In response to the queries raised with me by nursery workers
recently, I have now had the below response from the Parliamentary Under
Secretary for Children and Families.
I will continue to keep this situation under review and feedback
concerns that are raised with me to Ministerial colleagues:
‘EARLY YEARS AND CHILDCARE SECTOR SUPPORT DURING COVID19
I am writing to provide you with an update on all the work
the Department for Education is doing to support the early years and childcare
sector’s response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. I want to assure all
of you, as well as the childcare providers and families within your
constituencies that the Department continues to work tirelessly to support the
sector. I want to ensure there is sufficient childcare so that critical workers
can continue working, and all vulnerable children can access childcare
throughout the pandemic. It is also important that there will remain in place a
functioning childcare market to enable parents to return to work after the
outbreak, and so that all children are able to get the best start in life with
access to high quality early education.
Support for early years and childcare businesses
Since the onset of COVID-19, the government has worked to
put in place a significant package of financial schemes that the childcare
sector can access. This includes the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS),
the Coronavirus Self-employment Income Support Scheme, a business rates holiday
for childcare providers large enough to pay them, and a £10,000 Small Business
Grant for those too small to pay business rates. Further information is
included in the annex to this letter.
The CJRS guidance has always been clear that “where
employers receive public funding for staff costs, and that funding is
continuing, we expect employers to use that money to continue to pay staff in
the usual fashion – and correspondingly not furlough them. This also
applies to non-public sector employers who receive public funding for staff
costs” It also states that “where organisations are not primarily funded
by the government and whose staff cannot be redeployed to assist with the
coronavirus response, the scheme may be appropriate for some staff.”
Last week the Department issued guidance which confirms that
early years providers remain eligible for the CJRS while continuing to receive
early entitlement funding via local authorities. This new guidance sets out
that early years providers can access the CJRS to cover up to the proportion of
their pay bill which could be considered to have been paid for from their
private income.
We have worked hard to get this much needed clarity for the
sector. This is a complex situation involving schemes which must be fair and
work for all sectors. It is important to note that we have taken this approach
in order to support providers while also protecting the taxpayer from double
funding (paying for staff to be furloughed whose salary is already being paid
for by other public sector funding).
I want to thank you, as well as our colleagues in local
government and all those working within the childcare and early years sector,
for your patience and cooperation during these extraordinary times, recognising
that everyone is working hard to make the right decisions at the best possible
time under extremely difficult circumstances.
Use of free early education entitlements funding
On 17 March the Government committed to continue the free
early education entitlement funding to local authorities throughout the
COVID-19 pandemic. We will shortly be publishing guidance to support local
authorities to use their free entitlement funding differently, redistributing
it – in exceptional cases and in a clearly focused and targeted way – in order
to secure childcare for the children of critical workers and for vulnerable
children, where their usual arrangements are no longer possible.
Local authorities will need to ensure there are sufficient
childcare places at this time, and to redistribute funding across settings
accordingly. This ability to redistribute will enable local authorities to
ensure that critical workers, including NHS staff, are able to access childcare
where they need it. Any setting which sees their early entitlement funding
reduced in order to fund childcare places elsewhere will be able to increase
the proportion of their salary bill eligible for the CJRS in line with the
Department’s guidance on access to the scheme.
Legislative changes and keeping people safe
We have listened to the sector on the challenges faced in providing
safe and quality childcare and early education during the pandemic. We have
worked quickly to amend regulations, where appropriate, so that we are able to
provide the right support for early years providers remaining open to care for
vulnerable children and children of critical workers so they can continue to
ensure high quality and safe provision at all times.
I know colleagues are as concerned as I am to ensure people
working at the frontline of childcare provision are equipped to do their job in
a way which ensures their own personal safety and that of the children in their
care. We have worked closely with public health colleagues to follow the most
accurate scientific advice available. This advice indicates that childcare
practitioners do not require personal protective equipment. They should care
for children as normal, although increase the frequency of handwashing and
cleaning of surfaces and toys.
We will be temporarily disapplying and modifying certain
elements of the EYFS statutory framework, which is the framework which sets the
standards that all early
years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and
develop well and are kept healthy and safe. These changes will allow providers
greater flexibility to respond to changes in workforce availability and
potential fluctuations in demand, while still providing care that is high
quality and safe. Changes include; providers not being required to meet
existing learning and development requirements, providers not being required to
undertake the EYFSP assessment in 2019/20 or the 2 year progress check during
the coronavirus (COVID-19) period, exceptions allowed to the qualifications
that staff hold in order to be counted in ratio requirements as well as changes
to requirements around paediatric first aid (regarding children aged 2-5 years
old).
All changes to the statutory framework are subject to
parliamentary process and guidance will be issued once these changes come into
force.
The Department will continue to monitor the situation in
early years carefully, and work closely with colleagues across central and
local government to provide the necessary support, issuing guidance and
updating it regularly to respond to the fast-moving nature of this crisis. The
latest version of this guidance is available at
