CYP Now - Early years leaders hit out at contradictory government advice on home testing

Childcare sector leaders have criticised a Department for Education official’s "incorrect" claims that all early years workers will have access to home testing kits.

Government guidance states PVI workers will be tested as part of the community programme. Picture: Adobe Stock

Earlier this week the government said that early years staff working in maintained nurseries on school sites will be offered access to the testing kits. Meanwhile, those working in private, voluntary and independent (PVI) childcare settings will not be offered access to the kits. Instead they will be “prioritised” within plans for mass community testing.

But in a House of Commons education commitee session on Tuesday, the DfE’s deputy chief scientific advisor Dr Dougal Hargreaves was questioned by Labour MP for Putney, Fleur Anderson, on why workers in PVI settings had not been included in the home testing plans, also referred to as “lateral flow testing”.

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