Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support nurseries and other childcare providers to cope with the (a) practical and (b) financial effects of high levels of staff self-isolation during the covid-19 outbreak.

We have provided unprecedented support to early years providers during the COVID-19 outbreak and settings have also had access to a range of business support packages, including the extended Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. As long as the staff in the nursery schools affected meet the criteria for the scheme, then early years providers are still able to furlough their staff while that scheme remains in operation, for example, if settings have to close temporarily to manage local effects of COVID-19, such as infections. Findings from the Childcare and Early Years Provider and Coronavirus survey have shown that in November/December 2020, 74% of group-based providers have made use of the Furlough Scheme at any point. Findings of this survey can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/survey-of-childcare-and-early-years-providers-and-coronavirus-covid-19-wave-3.

Eligible nurseries may also have qualified for a Business Rates discount to help reduce the costs of their business rates bills during the COVID-19 outbreak. Eligible Nurseries could get 100% off in the first 3 months of the 2021-22 tax year with 66% off for the rest of the 2021-22 tax year which may help providers who have had a reduced income as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Additionally, eligible nurseries have been able to access recovery loans to help with access to loans and other types of finance, so that they can recover after the outbreak and transition period.

We liaise regularly with local authorities, and they have not reported to us a significant number of parents unable to secure a childcare place, either during this term or at any time since early years settings re-opened fully on 1 June 2020. Where parents have been unable to temporarily secure a childcare place, for example due to their usual setting being temporarily closed due to COVID-19, this has been able to be quickly resolved locally and local authorities are not reporting significant sufficiency of supply issues.