Sandwell health boss calls for Covid rule change to to allow grandparents to care for children
Working parents who rely on relatives for childcare have been left feeling angry and confused by the introduction of new Covid-19 regulations – Sandwell Council’s director of public health has warned.
Dr Lisa McNally is now calling for an exemption to allow grandparents to care for children.
She told councillors the imposition of new regulations in Sandwell, Birmingham and Solihull saw council officers inundated with questions on how they will work in practice.
They were introduced at the same time as national guidelines banned people from different households from meeting indoors or in private gardens came into effect.
A household is counted as the people you live with, so even close family members count as a different household if they live in a different property.
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Speaking to Sandwell’s Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Board, Dr McNally said: “The one thing that is causing a lot of confusion and anger is the issue about childcare. A lot of working parents depend on being able to drop their kids with grandparents or maybe have them picked up from schools by grandparents.
“The new guidance, because it bans mixing households, doesn’t allow that.
“That will disrupt family life, but to be honest from a health point of view that’s not a driver of infection and so it’s not going to have great public health benefits.
“So myself and the directors of Birmingham and Solihull have written to the government saying you have to change this because it is preventing working parents from living their lives.
“We have talked a lot about stress and anxiety and that sort of thing is only going to increase anxiety.”
The Joint Biosecurity Centre, chaired by Matt Hancock Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty, was meeting today to decide whether restrictions need to be changed.
