Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the need for early years teachers to be provided with personal protective equipment during the covid-19 outbreak.

COVID-19 related Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) use will be very limited for staff in schools, colleges, and nurseries. Most staff will not require PPE beyond what they would normally need for their work. Additional PPE for COVID-19 is only required in a very limited number of scenarios, for example:

• When an individual child, young person, or student becomes ill with COVID-19 symptoms and only then if a 2 metre distance cannot be maintained
• When performing aerosol generating procedures

Appropriate PPE for any staff involved in delivering asymptomatic testing for COVID-19 onsite in secondary schools and colleges is also delivered to schools, colleges and nurseries along with onsite testing kits.

Many schools, nurseries and colleges will be able to access PPE for their COVID-19 needs via their local authority or local resilience forum. Further information on local arrangements can be found on gov.uk.