In his address to the nation on 4 January, Boris Johnson said that all early years settings would remain open to all children, but that all primary and secondary schools would close except to the children of key workers and vulnerable children.
Asked for further clarification as to whether the Government could force early years settings to stay open and what would happen to their funding if they decided to close, a DfE spokesperson said, ‘As the PM set out, all EY settings should remain open and we would encourage them to stay open. Settings that choose to close will not receive early entitlements funding as they will not be delivering places.’
Nurseries in Scotland remain closed.
Nursery owners and practitioners have spoken out about their dismay at the decision, saying they feel disillusioned, and have been left without Government support.
Amanda Hennessey told Nursery World, ‘As a practitioner of over 35 years, who is dedicated in the betterment of all children, I was dismayed at last night’s announcement. I cannot remember every being so angry and upset. We are told to operate as normal, with absolutely no regard to our safety.
‘This job requires close physical contact, and we are offered no protection or concern from the Government.
‘I go to work today, putting my life on the line feeling more undervalued than I ever have before, terrified and completely disillusioned. Children are better in school, nobody here will disagree with that. But the lives of the adults around children, is more important and these same children need their trusted adults at the end of this madness, to be present both physically and mentally, to help them reshape the world, for it will need reshaping.’
Another nursery worker said, ‘Again we as early years practitioners have to put ourselves on the front line. We have more contact with the children we care for, cuddling them when they are upset, wiping their tears and snotty noses as they are not at the age to do this for themselves.
‘We do all this with care and compassion without masks.
‘Are early years staff less important than teachers?’
Parents also expressed their frustration and confusion at wanting to do the right thing for their children and nurseries, but feeling as if the decision had been left for them to make on their own.
Michaela said, ‘As a parent it has put the onus on us to make the difficult decision to not send our child to nursery.
‘Especially difficult when parents enter contracts with nurseries and no relief is offered to the nursery. If we pull our child, we could put the staff’s job at risk, amazing people who have been there throughout. If we continue, we continue to put everyone at risk. If we pull him [out of nursery] and continue to pay, the cost increases substantially for us as food, supplies and activities will need to be provided at home as well as paid for at nurseries.
‘We want to do the right thing, I respect it is a difficult situation and everyone’s circumstances are different. But nurseries are no different from primary school settings, more risk as children understand less the importance of distancing.’
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), said, ‘This is a worrying time for parents, nurseries and their staff. Throughout this pandemic, nurseries have been operating as safely as possible to ensure children have access to early education and parents are able to work.
‘Nurseries want to keep open so they can continue to support children and give them a safe and nurturing place during this lockdown. However, the Government are asking a lot of childcare providers and their staff and have to recognise this.
‘There is a lot of fear and confusion about how safe nurseries are. Parents and staff need reassurance from the Government about the evidence behind the decision to keep nurseries open to all. A lot of work has gone into making nurseries as safe as possible but this reassurance needs to come from the highest level.
‘Nurseries and early years providers cannot be hung out to dry. At the time when the Government and the country is asking the most of the sector – to remain open while all other education services are closed – they must support childcare settings. The short-sighted decision to cut early years funding to headcount only, must be reversed.
‘With so many settings worried about the financial impact of higher running costs and reduced income more targeted support needs to be made available to prevent wide-scale closures.
‘For months we have been calling for better access to testing for early years staff, and with schools now closed, these settings have to be a priority. We all know it’s impossible to distance from toddlers and babies who need close care and contact. Therefore early years staff must also be a priority for the vaccine to enable them to continue on the frontline providing support for families.’
Commenting, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said, 'Many early years practitioners were already incredibly worried about continuing to work during this period. It is unacceptable that yet another government announcement has been made without reference to any scientific evidence explaining how those working in the early years are expected to be able to keep themselves and their loved ones safe at a time when those in schools are being told that it is simply to dangerous to go to work.
'We know that with many nurseries, pre-schools and childminders already struggling to remain afloat, any decision to close early years settings would have a huge financial impact on the sector. However, in the middle of a global pandemic that is causing hundreds to lose their lives on a daily basis, we also recognise the need to prioritise the lives and safety of practitioners, children, families and wider communities - and so far, it is not clear to what extent regard for the safety of the early years workforce has been outweighed by the Government's desire to ensure that at least some parents are able to continue to work.'
'Low risk environments'
The Government maintains that nurseries are safe and that young children are less likely to become ill from Covid-19 than older children and adults.
The Department for Education said that it was closing schools not because they are unsafe but because extra measures are needed to contain the spread of the virus in the community, and that this enables them to keep nurseries and childminders open.
The DfE also said that 0-5 year-olds continue to have the lowest rates of coronavirus of all age groups and that evidence shows that pre-school children are less susceptible to infection and are not playing a driving role in transmission.
A DfE spokesperson said, 'Early years settings remain low risk environments for children and staff and there is no evidence that the new variant of coronavirus disproportionately affects young children. Keeping nurseries and childminders open will support parents and deliver the crucial care and education for our youngest children.'
Funding
The DfE said it was funding local authorities in the 2021 spring term based on attendance at the January 2021 census, and if attendance rises after the census is taken, it will top-up councils by up to 85 per cent of their January 2020 census level. This will give local authorities additional financial confidence to pay providers for increasing attendance later in the spring term.
In 2021-22 it is increasing the hourly funding rates for all local authorities for the two-year-old entitlement by 8p an hour and for the vast majority of areas for the three- and four-year-old entitlement by 6p an hour. The DfE said this would pay for a rate increase that is higher than the costs nurseries may face from the uplift to the national living wage in April.
The Government said it was also increasing the minimum funding floor, which means that no council can receive less than £4.44 per hour for the three- and four-year-old entitlements.
The DfE spokesperson said, 'We are funding nurseries as usual and all children are able to attend their early years setting in all parts of England. Where nurseries do see a drop in income from either parent-paid fees or income from DfE, they are able to use the furlough scheme. Working parents on coronavirus support schemes will still remain eligible for childcare support even if their income levels fall below the minimum requirement.'
Testing
The union Unison is also calling for early years settings to be closed except to educate the children of key workers and those who are vulnerable.
Early years staff should also be made a priority for vaccination and mass testing and employees should not be expected to go into work until these safety measures are put in place, it said.
Protection must be extended to employees in schools open for the children of key workers and for vulnerable pupils and students, as well as special schools where many children have health issues that make them vulnerable to infection, and schools with pupils outside mainstream education where pupil behaviour and social distancing is a challenge.
Unison head of education Jon Richards said, ‘Keeping nurseries and other pre-schools open puts staff and communities at risk.
‘Social distancing is impossible with young children and the Government has yet to publish the scientific evidence to justify nurseries being treated differently to schools.
‘The decision seems to have been taken with little regard to the health and safety of employees.
‘Ministers must treat nurseries the same as schools, as in the first lockdown. Staff must be a priority for vaccinations and mass testing.’
The DfE said that all essential workers continue to have access to priority testing via the online booking portal. This includes all education and childcare workers, including support and teaching staff, social workers and specialist education professionals.
The department said it was working with local authorities to test approaches to mass testing in early years settings via community mass testing approaches. 'We are also planning to include early years settings in our next phase of pilots.'