Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the feasibility of implementing social distancing measures due to the covid-19 outbreak for children in early years settings.

We know that attending an early years setting is really important for young children as it helps them develop the vital social skills, communication skills and the building blocks of education that set them up for life. However, safety is of course vital too.

On 12 May, we published guidance on protective measures, which covers a range of measures for use in education and childcare settings:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings.

Physical distancing is more challenging with young children in early years settings and we are working with the early years sector to develop guidance to support and advise providers - including childminders - on putting appropriate measures in place. This will be published as soon as possible and will cover advice on managing risks by keeping children in small, fixed groups (“bubbles”), and avoiding mixing between these bubbles and staff as much as possible, as well as other considerations around hygiene and day-to-day routines and procedures.