Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to provide additional time to nurseries to enable them to comply with the guidance published by his Department on 22 April 2020 on furloughing staff.

The government has put in place a number of funding and financial measures to support organisations – both public and private – during the COVID-19 outbreak. These are intended to be temporary, timely and targeted, to support public services, people and businesses through this period of disruption. They include the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which is a temporary scheme for all entities with a UK payroll and is in place for 4 months starting from 1 March 2020, but it may be extended if necessary and employers can use this scheme at any time during this period.

Guidance on how early years providers are able to access the CJRS is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-education-early-years-and-childrens-social-care/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-education-early-years-and-childrens-social-care.