Policies, Procedures and Guidance for Childcare Professionals

Guidance to support practitioners through the creation and implementation of policies and procedures including downloadable templates.

Living with Covid - A Guide for Doncaster Nursery Managers and Childminders

What is the current advice?

From 1^st April 2022, routine testing is no longer expected in all education and children’s social care settings. This is part of the government’s plan to remove remaining restrictions on society while protecting the most vulnerable from COVID-19.

Following expert advice, we now know that Covid presents a low risk of serious illness to most children and young people, and most of those who are fully vaccinated

Government guidance states:

If you have a positive COVID-19 test result, it is very likely that you have COVID-19 even if you do not have any symptoms. You can pass on the infection to others, even if you have no symptoms. Many people with COVID-19 will no longer be infectious to others after 5 days. If you have a positive COVID-19 test result, try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 5 days after the day you took your test. For children and young people aged 18 and under, the advice is three days.

What do I need to report?

You no longer need to report individual cases of COVID-19 to Ofsted, Public Health or the Local Authority.

If you have to close due to staffing issues or as a result of an outbreak* you will need to inform Ofsted of the closure.

*It is classed as an outbreak if you have 5 cases/10% of your total attendees or 2 cases if less than 20 children attending

You will also need to inform the Early Years Inclusion Team if you close a room/ whole setting or if you have an outbreak. You can do this via the EY Covid inbox EYCovid@doncaster@gov.uk

Please note that the requirements for reporting may change if a new variant develops.

What guidance do I need to be aware of?

People with symptoms of a respiratory infection including COVID-19 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

This guidance provides advice on:

preventing the spread of infections
which diseases to vaccinate for
how long to keep children away from school
managing infectious diseases
cleaning the environment

What to do if you have symptoms of a respiratory infection including COVID-19, or a positive COVID-19 test
This guidance includes what to do if you receive a positive COVID-19 test result and also how to protect other people if you are experiencing symptoms of a respiratory illness but do not have access to a test.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms in adults
Coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms in children
These two documents outline the most up to date symptoms and include links to information about testing.

Health protection in education and childcare settings
This page has lots of information on preventing infections in education and childcare settings. It is also contains the exclusion table which gives details of all exclusion periods for infectious diseases which now include respiratory illnesses including COVID-19.

Reducing the spread of respiratory infections, including COVID-19, in the workplac
This document gives information on how to reduce the spread of respiratory illness in the workplace. This is general workplace advice and is not specific to education and childcare settings.

Policies, plans and risk assessments

You no longer need to explicitly cover COVID-19 in your risk assessments, instead you may choose to build this into your policies and procedures around management of illnesses in your setting. Ensure your Outbreak Management policy is up to date and reflects your setting’s individual process for responding to COVID-19.

Now would be a good time to review your sickness/illness policies. There will be many parents who have only accessed childcare during COVID-19 and are not aware of what the rules were before COVID. Your setting may have specific rules around children attending when they are unwell. Make sure that you communicate any change in policy to parents/carers.

You should also have emergency plans setting out what you do in various emergency scenarios – this includes public health threats including outbreak of a disease. Find some useful guidance here

You have a legal duty to take care of the health and safety of each of your employees and all of the children that you are caring for and you should ensure all risk assessments are undertaken in line with government guidance. If staff are unwell they should not be in setting until fit and well enough to meet the demands of the role and their absence be treated in line with your current sickness/absence procedures in place. Decisions made around this could have an impact on your insurance policies under the Reasonable Precautions condition and the policy holder may not be covered, please check with your own insurance provider for clarification.

In the event of of an outbreak

The thresholds, detailed below, can be used by settings as an indication for when to seek public health advice if they are concerned. For most education and childcare settings, these include:

a higher than previously experienced and/or rapidly increasing number of staff or student absences due to COVID-19 infection
evidence of severe disease due to COVID-19, for example if a pupil, student, child or staff member is admitted to hospital due to COVID-19
a cluster of cases where there are concerns about the health needs of vulnerable staff or students within the affected group

In the event of reducing numbers or room closures

Priority should be given to funded children in the first instance. Carefully consider who are your most vulnerable children and identify measures you can put in place to ensure these are NOT affected by the closures.

Children who are asked to remain at home due to room closures, should be signposted to continued learning through high quality sites or given activity packs to support their continued learning at home.

Useful links/ideas for home learning:

BBC Tiny Happy People – activities for babies, toddlers and children
Words for Life - provides parents, children and young people with activities and support to improve their language, literacy and communication skills from home
Fun learning ideas for 0–3-year-olds | Oxford Owl
Learning, Play, and Your 1- to 2-Year-Old (for Parents) - Nemours KidsHealth

Remember to continue to be vigilant and prevent the spread of the disease, keep rooms well ventilated and sanitise often. We all need to be aware that COVID- 19 has not “gone away” and to treat like any infectious disease in order to prevent the spread.

Going forward you can keep up to date with changes through the Doncaster Early Years Providers and Doncaster Childminder Facebook pages, Edulog and emails.

The Early Years Inclusion Team is always on hand to offer support. If you would like any advice/guidance or support with anything in this guide please do not hesitate to contact the team via the contact details above.

Policies, Procedures and Guidance

The Early Years Foundation Stage and other legislative frameworks require childcare providers to have policies and procedures in place to safeguard children and adults and to ensure the effective running of the setting. It is essential that settings use these as guidance only and adapt accordingly to meet the needs of their setting.