ÎÞÂëÌìÌÃ

By Rachel Lawler

The government has to include anyone who lives with, or is in a childcare or support bubble with, a member of staff or child at a primary or secondary school.

The home test kits will be available twice weekly and can be ordered online but families of younger children attending early years settings are not included.

While there are currently plans to offer private and voluntary providers home test kits from 22 March, and school-based and maintained settings are already offered them, there are no plans to extend the offer to childminders.

Childminders can only access community testing centres, which are often located miles away from providers and only open during working hours.

Priorities, not logistics
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the ÎÞÂëÌìÌÃ, commented: "It is completely absurd that the government is able to roll out home lateral flow testing to the families and bubbles of nine million school-age children, but not the 34,000 childminders currently operating in England.

"The government has repeatedly insisted that getting test kits to childminders was too much of a challenge - but this announcement makes it clear that the issue was only ever one of priorities, not logistics.

"Childminders have been on the frontline, welcoming children into their own homes and delivering quality care and education, throughout this pandemic. It is frankly shameful that the government is continuing to exclude them from measures that would keep them, their loved ones and the children in their care, safer at what is still such a worrying time.

"It also remains unclear why this latest lateral flow testing rollout is currently restricted to the families and bubbles of school age children, and does not include those of children in the early years, especially given that most early years providers have been open since the start of the year.

"Time and again throughout this crisis, the government has chosen to exclude the early years sector from wider education initiatives. This simply must change - otherwise the indifference of this government towards this dedicated sector will live long in the memory of providers and the parents who rely on them."

Find out more
Operating in the lockdown and beyond