Prime Minister, Boris Johnson announced a national lockdown for England last night which included closing schools.

Primary schools, secondary schools and colleges are to move to remote learning for most children until mid-February with the decision being reviewed regularly.

However, the PM explained that childcare services for young children will remain open. The announcement focused significantly more on schools closing rather than providing clarity for providers that have to remain open.

Early years providers have called on the Government for more clarity and support to help them through this national lockdown. Some nurseries have already decided to close their doors due to increasing staff shortages. To make matters worse, the Government has not increased any funding support for the sector, leaving many on the brink of closing permanently.

Organisations call for transparency

Commenting, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said:

‘It beggars belief that the government still isn’t able to answer one critical question: if it is too dangerous for schools to remain open, how can it be safe for early years providers to do so?

‘During an interview this morning, Michael Gove argued that childcare was needed to enable key workers to continue to work – but nurseries and childminders have been asked to stay open to all children, not just those of critical workers. How can it be that a senior minister doesn’t even understand what the government is actually asking early years providers to do?

‘Many of those working in the early years feel terrified and abandoned by the government. They are being asked to remain on the frontline during the most worrying period of a global pandemic with no PPE, no testing and no access to vaccinations.

‘Add to this the fact that the government is providing minimal financial support to help providers get through this incredibly difficult period and it’s hard to think of many other sectors that have been asked to do so much while being been treated with such disdain.

‘The early years cannot be treated as an afterthought. We need protection, we need financial support and we need the appalling treatment of our sector to end once and for all.’

Purnima Tanuku OBE, Chief Executive of 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.

‘Time and time again the early years sector have been asked to go above and beyond for children and to support working families. Ministers have to recognise the scale of what they are asking, support the sector and ensure nurseries can survive this lockdown.’

Safety concerns

On BBC Breakfast, Michael Gove was questioned on the decision to keep early years settings open.

He stated:

‘We believe that it’s important to continue to provide childcare and the judgement that we’ve made is that by making sure that childcare can still be provided, we can ensure that some of the people whose work is so vital to getting us out of this lockdown: doctors, nurses and others, can continue to do their work.’

Responding to being asked to explain why early years providers were being asked to remain open, Professor Calum Semple, a virologist and SAGE member commented:

‘No I can’t. The reality is that under these circumstances, every opportunity to remove social mixing and work mixing of human beings is vitally important. So if a political decision has been made here to keep nurseries open in order to keep essential staff at work, then that could be tempered by restricting the nursery capacities to those essential workers. But if we’ve gone to the point of closing the universities, secondary schools and primary schools on the ground of public health, then I would be looking to close all other non-essential activities. And it may be that a political decision has been made here that nurseries are essential but it’s not a scientific one.’