Coronavirus Measures Surveys (Comparison)
We have been conducting surveys of the Greenway Nursery staff and parents to determine attitudes towards our Coronavirus safety measures and to track how these change over time. We have chosen Greenway Nursery as a particular focus for this study because children's attendance is affected to a greater extend by parental attitudes than our wrap-around care provisions. The specific measure which we have focussed on as indicative of general attitudes is the 'Well Child Only' policy, as this has the greatest impact on parents. Throughout the pandemic we have had consistently high attendance levels at nursery due to the high levels of parental confidence in our stringent safety measures. For example, in January (Week 3) national attendance at nursery was around 54%, but at Greenway Nursery for the same week attendance was 93%. Having seen the significant negative impact on children's learning and development following our 10 week closure in 2020, we have been determined to do all we can to maximise attendance throughout the pandemic. Communication and reacting to the prevailing attitudes of the nursery community has been a key part of this success. Thank you to all of those who are taking part in our attitude surveys, your feedback is extremely helpful.
Our approach towards Coronavirus safety measures has been to be as overtly safe as possible to maximise confidence and attendance, whilst acting to counter any measures which impact negatively on the children's learning and development. For example, where we found the 'Bubble' system was restricting the breadth of children's learning and development, we cut this measure back to the absolute minimum that can be considered compliant (still grouping the children for the 'set pieces' such as lunch and story time, but allowing free mixing throughout the setting for the rest of the session). Other measures that we have relaxed to maximise the children's leaning and development include: ending scheduled toilet times; reopening the sandpit; reintroduction of dressing up and certain soft toys; book rotation; and external specialists visiting the setting for SEN provision.
Having conducted surveys in March, April and July (approximately 6 weeks apart) we are in a position to track how attitudes towards these measures are changing over time as the pandemic situation changes and as we adjust our control measures. Both rounds of the survey have received a very good response level (40 responses in March, 36 in April, 28 in July) and we are confident that they form a good representative sample of the nursery community (and that we can extrapolate from this to draw conclusions about our wider GNRC population). The chart below shows how attitudes have changed over the course of 13 weeks from the end of March to the Beginning of July.
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Early April 2021
(Survey 1) Strict 'Well Child Only' policy in operation. Falling Covid19 case rate. Hospitality, retail, hairdressers etc. still closed. Vaccine rollout underway, with few people double vaccinated yet. |
Late May 2021
(Survey 2) Strict 'Well Child Only' policy in operation. Very low Covid19 case rate. Indoor hospitality, retail, hairdressers all open. Vaccine programme protected all vulnerable. |
Early July 2021
(Survey 3) More relaxed 'Well Child Only' policy in operation (allowing for hayfever etc.) High & climbing Covid19 cases (but not many deaths or hospitalisations due to vaccines) All remaining restrictions easing soon. |
A personal note on our data sources and research
It has been suggested in the comments that our policies might be ill informed, poorly researched, or arbitrary. Whilst I do understand that there are extremes of strong feeling on both sides of the fence, I would hate for some parents to think that we are making decisions in a vacuum. At every step of the way we have worked closely with our trade organisation, the National Day Nursery Association (NDNA), to ensure we are following the current guidance. For example, the 'Revised Operating Procedures' document that we use to underpin our entire Coronavirus response was created by NDNA, we amend this based on their guidance to fit our specific settings' circumstances. We attend regular meetings with NDNA to keep abreast of the most current interpretations of the government guidance to ensure we remain compliant. We also use a whole range of other data sources such as the Government's data dashboard and Don't Forget The Bubbles. We avoid mainstream media and do not pander to scaremongering and hyperbole in our decision making. For an example of this, please see our Coronavirus blog which we ran through January and February to give an accurate assessment of the risks involved with attending nursery.
There are some aspects of the guidance, the Well Child Only policy for example, where the government have been intentionally vague, allowing room for settings to set their policies as appropriate to their circumstances. All the official guidance says on the matter is "...must not come into the setting if: they have one or more COVID-19 symptoms..." the cough element of the NHS COVID-19 symptoms actually says 'coughing a lot for more than an hour'. This is hugely problematic! I'm sure there is not one parent or staff member in the nursery community who would be happy with our watching and waiting for an hour whilst a child coughed heavily all over the other children and staff. In the current climate this could be considered to be criminally negligent, all but guaranteeing the onward transmission of a potentially fatal illness if it is actually Coronavirus. So we have to make arrangements which are appropriate to the circumstances. We are very grateful for parents' and our colleagues' input in our decision making.
It has been suggested in the comments that our policies might be ill informed, poorly researched, or arbitrary. Whilst I do understand that there are extremes of strong feeling on both sides of the fence, I would hate for some parents to think that we are making decisions in a vacuum. At every step of the way we have worked closely with our trade organisation, the National Day Nursery Association (NDNA), to ensure we are following the current guidance. For example, the 'Revised Operating Procedures' document that we use to underpin our entire Coronavirus response was created by NDNA, we amend this based on their guidance to fit our specific settings' circumstances. We attend regular meetings with NDNA to keep abreast of the most current interpretations of the government guidance to ensure we remain compliant. We also use a whole range of other data sources such as the Government's data dashboard and Don't Forget The Bubbles. We avoid mainstream media and do not pander to scaremongering and hyperbole in our decision making. For an example of this, please see our Coronavirus blog which we ran through January and February to give an accurate assessment of the risks involved with attending nursery.
There are some aspects of the guidance, the Well Child Only policy for example, where the government have been intentionally vague, allowing room for settings to set their policies as appropriate to their circumstances. All the official guidance says on the matter is "...must not come into the setting if: they have one or more COVID-19 symptoms..." the cough element of the NHS COVID-19 symptoms actually says 'coughing a lot for more than an hour'. This is hugely problematic! I'm sure there is not one parent or staff member in the nursery community who would be happy with our watching and waiting for an hour whilst a child coughed heavily all over the other children and staff. In the current climate this could be considered to be criminally negligent, all but guaranteeing the onward transmission of a potentially fatal illness if it is actually Coronavirus. So we have to make arrangements which are appropriate to the circumstances. We are very grateful for parents' and our colleagues' input in our decision making.