Grandparents and childcare

matilda.cs

Morning, I’m a bit confused about the latest guidance on gatherings. 

My mum looks after my 2 children and my sisters’ 3 children after school, 3 days a week. Without this support, We’re both left paying more for childcare than we earn. 

The problem is that she looks after our 5 kids as well as the 2 children she has adopted, meaning that they would normally have 10 in the household between 3pm and 5:30pm. 

I get that we need to reduce the spread of coronavirus, but what isn’t clear is whether there is additional support to help my sister and I, without risking a large fine. It’s a bit annoying as I work in education and am surrounded by 200 teenagers in “close contact services“ training, which is a bigger risk than my parents looking after my kids!!
to add to this, my mums adopted children are in the same school as mine. 

Can anyone please advise on what options we have? Thanks  

bradders1983

You have highlighted the ridiculousness of this rule in your opening post. Of course you have the option of carrying on as normal, enforcement of this will be as weak as water.

matilda.cs

bradders1983 said:

You have highlighted the ridiculousness of this rule in your opening post. Of course you have the option of carrying on as normal, enforcement of this will be as weak as water.

Yeah, but, if it does get enforced we can’t afford the fine. 

Any there any other options? 3 of the 4 parents who rely on nans help are (formally classed as) key workers. The other is not, but his income is essential to their household. He couldn’t look after them all as there would still be over 6. 

bradders1983

You can't afford £100? Would probably cost you well more than that that in sourcing childcare to get round the rule.  Anyway wont say any more as the mods wont like it.

matilda.cs

 bradders1983 said:

You can't afford £100? Would probably cost you well more than that that in sourcing childcare to get round the rule.  Anyway wont say any more as the mods wont like it.

The £100 would be a struggle. 
The £700 total fine over the first 3 days would be more than we pay a month for to feed 5. We don’t have much spare after bills as it is. If we did, we might not be so dependant on the support of family. 

bradders1983

Well clearly after the first one you would stop and sort something else, but even the first one is unlikely to happen. A farce of a rule.

I assume your mum is not with a partner, you could split the group in 2 that way, one at House A with a few kids and the other at House B (either your house or your sisters house) with the rest. But even typing that feels utterly ridiculous, welcome to 2020.

silvercar

Start paying your Mum £1 a week, that way her home becomes her work place and is excluded from the new rules.

bradders1983

silvercar said:

Start paying your Mum £1 a week, that way her home becomes her work place and is excluded from the new rules.

This. Can't she register as a childminder?

matilda.cs

Knew that would be asked. 

My girlfriends parents live 20 miles away and are over 70, don’t drive and have been shielding since the start. 

My parents do live together, but own and run a hotel. (Hence having time and space to look after them) 
if they are not both on site, then they would have to leave all the children unaccompanied while they carry out the occasional duties they must perform. 

I’m expecting that risks will need to be taken (financially) but I just hope I’ve missed the bit where Bojo has put aside £X to cover this. 

Otherwise, he’s fining the vulnerable?

bradders1983

They run a hotel? Easy then. Put 5 kids in Room 101, the other kids in Room 102. Unless their hotel is constantly running at 100% occupancy at the moment?

They are already in a building that legitimately can have more than 6 people in it, who on earth is going to spot 7 children in a hotel and think it is a breach?

jon81uk

You situation was against the current advice anyway.
Indoors it was only meant to be people from up to two households (plus a support bubble if applicable), so three households indoors was against the guidance.
I don't know all the rules of support bubbles, but if you are a single parent you could say that you have a support bubble with your parents, then your situation is broadly OK, see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/making-a-support-bubble-with-another-household