This week (beginning Jan 4), the Â黨ӰÊÓhas attended meetings with several government contacts to press for further guidance and information for the sector on the government's decision to keep early years providers open during the national lockdown.
To keep the sector as informed as possible we'd like to share as much information with the sector as we can. Here, we have summarised some of the key messages from these meetings.
Department for Education
Our chief executive Neil Leitch met with the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson. Children’s Minister Vicky Ford was also in attendance. Neil took this opportunity to reiterate the asks of the #ProtectEarlyYears campaign including access to mass testing and vaccination, and he spoke in no uncertain terms the urgent need for funding.
The Â黨ӰÊÓwill continue to make clear the needs of the sector to the DfE and across government.
SAGE
Neil also attended a SAGE briefing for the education sector, led by Dr Jenny Harries, Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England and Russell Viner, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).
Much of the briefing was confidential however, there were several key points regarding the new variant and the decision to keep early years settings open:
- Recent policy changes have been driven by the impact of case rises on NHS capacity, given that it is more transmissible, not by increased fears about this strain of the virus.
- The incidence of cases in the 0-9 age group remains the lowest. This includes on the ONS infections survey which takes a representative sample of the population down to the age of 2. Under 12s are less likely to catch the virus when in contact with a positive case.
- 70-80% of children who get COVID-19 are asymptomatic. They can pass on the virus but are less contagious than those with symptoms.
- Younger children have a lower rate of social mixing than other age groups even when they attend settings.
- Government data on infection rates refers to all under 5s, there is very little data on the settings themselves as opposed to the age group.
New Covid-19 variant
- The new variant makes up around 60% of cases in the UK – the UK does not have more new variants than other countries but is better at identifying them. The new variant transmits more easily but is not more dangerous.
- Young people are not more susceptible to the new variant. Case rates are high among teenagers as teenagers have the highest rate of infection overall. This is being measured more effectively in the second wave with asymptomatic testing.
- While the new variant is more transmissible, it transmits in exactly the same way, so the same measures should be used to combat it as during the first wave.
Vaccinations
- The issue of vaccinating specific professions will be looked at during phase 2 of the rollout. Priority for vaccinations is being reviewed on an ongoing basis by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
Useful links
You can find the latest the latest government guidance here:
For more information from the Alliance, please see the links below:
Covid-19 – operating in the lockdown and beyond
Covid-19 – business support for early years providers
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