2 June 2020
The department has been working with colleagues at the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to introduce an important change to our guidance for education and childcare settings. If education or childcare settings cannot obtain the personal protective equipment (PPE) they need, they should approach their local authority to help.
Local authorities (LAs) should, wherever possible, support them to access local PPE markets and available stock. If the LA is not able to meet the PPE needs of education and childcare providers, the LA should approach their nearest local resilience forum (LRF) which will allocate stock if it is available once the needs of other vital services have been met.
If neither the LA or LRF is able to respond to an education or childcare setting’s unmet urgent need for PPE, the setting will need to make their own judgement in line with their risk assessment as to whether it is safe to continue to operate. If children’s homes, secure children’s homes, residential special schools, or other children’s social care settings have an unmet urgent need for PPE in order to operate safely, they should continue to approach their local resilience forum.
Further information can be found in: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings