The Early Childhood Council is calling for the ventilation support on offer for schools to be expanded to support early learning providers.

“Early learning providers urgently need assessment of their accommodation to determine where ventilation issues may exist and what improvements are needed before winter.”

“Already we are hearing reports of more parents wanting to keep their children home with Omicron fears – so reassurance around ventilation would go a long way to helping keep early learning as safe as possible,” said ECC CEO Simon Laube.

“We're currently confident children are safe in early learning for centres that are closely following the protection protocols, but the ventilation issue must be addressed now.”

With New Zealand moving to Red setting on the COVID-19 Protection Framework, more funding support is urgently needed as parents keep their children home.

“Centres are only funded for children who attend, so if they’re being kept home, providers’ viability becomes an issue. Our sector is grateful for the support through Alert Levels 4 and 3 lockdowns, but with pre Christmas support ending now, providers are now facing another financial cliff-face,” said Simon Laube.

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