Should men be banned from working in nurseries?

Galaxy Thu 04-Dec-25 13:15:45
"The risks are much higher for males. Yes of course there are incidents involving women but males are a higher risk".

What is your evidence that male nursery workers ( ie caring for very young children) pose a higher risk of sexual abuse than females Galaxy? Male nursery workers form a much lower percentage of the workforce. Female nursery workers have also been convicted of sexual abuse so the figures are available over many years. I am not sure the pro rata of number of convictions is higher for men than for women. Do you know the figures?

Employers are not able to recruit based on sex, that is illegal. The answer is safe recruitment and safe systems in nurseries to monitor the care of children and the performance of the workers caring for the children. Something went badly awry in this nursery as another member of staff reported this man as a result of their personal observations. The internal governance processes were evidently poor and not up to scratch.

Galaxy

Priests and scout leaders aren't generally providing personal care for children who can't yet communicate verbally.
I thought most employers checked your online activity, it is why we tell teenagers that once you have put something on social media it is there forever.

Yes.
That's usually the first thing any Head will look at when selecting candidates for an educational/care setting.

Often, sensible teachers and other workers with children will reveal the bare minimum in their online profile.

I don't think you necessarily pick up a truly full picture from someone's online activity.

We had two Nanny’s for our boys, if we had found a Manny (mid 80’s) I would have been happy to have him.

Priests and scout leaders aren't generally providing personal care for children who can't yet communicate verbally.
I thought most employers checked your online activity, it is why we tell teenagers that once you have put something on social media it is there forever.

Maremia

I wonder if 'checks' include viewing a candidate's online profile?
Perhaps that should be included for people applying for such sensitive positions?

Good call 👍🏻

I wonder if 'checks' include viewing a candidate's online profile?
Perhaps that should be included for people applying for such sensitive positions?

Galaxy

Discussing the risks presented by men is not misandry, it is reality.
The risk presented by men is also one of the reasons used to ensure we have single sex spaces. Unless that is misandry too?

Of course not.

But banning men from working in caring professions, including nurseries because they are men is definitely misandrist.

Sort out the checks, act on so called red flags

Like I posted upthread we still have scout masters and priests, both professions have been found wanting when it comes to abusing children (young boys)

Discussing the risks presented by men is not misandry, it is reality.
The risk presented by men is also one of the reasons used to ensure we have single sex spaces. Unless that is misandry too?

As far as I csn see he was fully checked, checks are only helpful if you have been caught.

Blimey misandry is alive and kicking on GN 🤬

Maremia

Yep, I'll say it again, get the checks and supervision sorted.

Agreed 👍🏻

Yep, I'll say it again, get the checks and supervision sorted.

lemsip

A big fat YES from me!
employed just to fit the new 'woke' way of everything! Those poor small children/babies at the mercy of paedophiles!

Absolutely agree. I would never allow my child to be looked after by a man. (I do accept of course that there have been some female offenders.)
I would not put a child into nursery until he or she could talk. And I would never, ever let anyone else change my baby’s nappy.

Allira I agree 👍

Oh I have just done a bit more reading, the photo was absolutely a red flag as it was mocking the child.

One estimate suggests there are fewer than 8,162 male practitioners out of a total of approximately 408,134 early years practitioners in the UK.
So even one male abuser compared to eg four female would produce a higher proportion of men.

Statistically, approximately 92% of sex abusers generally are male.

There will be many caring, kind male workers in Early Years but there must be more checks and supervision of these most vulnerable small children .

Nursery staff take photos all the time, mostly to record developmental milestones, communicate with parents, etc. I am not sure that behaviour would have necessarily caused me alarm so I am glad someone was vigilant.

When this case came to light, were there 'red flags' that could/should have been noticed?

Male priests have abused little boys.

Scout Masters have abused little boys.

We haven’t banned men from these positions.

What is needed is a more robust screening procedure. (As suggested upthread.)
Also, again upthread, better and more supervised 'intimate care' protocols.

The statistics I am giving are male versus female perpetrators in general, in terms of the risk by sex if the perpetrator. It usnt based on who is working in nurseries it is based on the general population.

Whitewavemark2

Galaxy

The percentage of child sex abuse perpetrators is between 95 - 99% male. You are raising the risk. There may very well be good reasons to do that, but we need to be clear about that.

Most children that are abused are abused by someone they know.

The vast majority of children abused are girls and in the older age group.

So before we get carried away about nurseries, it is important to be clear about the statistics and the different level of risk to specific age groups and sex.

Just looking at statistics alone for nursery workers, as I pointed out, because the number of male nursery workers is tiny in comparison to that of female nursery workers, the proportion of abusers would be statistically higher.

Teachers don't do personal care and are almost never alone with a child.
I don't think men should be doing personal care for small children esp pre verbal.
We don't actually know how prevalent such abuse is.
The latest case came to light almost by chance. One worker raised questions about the perp taking pictures of children eating.

None of those things alter the risk in nurseries though WW if you see what I mean. So the fact that most abuse happens elsewhere doesn't impact the increase in risk in nurseries if men are present. As I say I am unsure what I feel about this, mainly because of the precedent it might set.

Gardenersdelight2

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

So statistically, it would seem that a higher proportion of male nursery workers abuse children as so few become nursery workers.

Women nursery workers abuse babies and toddlers too but because so many are employed in child care, the statistics are much lower for women abusers.

This case was so sickening and demonstrates that more supervision and the use of CCTV is required.

However, many nurseries are struggling because of higher wages, NI and running costs.