need pro-active empathy training. It is careless to take it for granted that all trainee nurses have learned empathy with their mother's milk.

TerriBull

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.

I agree. Need plenty of video cameras in and out of doors at nurseries. It's a pity but it's true.

In theory there shouldn’t be an issue whether it is a male or female childcare worker. But and it a big but- I would feel quite uncomfortable if a male was changing my little girl and taking her to the toilet. My prejudice. Little children are not able to vocalise their fears.

40% of parents who are entitled to benefits are in work. It says more about the system surely. Many of the others would like to work but are full time carers to family with complex needs, are disabled themselves or want work but can't get it. This is courtesy of Martin Lewis.
I'm not in favour of any knee jerk decision but would rather parliament looked at the issue. I worked full time when my children were young. Our mortgage rate went up to 17% and if hadn't been working, we would have lost our home. Would that have been better? The proliferation of private nurseries wasn't a thing in the 80/90s. It was childminders or family. I used both at times. Parents nowadays are encouraged to work, expected to work and therefore rely on childcare. Men in nurseries are not the problem. Proper supervision is required of all nursery workers and that requires money. I loathe the anti male/woman as homemaker that's being routed here as the only way.

Whitewavemark2

And don’t forget the benefits system, which will be totally overloaded with many more families being tipped into poverty.

Overload the benefits system?
Certainly would, especially if being paid to look after your children meant parents would opt for more children.

Tipping families into poverty?
Wouldn’t paying them to look after their children take a lot of non-working parents out of poverty?

Except, with the added difficulty of getting a job when you’ve been out of the public workforce would still exist and probably be used as a reason for needing further benefits to keep the school age children out of poverty.

I hope Rachel is aware of these financial impacts.

Whitewavemark2

And don’t forget the benefits system, which will be totally overloaded with many more families being tipped into poverty.

Yep!

And don’t forget the benefits system, which will be totally overloaded with many more families being tipped into poverty.

Kandinksy we are not in the 60/70’s

Parents need to work, have you seen the price of houses to purchase or rents?

I come from a longline of working women, we have all raised successful well adjusted offspring.

I had no choice other than to have a Nanny for our sons, then went on to use a combination of private nursery (Montessori) and part-time Nanny

Women fought for equality, no shame in using it.

OK - let’s think this through.

Assuming that every family can afford to have only one breadwinner, how are you going to make up for the withdrawal of millions of employees?

How are you going to fill the skilled jobs many of them do before becoming parents?

What are you going to do about -for whatever reason- the single parent?

How are you going to compensate for those being out of the job market and thus losing skills and knowledge as they remain at home.

How are you going to stop anyone setting up a nursery for the under 5 s? Are you going to incorporate it in an oppressive law?

How are you going to recognise that many tinies live in less than desirable conditions and that nursery provides shelter, food, warmth and education during their vital years.

I could go on of course + but you get the drift?

Just to buck the trend Kandinsky I worked in the late sixties and early seventies. My daughter was cared for in the creche at the hospital where I worked. The cost was subsidised by the hospital I think. Worked well for us, I wanted to continue working even if only part time and qualified nurses were in short supply.

I’m being completely serious.
How many women worked when their children were babies back in our day ( 50’s / 60’s ) not many.
Women would get a job when the children started school.
I grew up in the 60’s / 70’s - no one I knew had been to a nursery. These big nursery chains didn’t even exist.
It was the Thatcher era that changed everything. We suddenly wanted more so that meant both parents working.
I personally don’t think children should be anywhere other than with their parents until they’re around 4 years old.
Nursery is not necessary.

Kandinsky

Whitewavemark2
I agree with you, ( apart from the last paragraph ) but it is a fact that working in a nursery is seen as a low status job. A job anyone could do. Let’s face it. You don’t need a Cambridge degree to play with toddlers all day.

Rather than seeing nurseries incorporated into the school system - ( funded by the tax payer ). how about we pay parents to stay at home and look after their own babies/ toddlers.

An appropriate Cambridge degree probably would be desirable by certain staff, but at present qualifications required are at level 3 which is somewhere between A level and degree by most of the staff and level two by others. It has however, long been thought that an appropriate teaching degree is the ideal, similar to that found say in European nurseries, but because of the lack of funding this has been unaffordable and our children are the poorer for it.

With regards to everyone staying home looking after their children.

I assume that you are not being serious.