The Prime Minister has announced new temporary measures following the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the UK.

A summary of what the new measures mean for education settings can be found here and the early years guidance has been updated accordingly.

In addition, we have collated information from relevant websites to provide you with further support and information as below

Key FAQs From PACEY

Covid 19 resource Hub From Foundation Years

Covid 19 support info From Early Years Alliance

When settings close for Christmas, all staff should test over the holidays in line with national guidance. This means that you should test if you will be in a high-risk situation that day and before visiting people who are at higher risk of severe illness if they get COVID-19. 

For settings remaining open over the Christmas period, staff (including students of secondary age and older), should continue to test at home twice per week. 

Staff in all Early Years settings should take one self-test at home either the evening or morning before they return to work in January. They should then continue to test in line with government guidelines. 

Settings should check their test kit stock levels and make an order of test kits so that staff are able to test over the holiday period if required, and for the first week of January, using home test kits.

In August, the Department for Education (DfE) announced that it is providing CO2 monitors to state-funded education settings

The rollout extends to all Early Years settings, including PVI settings, and childminders who work together in groups of four or more and are registered as operating childcare on domestic premises. Childminders working in groups of three or fewer are not included in the roll out of CO2 monitors due to the low occupancy density.

Monitors are currently being dispatched to Early Years providers and settings will receive an email directly from the supplier, once their monitor allocation is dispatched. The DfE expect all deliveries to have taken place by the end of the Autumn term.

The DfE has produced a ‘how to’ guide on using CO2 monitors in education and childcare settings and can be found on the Google drive. If settings have any further queries about their DfE issued CO2 monitor(s), they can call the DfE COVID-19 helpline on 0800 046 8687.