Are you a key worker? Do you need childcare for your baby or toddler during the COVID-19 lock-down? If you’re in the Edgbaston or Birmingham area, we can help. We’re a childcare nursery and pre-school located there and are currently taking on babies and children aged from 3 months to 5 years of age. This includes children of key workers during the coronavirus lock-down. They are eligible if they are unable to care for their children at home e.g. due to the need to continue working.
So, what’s a key worker?
If you’re wondering whether you are eligible, the Government has issued guidelines regarding exactly what constitutes a ‘key worker’. Roughly speaking, the term refers to anyone who is essential as part of the emergency efforts during the coronavirus crisis. This includes people from what they are calling ‘critical sectors’. While the rest of the public have to stay at home with their children, key workers are being prioritised for education provision. Indeed, nursery staff themselves are deemed to be key workers in order to offer the childcare service to other key workers (NHS staff, for example).
The Government states: “We are grateful for the work of teachers and workers in educational settings for continuing to provide for the children of the other critical workers of our country. It is an essential part of our national effort to combat this disease.”
The full list of key workers includes people working within the following ‘critical’ sectors:
1. Health & social care workers
including …
- NHS staff (doctors, nurseries, midwives, paramedics etc.).
- Front-line health & social workers.
- Care workers & those maintaining the social care sector.
- Those supporting the supply chains for medicines and PPE.
2. Education & childcare workers
including …
- Childcare workers including nursery staff.
- Teachers.
- Social workers.
- & all the support staff who are required to keep the education & childcare sector active for the key workers.
3. Key public service workers
including …
- Those working to keep the justice system running.
- Those who work towards the delivery of key front-line services including religious staff, charities and other support workers.
- Those working in the management of the deceased.
- Those providing up to date news and key information including journalists and broadcasters.
4. Government workers (local & national)
including …
- Those workers who are essential as part of the emergency response to the coronavirus pandemic (e.g. who deliver public services or organise benefits payments etc.).
5. Food & key goods providers
including …
- Those involved in the production, processing, sale and delivery of food and key goods like medicines and medical goods.
6. Public safety & national security workers
including …
- Emergency services including police, fire fighters etc.
- The armed forces where they are essential to defence and national security or to the coronavirus emergency response.
- Prison & probation staff and similar.
- Those involved in national security including MoD staff & support workers.
7. Transport workers
including …
- Anyone working to maintain the smooth running of transport systems and routes during the emergency response to COVID-19.
- These include air, road, rail and water routes, where they are used by supply chains operating during the crisis.
8. Utilities, communication & financial services workers
including workers and staff who are essential for the continued provision of:
- Financial services (banks, building societies, financial markets, payments providers etc).
- Utilities including electricity, gas, water, sewage, oil, nuclear energy etc.
- IT, telecommunications & data infrastructure.
- 999 and 111 emergency services.
- Postal & delivery services.
Are you eligible?
Do you fall into one of these ‘key worker’ categories? And are you unable to safely look after your children while you continue to work? If so, Leaps & Bounds Day Nursery would be pleased to offer your children a childcare place at our nursery and pre-school in Edgbaston, Birmingham. That’s subject to available places, of course, but at time of writing we have some capacity at the setting. We’re located in Gillot Road at B16 0ET, so look us up on our map and see whether we’re a good fit for you and your young children. We hope so.
Contact Leaps & Bounds Day Nursery, Edgbaston, near Birmingham
If you are a key worker who would like to enrol your child for childcare in our nursery and pre-school, please contact us. Also contact us if you’re not sure if you are eligible and we will try to help clarify things for you. Call 0121 246 4922 or and we’ll be happy to assist.
Leaps & Bounds is a day nursery and pre-school offering childcare to babies and children aged from 3 months to 5 years of age. We are located in Edgbaston (B16 0ET), very close to central Birmingham – ideal for parents who are looking for childcare in and around Edgbaston, Harborne, Ladywood, Bearwood and Smethwick.