Pre-school Education: Coronavirus

(asked on 6th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many early years settings have decided to close during the 2021 covid-19 lockdown.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 21st January 2021

The department has issued guidance on actions for early years and childcare providers during the COVID-19 outbreak, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures.

Further guidance on the national lockdown from 5 January 2021 is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950653/Education_and_childcare_settings_-_national_lockdown_from_5_January_2021_.pdf.

Department for Education officials and ministers are in regular contact with local government and childcare providers to understand the successes and challenges in the sector both locally and nationally, and to follow up on non-compliance and misunderstandings about the guidance and law. Local authority early years teams have designated points of contact within the department. The department uses local intelligence to support policy development and to provide local authorities with additional clarification of guidance, if needed, to help them understand and fulfil their statutory duties.

Local government undertakes a weekly data collection that is used to monitor attendance at early years settings, as well as supply of, and demand for, places. This data collection records the number of settings that are open and closed each week and is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak. The data collection was paused over the Christmas period and resumed on Thursday 7 January 2021. The latest data, published on Tuesday 19 January 2021, is available at the link above.

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