A DALE child care worker says she’s “loving being back at work” after a 13-week hiatus due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Allyson Todd, who runs her early years child care business from home in Staindrop, welcomed children back last week after being closed for three months – and she couldn’t be happier.
Ms Todd said: “I think after all these months I’ve gone up in my parents’ estimations. It has been three months and they asked how I do it every day. It is hard for people to appreciate what teaching and child care staff do on a daily basis, but I love it.
“I told them it’s like working from home every day for me. I’ve got to do paperwork every day, but it’s just part of what I do.”
Before lockdown came into force in March, Ms Todd had to close her childcare centre when her son showed symptoms of Covid-19.
She added: “I had to close down for 14 days and isolate with my children. Then we went into lockdown. “When we were clear, I had the option for opening for key workers, but as I work from home and I have a history of asthma in the family, I followed the advice of Durham County Council and decided to stay closed.”
Last week she welcomed back half the number of children she normally looks after and has been enjoying spend-ing time with them ever since with lots of outside activities on the agenda.
Ms Todd said: “I’m loving being back at work. I have half the number of children that I would normally have, with a maximum of three to six a day as I don’t think I could cope at the moment with the extra cleaning routines.”
She has been able to re-move one member of staff from furlough and says welcoming more children during the coming weeks and months will allow her to bring all staff back eventually.
She added: “We don’t have to socially distance with under five-year-olds because it’s impossible and the risk is so low with them. We have risk assessed every thing and that is normal practice in early years child care. We don’t have to wear PPE and we have aprons anyway when we’re changing nappies. Toilet times are a little different now though as we have to thoroughly clean it after each child.” She has created toy boxes filled with easily cleanable games, with activities for each day of the week and has devised more outdoor pursuits for the children in line with government guidance.
“We’ve been in the garden and we’ve managed to have lovely walks outside but my process hasn’t really changed that much as I’ve always believed in getting children out-side as much as possible,” she said.
“We wash hands immediately when the children arrive and we have a timer set up as well so there is lots of hand washing through the day and we get the children to count back from 20, which they love.
“But I’ve honestly been singing a wash the germs away song for the last 15 years so the changes are not that much different for us. For me personally I’m happy with the government support, both financial and advice.”
She added: “The council has been great in providing help and information. And honestly I’ve loved getting the cuddles from the kids since they’ve been back.”
