Covid19 Recovery and Re-opening Guidance May 2020

This Guidance is for you to consider a series of questions before opening your setting. Each setting will be very different in terms of numbers of children, layout, numbers of staff, opening times etc. We therefore recommend you use this document as a guide and implement changes and adjustments to suit your setting needs. As we follow guidance from the government, you may need to review the tool and consider changes according to updated government guidance. They don’t all need to be in place on the first day, however consider what you need to prioritise first.It is still important that when preparing to open your setting to more children and families, the original advice is still in place to wash hands more frequently and for 20 seconds, maintain a 2 metre distance where possible, cleaning frequently touched surfaces often with detergents and anyone displaying symptoms must self-isolate for 7 days and people in your household self-isolate for 14 days.

Name of setting:

Name of person/s completing the document:

Date started:

Date of review:

May 2020

Theme Questions to considerPriority Action required

(What? When? How?)1 2 3Environment Have you considered the guidance relating to social

distancing on: drop off and collection times during the day? drop off and collection procedures e.g. parental

access to setting/home, waiting areas etc.? using outdoor spaces? how children access and use resources? the arrangement of activities/learning areas

within rooms to allow spacing? toileting? Cleaning of nappy changing area?

Have you considered the types of resources available for children to use and the ease of cleaning these during and at the end of session?

Have you considered rearranging provision and groupings to allow siblings to stay together to reduce contact with others?

Have you considered hand sanitizer around the setting and home?

Have you considered using the outdoor space more as a learning environment?

Have soft furnishings, soft toys and toys that are hard to clean been removed to reduce the spread of infection?

Is there plenty of spare bedding in the baby room and consideration to lower risk of cross contamination?

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Theme Questions to considerPriority Action required

(What? When? How?)1 2 3Have you considered storage of pushchairs from homes and use of settings pushchairs including sanitisation before and after use?

Have you planned how snacks and lunches will change in regard to social distancing?

Staffing relationships

Have you considered staff breaks and lunches and how social distancing can be maintained?

How will you consider staff feelings of current changes? Consider how you will support their well-being at this time.

Have you promoted existing free NHS counselling services to workers?

How will you support staff who may have lost loved ones during Covid19?

How will you deal with staff who have strong feelings about the risks and dangers associated with the virus? Who will support these staff and in what way?

How will you support staff in the vulnerable category? Will they be available for work? What support might they need?

What will you do to minimise the risk to staff and to communicate to them your focus on their safety and well-being and keep them reassured?

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Theme Questions to considerPriority Action required

(What? When? How?)1 2 3

How will you ensure that updates and amendments to policies and risk assessments during COVID 19 are shared with and understood by staff?

How will you ensure staff are trained and confident in Covid19 infection control?

How will you support staff, and particularly those who are less experienced, to be able to respond to parents’ questions and anxieties in a confident and reassuring way?

If you have remained open during the ‘Lockdown’ period, you may have had some staff working in the setting to support children of Key Workers and Vulnerable Children, and others at home furloughed or similar. You will need to be aware of staff feelings and any ‘undercurrents’ in terms of staff relationships due to the differing experiences staff will have had. Consider how you will manage this if it occurs and support those staff relationships to foster a strong and cohesive team.

Have you updated yourself and staff with the updates in EYFS during Covid19?

How will you ensure you can consider staff needing flexible working times during this transition period?

Consider the requirements for staff to complete paperwork and update records to allow staff to be able to focus more closely on the children and their needs

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Theme Questions to considerPriority Action required

(What? When? How?)1 2 3

Communicating with Parents

Have you considered how you will communicate with existing and new parents about:

provision opening information? how to reassure and settle their child? what social distancing might look like as an Early

Years setting? rules and routines for keeping their child safe e.g.

handwashing expectations, cleaning schedules, changes to drop off/pick up?

their child’s daily activity and progress? transition arrangements for those children

moving to school in September?

(Please also read the Parents Factsheet dated 19.5.20)

Have you considered parental requirements in terms of childcare provision to enable them to access your setting?

Have you updated your parent declaration for parents to sign in regard to actions if anyone develops symptoms of Coronavirus?

Children’s well being

How can you plan as a staff team to re-build children’s confidence and trust and support them with familiar things, as well as helping them to cope with new experiences?

How will you ensure there is time to talk to children and answer their questions as honestly as you can and give them the reassurance they will need? Ensure that you are able to acknowledge and accept their feelings?

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Theme Questions to considerPriority Action required

(What? When? How?)1 2 3Consider how you can best support young children to separate from parents on arrival at the setting, providing emotional support in a sensitive way. (parents too!)

Children will need time, space and opportunities to rediscover themselves as individuals, and as a member of the setting. Consider how you will support this process – activities, time to talk and listen, rebuilding fragile trust and relationships.

Consider how you can support children who may have suffered a loss at this time and deal with their feelings.

Some children may present with behaviours which you would consider inappropriate for their age or different to expectations e.g. toileting accidents, separation anxiety, being clingy, crying more and needing reassurance, having tantrums etc. Consider how you will deal with these incidents sensitively and support children with their anxieties. Think also how you will talk to parents sensitively in these cases, considering the children’s feelings and understandings.

Consider how you group children and deploy staff – however, it may not be possible to recreate the familiar group a child remembers. Consider how you will best support children’s emotional needs during this period of adjustment and build their trust and confidence.

Have you considered how you will talk to children about the virus depending on their age group? Are all staff following the same guidance?

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Theme Questions to considerPriority Action required

(What? When? How?)1 2 3Learning and Development

Government guidance suggests that the children be split into smaller groups with an adult(s) and use a particular space /room. Consider how the different spaces/rooms you plan to use can best meet their age-appropriate needs in terms of independence, choice and learning and development.

Advice suggests that the virus finds it more difficult to spread in the outdoors, you may not need as many resources and there are fewer surfaces where the virus can be passed on. How can you use reasonable endeavors to support learning for children across the 7 areas of learning in the outdoor environment?

Consider how you plan for the environment, resources and activities in order to best support children’s learning and development in these changed circumstances.

Consider how you plan for a ‘settling in’ period, helping children to separate from parents/carers, help them to become familiar with your routines and expectations and possible changes in child groupings/familiar adults.

Consider how you will support children in age-appropriate ways to understand the steps they can take to stay safe, including regular hand-washing and using a tissue to sneeze and disposing of it and if appropriate, the need to stay in their established smaller groups and with the designated adult(s)

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Theme Questions to considerPriority Action required

(What? When? How?)1 2 3Consider how you can support children in age-appropriate ways to understand the changes/challenges to previous norms and familiar routines at this time. E.g. listening, discussing, reading stories, talking about their experiences with them.Consider how you will establish where children are at in terms of their development and learning on their return to the setting in order to best support them with appropriate next steps and support their confidence and emotional well-being.

Consider how you can use information shared by parents about what they have been doing with children at home to feed into your assessment information.

How do you plan as a team to respond sensitively and appropriately to children’s changed or challenging behaviour which may result from their anxieties, changes to familiar norms or other concerns?

Where children with SEND are returning to the setting, how do you plan to support their needs? Have you been keeping in touch with parents and sharing ideas/receiving feedback? Are you liaising with any other professionals involved with the child and family.? Do you feel confident in welcoming them back to the setting? If not, what are your concerns and how can you plan for and manage their return sensitively? Have you discussed this with your Area SENDCo? Other professionals involved? Parents?

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Theme Questions to considerPriority Action required

(What? When? How?)1 2 3Where children have been classed as clinically extremely vulnerable and have been advised to shield, they will be expected to remain at home. How will you continue to support the Learning and Development at home for any such children and communicate with parents as necessary?

Where a child is living in a household where someone is shielding, as early years settings will be unable to ensure stringent social distancing due to children’s age and understanding, government guidelines say that children will not be expected to attend the setting. Again, you will need to consider how to support the Learning and Development for such children at home and communicate with parents as necessary.

Business considerations

Staff: Do some or all staff contracts need updating?

https://www.acas.org.uk/coronavirus Do staff/assistant shift patterns fit with parental

demand at this current time? How will you continue to monitor this?

Have you put risk assessments in place to cover protective measures set out by the government?

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings

Have you reviewed your policies in line with Covid19 guidance?

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Theme Questions to considerPriority Action required

(What? When? How?)1 2 3

Have you considered how and when updated policies will be shared with staff?

Have staff training files been reviewed and training planned to be kept up to date?

Parents: Have you considered a questionnaire for parents

to find out what the needs are such as times, days etc?

Are parent contracts up to date? If you need to welcome and settle in children

new to the setting: Consider whether most of the paperwork can be

completed by email or sent in the post and returned.

If parents need to look around the setting can this be arranged when the setting is not open (no children) using social distancing?

Ensure that the parent understands the unusual circumstances

If you agree to a parent accompanying a child on a settling in visit, how could you manage this safely?

Have you considered what to do if you don’t have enough space to accommodate all children safely?

Have you considered what support to give parents whose children you can no longer accommodate because of a lack of space?

Have you considered what to do if no parents

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Theme Questions to considerPriority Action required

(What? When? How?)1 2 3want to send their children to the setting because of their own concerns about infection?

Business Support: Have you accessed all the grants and loans

available to you through links on the bulletin, and updated in our Guidance for settings dated 19.5.20)

Has the budget forecast been updated? Have you considered the sustainability of your

setting due to capacity and vacancies?

Operational considerations

Have you consulted with staff on returning to work and considered rotas for age ranges? Can staggered start and finish times be implemented?

Are all staff and families contact details up to date?

Are you confident about: cleaning services, meals, maintenance, IT services, waste utilities working fire alarm testing, repairs, PAT testing

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Theme Questions to considerPriority Action required

(What? When? How?)1 2 3Are there sufficient stock levels for

cleaning, toilet and hygiene products, first aid, soap and hand sanitiser etc Gloves and Aprons

Have you considered who will clean toys, equipment and surfaces and how often?

Is the attendance of vulnerable children being recorded and a log of contact with these families?

Have you updated your policy for visitors to your setting from other professions? How will you share this with them?

Have you considered walking to destinations where possible and limiting use of vehicles to reduce spread of infection?

Has children’s medication been reviewed and expiry dates? Have checks with parents been made about any changes to children’s medication?

Are you keeping up to date with government guidance and any new changes?

Key information

Who can support you to plan at this time the changes and points to consider?

How will you discuss the draft plan with members of staff and parents?

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Below are links to government publications that we suggest you check regular to keep up to date with changes. There are also links for ACAS which cover employment law issues to consider, if you need to.The link to Health and safety executive will support you with employment regulations you need to be aware of as a business.Other links will support you with issues that might arise during Covid19 with advice how best to deal with those situations, talking to parents and children.

Guidance for education and childcare settingshttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-educational-and-childcare-settings-to-prepare-for-wider-opening-from-1-june-2020/actions-for-education-and-childcare-settings-to-prepare-for-wider-opening-from-1-june-2020

Guidance for parents and carershttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers/reopening-schools-and-other-educational-settings-from-1-june

Guidance on implementing protective measureshttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings

Infection control posterhttps://www.publichealth.hscni.net/sites/default/files/Guidance_on_infection_control_in%20schools_poster.pdf

Public health Covid19 – infection controlhttps://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/881489/COVID-19_Infection_prevention_and_control_guidance_complete.pdf Health and safety executive guidancehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/news/coronavirus.htm

Safeguarding children through COVID 19 https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/nscp

Health and well being during Covid 19https://www.benenden.co.uk/coronavirus/

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Children and bereavementhttps://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/children-and-bereavement/

Talking to children about the virushttps://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/coronavirus/

https://youngminds.org.uk/blog/talking-to-your-child-about-coronavirus/

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