Nurseries and early years settings have been placed in a very difficult situation.

We need to stop person-to-person contact to reduce the transmission of Covid-19, but if parents choose to keep their children at home, the nursery schools and early years providers will lose the funding for those places and could be forced to close permanently. 

In March, nurseries closed to all but vulnerable children and those whose parents were key workers.  

Now, Scotland and Northern Ireland have chosen to keep nurseries closed to most children, but this is not the case in England and Wales, even though, English and Welsh schools have returned to remote learning, with only vulnerable students, and students of key workers, physically going into schools. 

I have written to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families, Vicky Ford, and asked her why England’s policy on this issue is inconsistent and to pass on the recommendations of the National Education Union.  I have posted a copy of this letter below.