Friday 29 January 2021
The island's education and early years settings, including childminders, will be closed on Monday.
There is a strong appetite to get settings reopened as soon as possible, however everyone involved also wants to make sure the decision is made when it is safe to do so, without putting anyone at any unnecessary risk.
As the focus upon initial reopening will be on the most vulnerable and the children of essential workers, the CCA wanted to ensure there was enough time to plan a robust testing system to support any reopening. This might include the introduction of testing of those staff and students who need to attend on-site and notes the fact that young children will require supervision when they are tested.
When settings are reopened, the focus will be on facilitating the children of the most essential workers and the most vulnerable in order to help free up workers in the community who are key to the response to coronavirus. It is possible that previous iterations of the essential worker lists may need to be reviewed for this purpose to ensure there are not too many people in one place.
The dynamic situation will be reviewed again on Monday, and make a decision on whether settings will be able to open for the remainder of the week.
In the meantime, important outreach work coordinated by HSC and ESC will continue in order to help support the most vulnerable while their settings need to remain closed.
