Dorset nursery owner calls for staff to be on vaccine list
Nurseries remain open during lockdown
Last updated 6th Jan 2021
The owner of Tops Day Nurseries, which has branches across the South and South West, is urging the Government to push nursery staff further up the priority list for better Covid testing and vaccinations.
Among the nurseries in the group are sites in Charminster, Gillingham and Wareham.
Under the current lockdown rules, early years settings are able to stay open.
But they're also facing pressures like staff illnesses and key workers needing extra childcare.
Managing Director of Tops Day Nurseries, Cheryl Hadland says their staff aren't being given the protection they deserve:
"They're wonderful, they're brave but are they getting any respect for that from the Government or the Department for Education - no, they're not! They're not even on the list of people that get free testing. I do think the Government and DfE need to sit up and listen to us."
Ms Hadland also thinks that childcare providers should be higher on the government's priority list for vaccinations:
"We also would like to have the access to testing that schools have got, they've all been sent boxes of tests, as have universities and colleges, even though a lot of their teaching is done remotely. So they we are, face to face with the children, with no access to tests."
Tops Day Nurseries has spoken out earlier in the pandemic about the need to early years providers to be given more support from the Government to cover falling numbers of children needing care, while parents have been working from home.
Managing director Cheryl Hadland has this message for the government:
"Please pay attention to the people who are looking after the most precious people on the planet - our small children! Provide them with some support like what's being offered to colleges, universities, secondary schools and primary schools. Why aren't we getting the support for early years?"