Autumn Update

Dear Parents and Carers,

Thought it might help to clarify the position around exclusions and Covid-19 testing as we get into the Autumn.

A single confirmed case in a child who has attended the Centre up to two days before being symptomatic will now unavoidably close the entire year group (room) for two weeks, depriving up to 50 families of all childcare provision and causing the Centre further operational and financial difficulties. As such, we must ask all families to exercise extreme caution with children who they have any reason to believe may be infected. A tiny number of confirmed cases could completely close the Centre - so please do not take any risks with attendance, however problematic keeping children off may be.

Testing and results are currently delayed in many areas, which may mean that exclusions of up to 14 days for symptomatic children and staff will need to be served. Exclusions for symptomatic children without a negative test result are currently 10 days excluding the day of onset, but the rest of the household must isolate for 14 days – effectively excluding the child for this period too. Incidents of either symptom observed at home must also be reported to us. We appreciate that protracted exclusions for unclear cases will be extremely challenging for many, but it is important that all families understand that we cannot exercise much discretion. If a child presents either a sustained high temperature (>39C for several hours - but potentially lower depending on circumstances) or new continuous cough, we are formally required to exclude them until the isolation period has passed or a negative test result is confirmed. Although there is a very small margin for discretion where there is clear and highly likely alternative explanation for the child’s symptoms, this does not mean that blanket exemptions can be granted or borderline cases ignored. To best protect public health and ensure compliance with the complex new regulations, we must err on the side of caution in all cases.

The other side of this situation is that we will face similar frustrations with extended exclusions for symptomatic staff. We have rebuilt some resilience in staffing capacity, as well as being able to call on our bank staff team – however there may still come a time where we are unable to provide normal service in either individual rooms or the whole Centre. Staff shortages may occur with little or no notice, but we will try to manage absence and communication restrictions with you as proactively as possible. Notice will be given whenever possible, but please be aware that these extraordinary circumstances mean that we cannot completely rule out children being turned away when arriving for sessions.  

The Centre’s charging policy is unchanged – any session that is not offered due to room closure will not be billed, but sessions missed due to sickness or self-isolation/exclusion remain chargeable. We understand that complying with the government’s exclusion requirements will likely cause significant disruption to families and the Centre until faster testing can be restored. We will endeavour to maintain provision wherever possible and ask for your understanding and flexibility during the months ahead.

 Kind Regards,

 James.

Wraparounds - From September 2020

Dear All,

One more update for you - as we have found a way to offer the full morning wraparounds from Tuesday September 1st.

Children currently starting at 8:30am will be automatically converted to 8:00am starts. As there will still be a limit to how many places we can offer, all other wraparounds will need to be requested and confirmed on a case by case basis, regardless of your pre-lockdown bookings.

Please speak to the office to add any morning wraparounds to your bookings.

Unfortunately, it will not be possible for us to restart the afternoon (4:50-5:50) wraparound until the national guidance for Early Years is changed to allow wider group mixing. We have raised this ongoing issue with Bristol City Council & our MP and hope to have a resolution within the Autumn term.

Kind Regards,

James.

Full Reopening

Hi All,

Just a quick note to say that there have been no changes to the Early Years guidance, so we’re on track for full reopening from Tuesday 01/09. This means the remaining Three Year Olds will be able to return. Rainbow will contact children who will be new to their room individually to arrange inductions and agree any visits. We have also scheduled sessions for children moving up to Rainbow before the end of the year.

The two remaining restrictions that impact our service are:

1) All parents and carers are required to wear a mask when visiting the Centre. Please bring a mask with you as exceptions cannot be made, but we are able to sell disposable masks (£1) and washable masks (£5) from reception.

2) As current rules prevent age groups from mixing and it doesn’t look like this will be relaxed in September, we are unable to offer normal wraparound sessions. As things stand, we are currently offering a reduced morning wraparound by request only. This session begins at 8:30am and does not include breakfast. Please speak to the office in advance if you want to book in. We hope to return to full hours asap and I will post any updates here.

Kind Regards,

James.

Wider Reopening

Dear All,

On 02/07, the Government announced wider reopening plans for Early Years settings. Both baby rooms are already back to normal capacity and Sunshine will be returning to ‘business as usual’ from 20/07.

Although the 'bubble' system is being relaxed, some problematic limits remain in place, such as year groups still being kept separate – something we cannot do in Rainbow. The new guidance also accepts that staffing availability remains limited and caps may have to be enforced to keep things workable. We have been asked to preserve keyworker places already taken up and to prioritise those going to school this year. As 24 of these older children are not currently able to attend, they will take up most if not all of the extra capacity that is created in Rainbow.

As such, we will not be able to welcome any additional three year old children over the summer. This change in national policy does however mean that Rainbow can go completely back to normal for all children from the start of September, which was previously starting to look unlikely.

Once all of the school leavers’ sessions have been confirmed, we will be able to see if any additional spaces are available in Rainbow for younger children. As these gaps are likely to be very limited, they will be allocated on a priority system, beginning with any additional key workers or vulnerable children. If you would like to be considered for a summer space in Rainbow on this basis, please contact me as soon as possible as final decisions will need to be made next week.

Kind Regards,

James.

Reopening Update

Dear All,

Not much to add again, as we are still waiting for any relaxation of the government guidelines before being able to welcome more children back to the Centre. Despite the sweeping changes across other areas of life, it seems there is little appetite for making changes to the limits placed on us – to the illogical extent that greater mixing is now possible outside our doors than inside.

We’re cautiously planning for increased numbers in September, but are concerned that if they only relax the bubble rule to 30 (as is being discussed for schools), then Sunshine and Rainbow will still need to be restricted and we may have to mandate days in order to welcome everyone back and still keep two groups completely separate in each room. Hopefully this won’t be necessary and we’ll be in touch with all families directly as soon as we know what we are able to offer them.

We thank you again for your patience.

Kind Regards,

James.

Reopening Update

Not much to add this week, I’m sorry to say. As detailed last week, we have now reached capacity in Rainbow & Sunshine and will be filling what gaps remain in babies over the next few days. No further additions will be possible until the requirements are changed.

This morning’s announcement that the plan for all children to return to education before the summer break has been abandoned does raise additional concerns about if and when this much needed rework of the Early Years guidance will arrive. It is now possible that as the summer holidays loom for both schools and politicians, focus will drift away from the entire reopening project and everything will be pushed back to September - freezing us where we are now, a situation that doesn’t work for the Centre or the vast majority of parents.

Hopefully this will not be the case and we are looking into whether it might be possible to negotiate local relaxation of the requirements with BCC if it appears that government has given up altogether for the summer.

Partial Reopening

Dear Parents and Carers,

Having consulted with BCC at the end of last week, we have now agreed a compliant reopening plan. As shared previously, the government’s guidelines on grouping and keeping small “bubbles” separate are not practical for large mixed-session settings like ECCC. As such, we are limited to welcoming a maximum of 16 children back in each room until the guidance changes. Even this limited model is not operationally or financially sustainable as the complex restrictions will make staffing and other systems much less efficient, considerably increasing the Centre’s operating costs while generating little additional revenue. No additional state funding has been made available to support nurseries in providing this mandatory new service format, but we are working with various private funding bodies to cover the shortfall.  

Although care inside the rooms will be largely unchanged and the children will be able to mix freely within their small groups, we need to manage adult traffic within the building to ensure that appropriate hygiene and distancing is maintained. Please follow this guidance when visiting the Centre.

The situation is slightly different for each age groups and these are detailed below. From Monday June 8th:

Tiny Stars and Tiny Tots:

 Able to reopen largely as before as normal attendance is around 16 in both rooms. Babies will need the most support to resettle, so phased returns are planned and booked in with families who wished to return straight away. Some session caps will apply when needed and later returns are possible by arrangement. If you have not done so already, please contact the Centre to discuss your child’s place. No wraparounds are currently available.

Sunshine:

The 16 child cap is about a third of Sunshine’s normal numbers and we already have 12 key worker Sunshine children attending. We will look to add some private spaces once the initial restart has settled in, but this will be limited to 4 children and we have to prioritise any funded 2YOs and vulnerable children that are not already attending. Please contact the Centre to discuss any emergency circumstances that we should be aware of when considering how to allocate this small number of places. Additional returns will not be possible until the national guidance is changed – which we have been given no timescale for. No wraparounds are currently available.

Rainbow:

The 16 child cap is about a fifth of Rainbow’s normal numbers and these spaces have all already been taken by keyworkers and the school leaver families who asked for an immediate return when contacted last month. Additional returns will begin with the remainder of the school leaver cohort then the 3 year old children, but these phases will also not be possible until the national guidance is changed. No wraparounds are currently available.

We have been advised that visits between rooms and external visits with parents and carers are not allowed under the current guidance. This means that no new joiners will be accepted and any child who turns two or three will not be able to begin to move up to the next room. Children who have had their birthday during the shutdown will either return to their old room or restart directly into their new room – we will discuss these cases with families directly to agree the best way forward as the guidance evolves.

As spaces are limited, we are currently only charging for confirmed sessions. Sessions not available or not taken up will not be charged or permanently withdrawn until we are fully operational and need to return to normal occupancy. As we have significant losses to recoup and have lengthy waiting lists for all rooms, available sessions cannot be left unused and unpaid indefinitely. However, we will look to be as flexible as possible during the phased reopening process and will contact all families ahead of any changes to explain their options for retaining their place.

I will shortly also be contacting all families who will be in Rainbow during the 2020/21 academic year to discuss session requirements and availability – as this room is now persistently oversubscribed. Thank you all again for your patience and flexibility during these challenging times. We cannot currently reopen beyond the limited offering detailed above, but look forward to welcoming every single child back as soon as it is possible.

Kind Regards,

James.

Closure Update

Although we were planning a phased restart from early June, this has now been suspended following guidance for Early Years settings received from Bristol City Council last Friday. As the Early Years operating guidance was very delayed, BCC don’t want settings to open without being fully compliant with the new requirements. These requirements were finally outlined by the government on Sunday, but many key questions remain unanswered and all areas will take a while to work through as they have not taken on board the feedback and guidance from the sector. Many of the new requirements are physically impossible for a setting of our size and even if we had the space, would need additional staffing that is not available and is not in any way covered by either existing funding or private fees. No additional support is being provided to allow delivery of the new requirements and as before, we cannot bankrupt the Centre just to be compliant with complex new reopening requirements, some of which would require normal staffing levels to triple.

 The EY guidance also contains various requirements for new PPE (that we don’t have and currently have no reliable way of ordering), staff training (that will need to be developed and delivered), changes to the physical environment (that we’re still waiting for info on) and various other new processes and protocols.

 As such, any additional provision must remain on hold until we can digest the guidance, draw up a list of problems/questions and then wait for BCC to come back to us with the answers. It is extremely unlikely that these actions can all be completed by next week, but we will keep you updated as the situation develops. We thank you for your ongoing patience.

Closure Update

Thanks for your patience while we all wait for confirmation about how and when ECCC can re-open. At the time of writing (20/05/2020) the Implementation Toolkit promised by the Goverment is still yet to be published. We need this information to work out how many children can come back in each room, how many sessions they can do, what level of mixing is allowed, what additional staffing and cleaning requirements are needed and when returns will be possible. Without it, we cannot make meaningful plans or give parents reliable information. We have also received no confirmation of whether indefinitely switching to a less efficient operational model will be financially supported by the government or Local Authority.

Hopefully the toolkit will come out this week. If it does, we will need to digest it, make plans, check these plans with the Local Authority and get them signed off by the Centre’s trustees before then communicating with parents. A phased return will almost certainly be necessary and it is still possible that the whole re-opening project will be delayed by the goverment - as the 01/06 date will only be formally confirmed a few days in advance.

Closure Update

Despite the headlines suggesting all settings will fully reopen on June 1st, we are awaiting vital clarification of the guidelines issued earlier this week. In line with the teachers and heads’ unions who have described the proposals as dangerous and unworkable, we believe the health and safety requirements provided so far would make it impossible for a large, full-service setting like ECCC to reopen with more than 25% of children attending. Primary Schools are saying it’s unworkable and they’re only being asked to take a third of their children back at first and will close again after 6 weeks, so it is totally unclear how the proposals could possibly work for year-round nurseries. Operating in the way requested would also be financially unworkable for us, so we are waiting for confirmation of the support that will be offered to help us comply with the complex and inefficient new requirements.

We are also aware that many parents need childcare to resume as soon as possible and we are doing everything we can to find a solution that meets everyone’s needs. Please bear with us for now and we will contact you individually over the next week or so to provide updates and establish your requirements going forward. We cannot choose to operate in a way that endangers staff or jeopardises the Centre’s survival, so we ask for your understanding with any delays to reopening while practical solutions are found. The original guidance is clear that settings may need to cap numbers or prioritise certain age groups in order to reopen safely, so please do not assume that your private or funded places will resume on June 1st.

It is also still possible that the government will move the target date back if their monitoring data suggests that it is necessary to do so. We have been promised that additional operating guidance for Early Years settings will be published soon and will need to consult with BCC when this is confirmed to agree a way forward that provides an acceptable best-fit of the government’s impractical and contradictory requirements. As such, we will continue to provide key worker care only until further notice.

We hope that you are well and we hope to see you all very soon.