Coronavirus: Dismay as early years staff told they won't be sent 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.

On Twitter, June O’Sullivan, chief executive of the London Early Years Foundation, said, ‘#earlyyears excluded from access to lateral test kits by @educationgovuk Given to maintained nurseries and primary schools only. Do our staff not count? This segregation must stop. Bad for children and lousy for the sector. #vaccines#testing.’ In a separate tweet, she added, ‘PVI settings - pop along to a testing hub –hmm, when, how, at what time..??’

Earlier this week, sector organisations had welcomed the news that early years staff would be prioritised for community testing, but the decision that schools and maintained nursery schools will be sent the tests, while other early years providers will not, has left nurseries and pre-schools in a situation where they continue to feel ignored by the Government.

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), said, ‘This announcement once again shows that the Department for Education has total disregard for the pressures on PVI nurseries and the whole early years workforce. Promises of access to mass-testing for all have unravelled with different treatment for those in maintained settings compared with the rest of the sector.

‘The inclusion in community testing will mean staff taking time away from children during the day to attend test sites, increasing their exposure risk and providing settings with further headaches as they try to cover those hours. At a time when the workforce is already stretched covering those self-isolating or ill.

‘At-home testing would mean staff know before they set off to work if they present a risk of infection to others. 

‘Excluding the majority of the workforce from receiving at-home tests available to those in the maintained sector is unfair, irresponsible and neglectful of a sector that is being asked to go above and beyond for our children. If distribution is an issue we have suggested using hubs as collection sites for the stay at home kits so that nurseries can pick them up to distribute to staff.

‘Ministers must urgently find a way to live up to their words when they promised asymptomatic testing for all in the early years sector.’

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said it was ‘a complete insult’ and menat that PVI providers were ‘once again left to fend for themselves.’

He said, ‘All early years providers have been asked to remain open to children and families during national lockdown. How can it be right, then, that only maintained nurseries and nursery classes will - like primary schools - have testing kits delivered direct to their doors, while those working in PVI settings are simply told access the same testing centres that are open to the general public?

‘The Government claims that PVI providers will have “priority” access to NHS testing, but we know from previous experience that such guarantees all too often fail to materialise in reality. What's more, with early years staff working during the day - often longer hours than normal to ensure that their premises remain Covid-secure - it's not clear exactly when the workforce is expected to find time to travel to testing centres to access these tests.

‘We urge the Department for Education to rethink this appalling decision as a matter of urgency and ensure that all early years providers are treated fairly and equally.’

As part of the joint #ProtectEarlyYears campaign, NDNA, the Professional association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY) and the Early Years Alliance, which collectively represent around 50,000 childcare providers, have called for access to mass testing for early years workers. They are also reinforcing their call on the Government to prioritise those working in early years and childcare for Covid-19 vaccinations, following the announcement of the vaccine delivery plan and debates in Parliament this week.

Jodie Garwood tweeted, ‘Government – shitshow. No access to rapid testing, no funding & lack of PPE. But safe enough for us to go to work not safe enough for Ofsted to do inspections. Joke!’

Commenting about asymptomatic testing on Facebook, Tricia Goodall, said, ‘We have this in York, it's great however the sites are only open until 4pm so when you are working from 7am until 6pm it’s not very helpful.’

The latest official Ofsted figures for reported cases of Covid-19 by early years and childcare settings, published on 11 January, show that there were 346 reported cases on 21 December, with 604 cases on 14 December.

However, the figures do not yet show the impact of Christmas, and are likely to have been lower on 21 December due to nursery closures before the holidays.

What is asymptomatic testing?

Asymptomatic testing – otherwise known as lateral flow testing – is being rolled out across England this week to the general public, in a bid to curb the rise in coronavirus cases.

Local authorities have been told to target tests at those who cannot work from home during the lockdown, and some employers, including John Lewis, have already signed up.

They will be available at community testing centres.

Asymptomatic testing is already routinely used in registered care homes and among NHS staff who see patients, to test those without symptoms.

NHS PCR - or swab - tests are only provided to those with symptoms of Covid-19, but it has been well-documented that scientists believe that around one in three people have coronavirus without showing any symptoms.

Lateral flow tests can return results within 30 minutes without being sent to a lab to process, and therefore provide much quicker results than the swab tests.

Government research on Liverpool’s mass testing programme revealed last month that the devices missed 30 per cent of cases with a high viral load and up to half of positive infections that were detected by PCR tests.

However, ministers maintain they are reliable and accurate.

Health secretary Matt Hancock has said, ‘Targeted, regular community testing using lateral flow tests is highly effective and has already identified over 14,800 positive Covid-19 cases who would not have been identified without targeted asymptomatic testing, breaking chains of transmission in the community.’