COVID-19 Updates

June 24, 2020

** This information is received from the Government and regularly updated

24/06/2020

Information for schools and academies

Yesterday it was recommended that from 4 July 2020 people keep two metres away from others as a precaution or one metre when the risk can be mitigated by taking other precautions in the staying safe outside your home guidance. Over the coming weeks the Department for Education will publish further information and guidance to help schools prepare for a full return in September.

Primary schools should continue to operate in groups of no more than 15 and secondaries should not exceed 25% of year 10 and year 12 pupils in at any one time. The recent announcement will give more heads and teachers the confidence to maximise capacity within classrooms, ahead of all pupils returning from September.

Primary pupils do not and have not needed to be kept apart in the classroom, and we are encouraging primary heads to use the capacity they have and the flexibility we have given them to bring more groups of children back into school, if they can work within the protective measures.

The latest staying safe outside your home guidance can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/staying-safe-outside-your-home

The guidance on implementing protective measures in education and childcare settings can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings

Updated guidance on actions for early years and childcare providers during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

We have updated the guidance for childcare services, early years settings, childminders and local authorities. This includes updating the guidance to reflect that early years providers are now able to open for all children, an update on funding and flexibility for parents, further details on managing school pick-ups and drop-offs and new information on childminder agencies and carrying out quality assurance visits.

The guidance can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures

Early Career Framework reforms published

We have published information on the Early Career Framework which includes:

  • the professional development available to early career teachers at the start of their careers, underpinned by the Early Career Framework.
  • how selected schools can sign up for early roll-out from autumn 2020
  • how the offer will help all early career teachers and schools to respond to the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19).

The information can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/early-career-framework-reforms

Directed letter (update 1) – continuity of education allowance (CEA) – regulatory flexibility in response to coronavirus (COVID-19)

We have added a directed letter to the information page for service personnel and their families which includes additional information on payments and repayments.

The directed letter can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/dcyp-covid-19

Procurement Policy Note 04/20

Cabinet Office Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 04/20 sets out information and guidance for public bodies on payment of their suppliers to ensure service continuity during and after the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. It updates and builds on provisions contained in PPN02/20. PPN 04/20 is effective from 1 July to 31 October 2020.

PPN04/20 and additional guidance to support users can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0420-recovery-and-transition-from-covid-19


The information below has not changed since yesterday.


Collection of guidance for educational settings on GOV.​UK

The Department for Education’s coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance has been grouped by subject and audience on GOV.​UK to help you find the information relevant to you. In response to your feedback, future updates to guidance will also include a summary of the changes that have been made.

Guidance on what early years providers need to do during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/early-years-and-childcare-coronavirus-covid-19

Guidance on what school leaders, teachers and school staff need to do during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/guidance-for-schools-coronavirus-covid-19

Guidance on what colleges, universities and other providers need to do during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/further-and-higher-education-coronavirus-covid-19

Guidance on what local authority children’s services need to do during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-childrens-services-coronavirus-covid-19

You can sign up to alerts on GOV.​UK to be notified by email when new pages are published or existing pages change. You can set the frequency at which you receive these emails and unsubscribe at any time.

Sign up to GOV.​UK updates here:

https://www.gov.uk/email-signup?link=/government/organisations/department-for-education

Department for Education coronavirus helpline

The Department for Education coronavirus helpline is available to answer questions about COVID-19 relating to education and children’s social care. Staff, parents and young people can contact this helpline as follows:

Phone: 0800 046 8687

Opening hours:

8am to 6pm – Monday to Friday
10am to 4pm – Saturday and Sunday

If you work in a school, please have your unique reference number (URN or UK PRN) available when calling the helpline.

Handwashing advice

It is essential that everyone washes their hands more often, using soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Hand washing with soap employs mechanical action that loosens bacteria and viruses from the skin, rinsing them into the drain. Drying hands afterwards makes the skin less hospitable to the virus. Hand sanitiser can be effective if soap is not available or the situation makes using soap less feasible (i.e. when outside) but using hand sanitiser provides none of the virus-destroying friction that rubbing your hands together and rinsing with water provides.

The latest guidance and video on hand washing can be found at:

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/best-way-to-wash-your-hands/

The e-Bug project is led by Public Health England and has a dedicated webpage for learning resources on hand washing and respiratory hygiene. E-Bug has published posters on hand hygiene, and covering coughs and sneezes, to display in bathrooms, classrooms and shared spaces.

The hand and respiratory hygiene posters and other educational resources can be found here:

https://e-bug.eu



Categories:

COVID-19 Uncategorized