England Local Tiers – Take 2

Archived – None Current Information

Last updated 30.12.2020

As of 02.12.2020, the national lockdown in England ended. This has been replaced with a tiered system, which has similarities to the one that was previously in place. More information from the central government can be accessed here.

You are able to check which tier your centre, home, or any other place is in by clicking on this link. Alternatively, the downloadable list below was correct on the date shown, on the document.

Child Contact Services can continue to operate, in a covid secure way, maintaining the safety measures previously implemented.

Contact centres are exempt from restrictions relating to meeting indoors, with the following exemptions, across all tier levels:

for arrangements where children do not live in the same household as both their parents or guardians

gov.uk (26.11.2020)

to allow contact between birth parents and children in care, as well as between siblings in care

gov.uk (26.11.2020)

for work, or providing voluntary, or charitable services, including in other people’s homes

gov.uk (26.11.2020)

This document has been provided to offer information about the new tiered system that will come into force on the 2^nd December.

All businesses and venues that are open are expected to follow COVID-19 secure guidelines to protect families, visitors, and workers.

Regardless of which tier your centre is placed into:

• People must wear a face covering in most indoor public settings unless they have an exemption.
• People should follow the rules on meeting others safely
• Children should attend school or college as normal unless they are self-isolating. Schools, universities, colleges, and early years settings remain open in all tiers
• People should walk or cycle where possible, plan ahead and avoid busy times and routes when traveling
• Everyone who can work from home should do so. Where people cannot do so – including but not limited to, people who work in critical national infrastructure, construction, or manufacturing – they should continue to travel to their workplace. Public-sector employees working in essential services, including education settings, should continue to go into work where necessary
• Public buildings, such as libraries, community centres, and halls. They should not host events for private hire, such as birthday parties or most other social activities in tier 3

Tier 1 – Medium Alert

Tier 2 – High Alert

Tier 3 – Very High Alert

Tier 4 – Stay at Home

Parents can still take their children to school, and people can continue existing arrangements for contact between parents and children where they live apart.

gov.uk – 19.12.2020

FAQ’s and helpful snippets

House of Commons Library – Coronavirus: Separated Families and Contact with Children in Care FAQ’s

Click the download button below to view FAQ’s published by the House of Commons Library on 21.12.2020.

This paper addresses the following points:

• Can children move between the homes of separated parents
• Rules regarding children required to self-isolate 
• Requirements to self-isolate when returning from abroad
• How should parents comply with a court-orders for contact?
• How are child maintenance payments impacted?
• Can I visit my child in care/residential home?
• My child contact centre is closed: What alternatives are being made?
• Where can I go for help and advice?

I share parental responsibility for a child with someone I don’t live with – can I still see them?

Where parental responsibility is shared, existing arrangements can continue and the child can move between both parents, and therefore between both parents’ households (and support bubbles where relevant).

My child does not live with me but there are regular arrangements in place so we can continue to have contact with each other – can these arrangements continue?

Yes – for children who do not live in the same household as their parents and have existing arrangements in place to visit and safely have contact, these arrangements can continue. This could include children in foster care, children’s homes and adoptive placements.

Updated Information – The media are reporting a new strand of Covid-19. It seems that this variant is more contagious than previously and that it can spread differently in terms of children and young people. We are committed to the safety of people using child contact centres.

We are recommending that people do not travel to or from Tier 4 areas, for the purpose of using child contact centres if you do not usually live in this area. This guidance will be reviewed regularly, and it is planned that this will be relaxed once more is known.  This guidance is not intended for those managing their own contact arrangements outside of a contact centre.

Can wider family members come to (supervised) contact sessions, when this takes the total number of participants to 6 or 7 (not including staff)?

The government issued new guidance, which says there are exemptions to the rules of meeting indoors for “for arrangements where children do not live in the same household as both their parents or guardians”.

It seems likely that the above statement is intended to include various wider family members. However, as has been the case throughout, the guidance is far from precise and certainly open to interpretation. 

Therefore, we would encourage you to make an assessment of what you think best. I have included some thoughts below:

• Is the resident parent in agreement with this happening?
• Could a contact session of 7 be overwhelming for the children the session is based around?
• Would this session be in the best interests of the children, or the parent? It should only be considered if in the best interests of the children. 
• How would you observe a contact session with 6 participants and ensure you do not miss things? I think you might need to consider having 2 staff present?
• If you did have 2 staff present, this takes you up to 8 people and adds another household to the mix. 
• Do you have a room big enough for 8 people, ideally allowing for the social distancing of the two staff from each other, and the family, whilst allowing them to still remain within sight and sound of the children (assuming this is supervised contact)?
• Are there any implications for your covid risk assessment policies? A lot of people in one room, airflow, cleaning, moving large groups through the building. 

So, in summary, it’s not possible to define the government context, into this scenario because of the way it’s written. However, there are lots of reasons why it probably isn’t a good plan to do this right now. I think I would be inclined to consider this in the new year when hopefully risk levels will be lower and the rollout of vaccinations will have commenced.

Tiers 1-3 – Can people travel from one area to another to use a contact centre?

Yes. People can travel to maintain contact with their children. Assessments should be made about the appropriateness of this, and centres are strongly advised to:

• Have covid secure measures in place at the centre.
• Ensure people are fit and well before they travel.
• Promote planning ahead to avoid busy times.
• Promote avoiding public transport.
• Encourage the wearing of face masks whilst travelling (particularly on public transport).
• Consider the safety of people in higher-risk groups (children, family, wider family & staff).
• Consider alternatives, if needed, like virtual contact.

Tier 4 – Can people travel from one area to another to use a contact centre?

You should not travel into a Tier 4 area from another part of the UK, other than for reasons such as:

• travel to work where you cannot work from home
• travel to education and for caring responsibilities
• to visit (including staying overnight with) those in your support bubble – or your childcare bubble for childcare
• to attend hospital, GP and other medical appointments or visits where you have had an accident or are concerned about your health

Therefore, people can travel for the purposes of child contact. However, individual centres will make their own assessments on this, which should consider the risks to children, families and staff. Centres may reasonably conclude that it is not appropriate to facilitate this in the short term.

Updated Information –

The media are reporting a new strand of Covid-19. It seems that this variant is more contagious than previously and that it can spread differently in terms of children and young people. We are committed to the safety of people using child contact centres.

We are recommending that people do not travel to or from Tier 4 areas, for the purpose of using child contact centres if you do not usually live in this area. This guidance will be reviewed regularly, and it is planned that this will be relaxed once more is known.  This guidance is not intended for those managing their own contact arrangements outside of a contact centre.

I live in elsewhere in the UK but child contact is in England, can I still travel?

Anyone who is in England, whether resident or travelling here, is bound by English Government Rules. However, travelling to a destination in England for Child Contact is a reasonable excuse to leave home, regardless of the Tier you live in or travel to.

Which tier is my centre in?

You can check which tier your centre, home or any other location is in, here.

Do children, parents, staff, or volunteers have to wear face coverings?

We have received an inquiry about face coverings so thought this might be a good opportunity to confirm some of the information shared and discussed via our ‘Coffee Shop’ members forum over the past few months.

• Government guidelines should be followed, that are relevant to the area local to your contact centre.
• Once you have considered local government guidelines, you should think about completing a risk assessment relevant to your centre.
• The two above would help you to come to a conclusion about facemasks.

We would advise taking an overly cautious approach here and promoting the wearing of facemasks for as many people within contact centres as possible, particularly when moving around the building.

Children are usually exempt from rules relating to masks and it is not difficult to imagine that having a face-covering might be quite distressing for them. Therefore, any risk assessment made by centres should take this into account and individual assessments might need to happen for individual children.

Some parents might be exempt or might say that they are exempt. They might or might not have some kind of proof of this or you might know of a condition that would make them exempt. For these people, it is strongly recommended that an individual assessment is written specifically in relation to their needs and any vulnerabilities they might have in order to ascertain whether it is considered safe for them and everyone else for them to be in the centre without a face covering.

There are potential ethical issues about asking someone to prove that they do or do not have a disability that might make them exempt from wearing face masks, which can make it difficult to reach a conclusion in line with the guidance in this article. In some cases, we might be best placed to take their word for it.

However, there are schemes running across the UK, whereby people can access lanyards to evidence this. More information about an example of this can be found here. However, there is a cost associated and there seems nothing to stop anyone from joining regardless of vulnerability levels.

Once an approach has been adopted, it is advisable to make this as clear as possible for all families. You might want to consider a temporary set of rules, or rules specific to Covid. You might consider adding Covid specific content to contact agreements when you set these up or review these. Covid agreements should always be discussed at pre-visit and any opportunity before this. It’s also a good idea to have reminder posters at the centre. As with everything related to Covid, the science is constantly changing, and therefore so is the advice, therefore it is advisable to monitor local government guidance and to ensure that a centres approach can adapt to this in a streamlined way. 

Want Updates?

Keep checking back here for updates, as things change we will continue to update the information we provide. This page was last updated 30.12.2020