can anyone help with a problem, how do we stand if a member of staff refuses to change nappies,and clean up if a child is sick. Can we put this into job responsibilities, on a contract. I would like to, as it is becoming a problem.

well - I don't change nappies in my group .....it makes me physically sick

Before we took in two and a half year old's we were questioned by our Manager how we felt about it, I was truthful and said I would clean up wee/sick but no nappies - unless my Grandchildren (which I have not got at the moment) - the Manager was ok by this as I was honest, truthful and up front. some our two and half year old's are not potty trained and it puts us in a position that we seem to be constantly changing them - and leaving the older children out. I still agree that preschools/playschools should be for 3year upwards, but if we do not take any younger one's we close...... thanks to the schools that take them at 4years!!

I work in a day nursery and every member of staff has to change nappies. If they refuse then they are not fufilling their job role (is in the job description), so will recieve a warning if this happened.

It's part of the job when working with children! I've never heard anything so silly!!!!! would you change a child who had wet them selfs?

When you work with children then this is part of the job,much as we hate!!At least you were trutful!My pet hate is sick and I am gagging!! But in preschool really think that children should be toilet trained and not in nappies,pull ups.The odd accident is acceptable.
I know that we have to accept them now but thats my view!!

I think that it was good of you to be honest, but i would worry that other members of staff would come to resent the fact that you never had to deal with dirty nappies.
In a day nursery I feel this would be unacceptable if you were working with babies as it would definately be in your job description.
I have been taking children from 2.5 years at my group and honestly don't see any problem with children in nappies, but we are only open for 2.5 hours a session and there is only so many times a child can soil it's nappy in that time

It can be difficult, some people have a real thing about changing other children. Myself and 2 other members of staff don't mind changing them, but we get permission first, otherwise the Parent/Carer has to come in and do it!
It's the same with other activities too, a member of staff hates clay, she feels physically sick if she touches it, so we work round that.
It's not a very pleasant job to change a nappy, but luckily it doesn't happen very often. Have a chat with her, providing she isn't doing it because she can't be bothered, may be the other staff will accept it (give her messy jobs that the others aren't fond of!!).
Just a note about pull-ups - When I took over as Supervisor years ago, children had to be 'dry' so many children missed out on months of pre-school education because of it. I then read in a magazine or somewhere that you wouldn't stop a child coming to pre-school if they couldn't use scissors! It's a learnt skill, so we now take them in pull-ups and to be honest it's so much easier than having wet pants (and floors/chairs) to clean up and as another post said they are only there for approx two and a half hours (pre-school setting), so it really isn't a major issue.

Changing nappies & clearing up sick should be in the job description as it is a part of the job. I hated doing both these when I first started looking after kids, but now I am so used to it, it doesn't bother me.

At the playgroup where we work we have an unwritten poo and sick rule, each person decides what they can deal with best and then thats what they deal with. Eg my supervisor can clean up sick but not poo I can do it the other way round so we tend to stick to what we can deal with best !! Neither is very nice !!