Hello everyone,
The Scottish Government issued guidance last week to help nurseries like ourselves identify what we need to put in place to re-open when Scotland moves into Phase 3. The date is still currently planned for 11th August, but if Nicola decides to move into Phase 3 earlier, providing we are prepared and ready then we will hope to re-open as soon as this happens.
We appreciate that like us, everyone has been missing their family, friends and general routines and are looking to return to some normality in the near future. However, I think we all know that normality before lockdown and the new normal after lockdown will be very different and we will all need a period of readjustment.
We appreciate that due to the current situation your care requirements may have changed due to different working hours and patterns. To ensure we can accommodate all our families we will be contacting you all individually and would appreciate if you can confirm your requirement as soon as possible. As we have now been accepted into Partnership with West Lothian Council this now means that when your child is eligible for a funded place you can apply to have this with us at Early Steps.
One of the main things that you need to consider is if your child previously attended both Early Steps and Local Authority Settings. Based on the latest Public Health Advice the guidance that has been issued states that blended placements, eg. Where children attend two or more settings should be avoided. As we will be able to offer funded places from August, if your child falls into this category you are able to contact West Lothian Council so that your funded hours are carried out at Early Steps. We appreciate this is not the ideal for some but it must be considered to help reduce the amount of contact with different groups.
In terms of After School/Holiday Club we are still unsure what this is going to look like as the guidance has not been finalised yet. We will contact you separately if your child is in/moving to the Cave once the guidance has been issued by the Scottish Government.
We will continue to issue regular updates, however, if anyone has any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us.
Many thanks Carol x