Dr Sweeleen Tan, a GP from Huddersfield whose husband is also a doctor, thanked workers at local childcare provider Portland Nurseries for supporting them and their two-year-old daughter during the pandemic.
'I cannot see how either my husband or I could have done our jobs without their help,' she said.
'We wouldn’t have had access to any other forms of childcare. We don’t have family in the area who could care for our daughter, and even if we did, we wouldn’t have been able to leave her with them due to lockdown.
'The fact Portland Nurseries remained open and welcoming throughout the pandemic has allowed my husband and I to carry on with our jobs without worrying about our daughter.
A doctor in Manchester for eight years, Sweeleen believes educators have not had the recognition they deserve and that childcare providers like Portland Nurseries that have continued to open despite the risks are the unsung heroes of the pandemic.
'The public automatically thinks of emergency services when the term "key workers" is mentioned. You hardly hear about nursery workers, which is a shame because people forget that frontline workers have young children who need to be looked after while we are at work.
'This whole period has been surreal and stressful for everyone, especially at the start of the pandemic when nobody really knew or understood the full impact this virus would have on everyone.
'For us, there has been a real fear of contracting the virus at work and getting very poorly with it, especially as my husband ran community Covid clinics in the first couple of months.
'In these circumstances it would be understandable that many nursery workers feel anxious when caring for our children, particularly those children whose parents have a high risk of exposure to Covid due to the nature of our jobs.
'The staff at Portland Nurseries have been fantastic despite this. We have felt very comfortable and reassured with all the strict measures they have put in place to keep the environment as safe and clean as possible, allowing them to carry on looking after our children, teaching and feeding them, cuddling them when they have been upset.
'Nursery workers like those at Portland Nurseries really are the unsung heroes of this pandemic.'
- Find out more about Nursery World's #StandUpForEarlyYears campaign, including the chance to win a Trog Towers set from campaign partner Cosy.
