Nurseries fear a rise in Covid rates
(Picture: PA Archive)Nursery leaders have raised fears that Covid will spread rapidly as restrictions are scrapped because “toddlers do not socially distance.”
They fear the sector will be hit hard by the removal of testing and isolation with an increase in Covid cases leading to a loss of income.
Purnima Tanuku, Chief Executive of National Day Nurseries Association, said if children are off sick with Covid or nurseries have to shut because so many staff are ill, parents may not be charged and nurseries will lose money.
Changes to Covid rules come as latest figures show record numbers of nurseries have reported Coronavirus cases in the past weeks.
The number of nurseries reporting having cases of Covid rose to more than 5,000 for the first time at the end of January. But changes to guidance mean nurseries will no longer have to submit this information.
Ms Tanuku said: “Nurseries are alarmed at the high numbers of cases affecting both children and practitioners. These won’t go down overnight because in nurseries, unlike other workplaces, it is impossible for people to socially distance, as anyone with a toddler will know. This will be a source for worry for any vulnerable members of staff.”
She added: “It’s also a concern for the businesses because they lose parental income when children are off nursery due to Covid or if the nursery does not have enough staff members to open safely.
“Employers also won’t be able to claim Statutory Sick Pay from day one for those who are too poorly to work. We are worried that removing this support for employers coincides with the highest numbers of cases in nurseries.”
According to a weekly poll by the National Day Nurseries Association, more than 9.1 per cent of nursery staff are absent from work, and 8.7 per cent of children are off sick from nurseries.
Many nursery leaders feel the sector has been ignored during the pandemic. Staff battled to keep nurseries open and acted as a fourth emergency service for working parents during the crisis, but many have closed due to financial challenges and the impact of the pandemic.
Ms Tanuku called for nurseries to be given financial support. She said: “Cost of wages and inflation will hit nurseries in London harder than elsewhere. From April, nurseries will be paying full business rates, higher minimum wages, higher energy costs and all other costs are increasing due to soaring inflation. These increased costs and lost income could tip nurseries with squeezed margins into the red and put more seriously at risk of closure.
“With Government funding falling short of rising costs the only way nurseries may be able to survive is through fee increases to parents, which is not something that providers want to do.”
But she said the removal of the need for staff to self-isolate could help some London nurseries where recruitment and retention of staff is difficult.
