A temporary day care set up by St Helens Council to provide provision for 13 key worker families has been hailed a success.
Located at Broad Oak Primary School,Parr, the day care – established by the council’s Early Help Service – ran from the end of March to the end of May, between the hours of 7:30am-6:00pm, to provide day care for children, aged six months to four years, whose parents were still required to go out to work during the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to providing provision for key workers children, staff also continued to support vulnerable families throughout this time. Praising the efforts of staff from the Early Help Service, which works together with children and families across the borough who might benefit from extra support, Councillor Sue Murphy, St Helens Council’s Cabinet Member for Developing Young People, said: “The provision enabled key workers to continue to provide essential support to the community, confident that their children were attending a high-quality, Ofsted registered setting. “To hear all the wonderful feedback from grateful parents on how Early Help Service staff, who are key workers themselves, have made a difficult time more bearable by providing care and comfort to their children, who have developed so much in such a short space of time, makes me very proud of the work that has gone on in children’s services as part of the council’s local response to the coronavirus pandemic.”
