New data portal to track impact of coronavirus on early years sector
By Rachel Lawler
Early years providers are being asked to help track the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the sector using a new .
Independent researcher Ceeda will record whether or not a setting is operating and how many children are attending if it is.
The tracker hopes to provide an up-to-date picture of the sector as well as information on what support providers need both during the crisis and afterwards to help rebuild in the future.
All settings, including registered childminders, nurseries and pre-schools in England are invited to register on the portal.
Funded by the Alliance, CACHE, Connect Childcare and Bertram Nursery Group, Ceeda hopes to shine a light on the early years sector and the vital role it is playing in the national response to the coronavirus crisis.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance said: 鈥淭o date, much of the public focus on the childcare sector during the coronavirus outbreak has been around the negative impact of closures and fees on parents. As such, we're pleased that the Covid Portal will provide much-needed accurate data on provider activity, and in turn, ensure that we have a realistic and fair picture of exactly how much support the early years sector is providing during this difficult period, and - equally importantly - how much support we ourselves will need to be able to recover from this crisis.
鈥淐rucially, this data will be real-time, meaning that it will be able to keep up with what is a rapidly-changing situation. We are very pleased to support the launch of this portal and urge every single provider to register.鈥