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Childminder campaigns for Government to change rules on Coronavirus isolation

Coronavirus Families Provision
Bedfordshire-based childminder Kirsty Sarney has written to her local MP and Prime Minister Boris Johnson to ask for the current guidance for those who are identified as a close contact of a positive coronavirus case in England to be amended.
Childminder Kirsty Sarney says the way childminders have been treated is unfair: 'Childminders have been forgotten. We’re the bottom of the pecking order.'
Childminder Kirsty Sarney says the way childminders have been treated is unfair: 'Childminders have been forgotten. We’re the bottom of the pecking order.'

She says that the current rules treat childminders 'unfairly' as they can accept children from a household with a positive Covid-19 case, but must shut their business if a member of their household is self-isolating.

Currently, if you are identified as a close contact of a positive case of Covid-19 and have had your second vaccination at least two weeks previously, or are under 18 years of age, you will no longer be legally required to isolate. This means children from a household with a positive Covid-19 case could continue to attend a childminder’s setting.

However, Government guidance states that for a childminder who usually looks after children in their own home, if a household member is self-isolating, the childminder may not continue to provide childcare if:

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