Nursery World - Coronavirus: Dismay as early years staff told they won't be sent testing kits

Nursery workers and childminders will have to travel to test centres to access asymptomatic testing for Covid-19, unlike those working in nursery classes and maintained nurseries, who will be sent home testing kits – a decision branded as ‘unfair’ and ‘insulting’ by the sector.

Nurseries, pre-schools and childminders have been told they must go to community testing sites to access asymptomatic testing, while early years workers in schools will receive home testing kits

The Department for Education confirmed yesterday evening that early years staff in nursery classes and maintained nursery schools would be given access to home testing kits to enable asymptomatic Covid testing, while staff in private, voluntary and independent (PVI) settings would instead be given ‘priority access’ to tests and have to attend community testing centres.

The announcement means that the majority of early years workers, staff in nurseries and pre-schools, and childminders, are likely to need to travel to testing sites during working hours.

Nursery World has asked the Department for Education for more details on how the Government expects this to work in practice. There is as yet no guidance, for example, on how many times a week nursery workers will be expected to visit testing centres.

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