Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to provide asymptomatic testing in early years settings, in line with the current roll-out in primary schools.

The Department is continuing to work closely with colleagues across Government and local authorities to secure the most effective approach to asymptomatic testing for the whole of the early years sector.

The Department is rolling out our asymptomatic testing programme to primary schools with deliveries of test kits which started from the week commencing 18 January 2021.

The asymptomatic testing programme will offer all primary school, schools-based nursery, and maintained nursery school staff home lateral flow device test kits for twice weekly testing. This will help to break the chains of transmission of COVID-19 in education settings by identifying asymptomatic positive cases. Those who test positive will then self-isolate, helping to reduce transmission of the virus.

Community testing programmes are currently being rolled out across the country. They are led by local authorities and provide asymptomatic testing through testing sites based in the local community. This testing is primarily focused on those who have to leave home to work during lockdown, with local authorities able to focus on the right people in their areas and decide how the testing is best delivered.

Early years staff, as critical workers, continue to have priority access to Department of Health and Social Care led symptomatic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing via the online portal: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-getting-tested.

The Department is having ongoing discussions about providing testing via the education testing programme as well as encouraging local authorities to consider prioritising appropriate testing for staff in private, voluntary and independent settings and childminders via the Community Testing Programme, which is being rolled out to all local authorities.