Childcare provision for Cardiff’s key workers doing essential work through the COVID-19 outbreak is changing to a hub-based system from Monday 30, March.
To reduce the chances of COVID-19 spreading throughout the school community Cardiff Council will be keeping 12 schools open as childcare hubs while the rest will close. This will also enable the Council to concentrate on its cleaning, safe practice and social distancing protocols within the schools which remain open.
In order to ensure the transmission of COVID-19 is slowed or halted, key workers and the families of vulnerable learners are being told that school provision is only to be used once all other forms of child support have been exhausted. If it is at all possible for children to be safely cared for at home, then they should be.
Provision is still being prioritised for health and social care workers (including those working in homeless hostels and Outreach) and in the emergency services in the first instance.
A small number vulnerable children will also receive childcare provision.
However, the new hub arrangements will now also aim to accommodate wider categories of keyworkers, where possible.
Keyworkers in any other of the Welsh Government’s Keyworker categories, are asked to confirm with their employer that their specific role is ‘critical’ to business continuity in the provision of their essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to be eligible for hub based provision.
Only with this written confirmation will they be considered for hub-based provision and unfortunately, even with this confirmation, we cannot guarantee a place.
Any new requests for childcare provision, where parents and carers in keyworker categories have no other safe alternative, must be registered here:
www.cardiff.gov.uk/keyworkerchildcare
Once registered, parents will be contacted by the designated hub school to arrange admission, if possible, at the earliest possible opportunity, from Tuesday 31, March 2020.
Parents and carers who have accessed school-based childcare this week, will be given the opportunity to transfer their children into designated hub provision on Monday, March 30.
The hub model meets the needs of all pupils from 3-14 years who are registered in Cardiff’s school system, delivering primary and secondary provision in the medium of both English and Welsh.
The hubs will open from 8am – 5pm, five days per week, including holiday periods (with the exception of the Easter Bank Holiday). It will provide children with breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack.
Each hub will have at least one member of staff from each feeder school so that children will recognise a familiar face. The hubs will also deliver a host of age-relevant, skills-based activities.
