'Complete joke' - What Echo readers think about childcare rules in Sunderland 'lockdown-style' restrictions

After parts of the North East were put under tighter restrictions we asked Echo readers what they thought of the new rules on social bubbles.
Echo readers have been having their say on childcare rules.Echo readers have been having their say on childcare rules.
Echo readers have been having their say on childcare rules.

As of 12am on Friday, September 18, new Covid-19 restrictions were enforced across Sunderland and neighbouring councils.

The council had asked the Department of Health Social Care to allow people to enter other households for the purposes of childcare while the main carer was at work.

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But that request was rejected by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, with the Government saying only professional, registered childcare can be used – though if a relative is in a “support bubble” with a family, that is permitted.

Here’s what you said on the Sunderland Echo Facebook page:

Steven Thompson: “The government has lost the plot completely now like. Can someone please please tell me where all these extra hundreds of thousands of childcare professionals are going to come from overnight too. Plus the extra cash families will need to fork out, its like having two mortgages if not more.”

Kathleen Elizabeth Wotton: “Complete joke.”

Kathryn McCone: “Again, a stranger can come to your house and care for your child but grandparents can't. You can still go to the pub/restaurant and have strangers at the next table but not your family or friends. You can go to work etc and sit with your colleagues, but can't sit in a garden two feet away from each other.”

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Maria Hounslow: "So now I’m supposed to leave my son with a childminder he’s never met before straight away so I’m able to go to work when his own grandmother is at home!!! Yet again another ridiculous rule.”

Dick Dodds: “Ridiculous. This demonstrates how this government is out of touch with the community. Do not blame the local authority this is a government decision.”

Emma Brotherton: “This is only going to pile more pressure into working families, it will also massively affect people’s mental health with the stress and worry over childcare when they already have sensible arrangements in place!"

Cheryl Williams: “Absolutely ridiculous!!! Potentially forcing people out of work AGAIN!!! I can't see many people adhering to this!!”