As a childcare provider, we take health and safety in our nursery extremely seriously. Considering the current outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) we have put together some information, all of which is based on Public Health England Guidance for Educational Settings and World Health Organisation advice (WHO).
What is Coronavirus? A coronavirus is a ‘type’ of virus. As a group, coronaviruses are common across the world with typical symptoms of coronavirus including fever and a cough that may progress to a severe pneumonia, causing shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. Generally, coronavirus can cause more severe symptoms in people with weakened immune systems, older people, and those with long-term conditions like diabetes, cancer and chronic lung disease. Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a new strain of coronavirus first identified in Wuhan City, China.
The Department of Education (DofE) have prepared and issued a formal guidance documents for nurseries and regional management teams to follow. Those documents have been prepared to help our teams understand current advice and precautionary measures around personal and environmental hygiene and, importantly, what to do in the event of a ‘low’ or ‘high’ level incident relating to a person displaying symptoms or where there is a confirmed case.
Children’s Wellbeing & Education As a nursery we will try to keep the children’s nursery life as ‘normal’ as possible. Children will be supported with age appropriate activities in small groups. An allocated adult will look after a specific group of children. Children will be supported in understanding the changes in the nursey routine. Children will be taught to keep themselves safe including regular hand washing and sneezing into a tissue. Staff will be aware of the children’s attachment and will support them on an individual basis.
Physical distancing Physical distancing is to be maintained wherever possible. Only parents who are symptom free will be allowed to drop off or pick up their child. Our aim is to limit drop off and pick up to one parent only and stagger timings where appropriate. Arranged drop offs will avoid parents entering the nursery building. When parents are waiting or dropping off keep their child, social distancing should be maintained whilst on nursery premises. The nursery will consider measures to ease the settling in of children. Staff will wear the necessary PPE should a child be distress at drop off and needs a specific staff member. The nursery will try to minimise contact between the parents, other parents, other children and staff members discouraging nonessential movements. The nursery will be reviewing the layouts of rooms and activities allowing staff to work further away from each other. Staff will also have staggering arrival, departure and break times, taking account of those with protected characteristics.
Handwashing The frequency of handwashing will increase at nursery. Upon arrival at the nursery, all staff and children must wash their hands All children and staff will be encouraged to wash their hands at regular intervals both in and outside the nursery. Staff will accompany children during washing hands times to ensure all children knows the hand washing technique.
Cleaning the Nursery As the nursery has been closed since 20.3.2020 necessary measures have been taken to deep clean nursery should we re-open on 1.6.2020. In addition:
• frequent cleaning of work areas and equipment between uses is needed
• this includes door handles and keyboards, shelves, floors
• use of high-touch items will be limited
• reminders of personal hygiene standards will be provided
• cleaning for busy areas and rooms will be enhanced
• paper towels will be used for hand drying where possible.
Resources Children will not be permitted to bring any toys from home unless it’s a necessity for their well being. All resources play and learning equipment will be washed and sterilized after each use. All staff will have their own learning equipment box and this will not be shared amongst other staff.
PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) The guidance states, “unless you are in a situation where the risk of CVOD-19 transmission is high, your risk assessment will need to reflect this”. All PPE gear must be fitted properly, and staff will be wearing this during nappy changing times, cleaning procedures and in case they need to pick a child up for one reason or another.
Risk Assessment The nursery has a risk assessment about COVID-19 to assess and manage the risk of the infection and maintaining it. The nursery will take the sensible measures to control the risks in the workplace. Staff will be required to work back to back instead of side by side reducing the number of people each person has contact with. If staff must work face to face for a sustained time, the nursery management will assess whether that activity can safely go ahead.
Equality in the Nursery Workplace The nursery management will consider who needs to be at work, planning for the minimum number of people needed at work to operate safely and effectively. The nursey will be mindful of needs of different groups of workers, and have responsibilities towards those who are disabled, as well as new or expectant mothers. To ensure that the needs of all staff are met, management will communicate appropriately with staff whose protected characteristic might expose them to particular risk. Employers are under a duty to make reasonable adjustments for those workers to avoid placing them at a disadvantage.
Nursery Workplace Management The nursery will consider changing the way the work is organised to create distinct groups and reduce the number of contacts each staff member has. The guidance says this can be achieved by implementing certain measures including:
• as far as possible, splitting staff into teams or shift groups, fixing these teams so that where contact is unavoidable, this happens between the same people
• minimising non-essential travel
• providing clear, consistent and regular communication
• setting up ongoing engagement with workers to monitor unforeseen impacts of changes.
Visitor Management Attendance to the nursery will be restricted to children and staff as far as practical. Visitors will not be permitted to the nursery, unless deemed essential. Where essential visits are required these should be made outside of the usual nursery hours. Any parents enquiring to attend a show round will have to reschedule until later and should not just turn up at nursery. Additionally, all contractors and/or visitors will be required to do the to answer a questionnaire prior to arriving on site and should any concerns be raised about their health, they will be asked to leave.
The nursery has a screening questionnaire which is placed at entry and exit points, toilets and delivery areas. It is essential each visitor reads and answers the questions BEFORE they enter through the side gate of the nursery. The nursery have the right to refuse entry to anyone who will not cooperate by answering some simple questions to help us conduct the first screening, should we find anyone unwilling to cooperate – we can and should politely ask the individual(s) to remain outside the building until we have sought advice on the matter.
Inbound and Outbound Goods Social distancing will be maintained when goods enter and leave the nursery like deliveries or post. Steps to achieve this include:
• revising pick up and collection points
• considering how deliveries could be reduced
• where possible, using the same pairs of people for loads where more than one is needed.
Travelling Where possible staff and parents will travel to nursery alone. Public transport is not recommended but if deemed necessary, guidance on public transport must be followed. No buggies, scooters, prams, car seats should be left on nursery premises.
Responding to a Suspected Case of COVID- 19 at Nursery In the event of a child developing suspected symptoms of COVID-19 whilst attending nursery they should be collected immediately and self isolate at home in line with the NHS guidelines. Whilst waiting for the child to be collected, the child will be in isolation away from the other children. A window will be open for enough ventilation. The staff member responsible for that child, will be the staff member in that group the child is in and the staff ember will be wearing PPE. The areas will be thoroughly cleaned and will not be used for 72 hours afterwards.
We are confident this will be received positively rather than negatively as this demonstrates our commitment to the following advice and making our nursery as safe as we can, mitigating the risk of spreading this or other infectious diseases. There is nothing more important for us than safeguarding the health and wellbeing of all children and staff.
We continue to keep a close eye on advice from the Department of Health and Social Care, along with Public Health England, on the Government website, we would encourage you to please do the same.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public
Further information can be found on the World Health Organisation website:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
More Information: NHS:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
Public Health England:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public