The legal team at Law-Call, a 24-hour helpline available to 黨Ӱmembers, has shared legal advice for early years settings as England lifts many of its Covid-19 restrictions. If you have legal questions about the latest guidance, you can find contact details for Law-Call in the of our website.
The relaxation of restrictions on the 19 of August is not clear cut, and there appear to be many mixed messages, with businesses asked to take a responsible approach. So, what does this mean for your early years setting?
As a setting you owe an obligation to your staff under the Health and Safety Act to ensure a safe system of work.
The key steps the government says providers should take to reduce the risk of transmitting an infection are:
1. Carry out a risk assessment, to assess what measures you may wish to adopt or retain, such as staggered start times, or mask for parents.
2. Ensure good hygiene for everyone including regular hand washing and sanitisation of hands.
3. Maintain appropriate cleaning regimes, using standard products such as detergents.
4. Keep occupied spaces well ventilated.
As this is quite a complex area, we have answered some of your most commonly asked questions:
Can we continue with the bubbles?
Whilst children do not have to kept in bubbles, it may be reasonable to continue with this practice if you feel that this would minimise the spread of infection and cause less disruption in the event of an outbreak. Also, the rules on children attending more than one setting has been relaxed and the number of settings a child attend does not need to be minimised.
Can we require staff and parents to continue to wear face coverings?
Although face coverings are no longer recommended for staff and visitors, should a setting wish to continue to require staff and parents to wear a face covering then this would be considered reasonable – unless any staff, parents or other visitors have an exemption.
If an exemption applies, then you should be considerate of individuals’ circumstances as they would likely to have a protected characteristic and therefore by protected from discrimination under the Equality Act. This should not be an issue for existing staff and parents as you would hopefully be aware of those who are exempt.
If you have parents who previously wore masks and