Scottish nurseries set to reopen in three weeks

Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs that subject to a final review in a fortnight, there would be a full-time return to early learning and childcare settings as well as a full-time return for primary school pupils in years one, two and three, from 22 February.

Purnima Tanuku OBE, chief executive of NDNA Scotland, said that the announcement will come as a ‘huge relief’ to nurseries and parents across Scotland.

She added, ‘Some nurseries have been unable to open at all because of small numbers of children eligible to attend; the rest have been open only for key worker and vulnerable children.

‘Nurseries are crucial for children’s development and early learning. Families need them for stability and to enable parents to work. It’s good to have two weeks’ notice for settings that are not already open to get ready.’

Ms Tanuku also said that she was ‘pleased’ that Scottish Government is extending its asymptomatic testing plans to include private and voluntary early learning and childcare settings and said that NDNA Scotland would be ‘urging’ Scottish Government to ensure they announce their plan with dates for this ‘as soon as possible’.

But the PVI sector took to Twitter to vent their frustration at being the ‘poor relatives’ to the maintained sector.

2020 Together (We Can), a campaigning group of independent nursery providers, tweeted, ‘Mixed feeling this afternoon within the sector, delighted to be able to welcome our children back but at the same time huge feeling of disappointment and anger throughout the country with the feeling of inequality regarding access to tests…

‘Today clearly showed that PVI appear still to be the poor relatives. It’s our teams we feel sorry for, they have worked unconditionally every day since March. PVI care for Scotland’s babies, closer contact, more intimate care, last to get additional protection. A sad day indeed.’

Scotland - Timeline for reopening

Schools and nurseries have been closed to the vast majority of children across Scotland since the Christmas holidays.

The reopening schedule, subject to confirmation on 16 February, is:

February 22 – Full time return for pre-school children in early learning and childcare settings and children in P1-3.

February 22 - Part time return for senior phase pupils - S4, S5 and S6 - on a limited basis, for essential in-school practical work only. It is intended that there will be no more than 5 - 8% of a secondary school roll physically present at any one time for these purposes.

February 22 - Small increase for additional support needs where there is a demonstrable and immediate need.

All other primary and secondary pupils will continue to use remote learning until at least the beginning of March except in the case of vulnerable children and those of key workers. The position will be reviewed every two weeks.