Child carers keen, wary as they reopen

Relieved yet reserved is how daycare owners have said they feel with Thursday’s announcement by Prime Minister Mia Mottley that their businesses will be allowed to reopen from June 22.

President of the Barbados Association of Private Child Care Operators (BAPCCO) Cheryl Harding told Barbados TODAY while both owners and workers were looking forward to getting back to work, they still had some concerns.

Harding said she was somewhat disappointed that daycare owners had not been given the opportunity to have dialogue with Government before the reopening date had been set.

She said being given just a week to prepare was “short notice”.

Harding said: “Obviously we are happy that our businesses are going to be allowed to reopen but we are opening with reservations as well because we have been closed for a while. It means monies have been non-existent and as yet we have no protocols given to us. We know that we are going to have to find monies to retrofit the nurseries to the standards for the protocols that they are going to be giving us.

“So to my mind just a week’s notice is short notice…there are some nurseries that do have the resources so they can go ahead and purchase all of the things that are necessary, but for some, it is going to be a challenge. We were hoping that the Government might have had some sort of dialogue with us or given our sector some sort of assistance to purchase the necessary things that we will need.

In the scheme of things our sector was never looked at as far as assistance or the impact it really had on us.”

The president said daycare owners were also bracing for smaller numbers when they reopened.

She said this was to be expected due to the large numbers of persons unemployed and the scepticism some parents will have in sending their children to nursery.

Harding said: “We are expecting that numbers will be greatly reduced because there are a number of things playing. It’s practically summertime so the schools and universities are off so the older siblings can keep the younger ones and there are still a lot of persons, especially within the tourist sector that are still home although the island may be opened up.

“There are also some persons who have reservations for bringing especially younger children into the nursery setting because they are scared of their children contracting anything.

“However, we are hopeful and will try to fall in line with all of the protocols as best we can and hope for the best. That’s all we can do in this climate and we know that we will not be going back to business as usual and it will take a long while for persons to completely be comfortable and trust us to have their children, especially the really young children in the nursery setting again.”  randybennett@barbadostoday.bb