Shut all nurseries and early years settings during lockdown
103,176 people signed this petition to the UK Parliament after it opened on 5 January 2021; it closed on 5 July 2021. The Government responded on 26 January 2021. MPs debated it in Westminster Hall on 22 March 2021.
The petition
The petition's creator is not named in the Petitions site's published record. Quoted in full from the UK Parliament petitions site.
Shut all nurseries and early years settings during lockdown
Urgent call for the government to close all nurseries and early years settings in light of the new lockdown to protect early years staff.
The Government's response
The Government published its response on 26 January 2021; the petitions site lists the Cabinet Office as responsible. Its summary:
The wider restrictions in place as part of the national lockdown to contain the spread of the virus in the community enable us to continue prioritising keeping nurseries and early years settings open.
The opening 341 words of the 426-word response:
We continue to prioritise keeping early years settings open for three main reasons. Firstly early education gives children the communication and social skills which set them up for life. You cannot care for a very small child online and you can’t get those months back. Secondly, our PHE advice remains that young children are less susceptible to the virus and play a lower role in transmission, usually because young children have lower contact outside their household. And thirdly, the evidence at the moment is that the confirmed case rates of COVID amongst the very youngest children are the lowest of all age groups.
Keeping children and staff safe is our utmost priority. The reason schools have been restricted is not that they are unsafe but because additional measures are needed to contain the spread of the virus. The wider significant restrictions in place as part of the national lockdown to contain the spread of the virus in the community enable us to continue prioritising keeping nurseries and childminders open, supporting parents and delivering the crucial care and education needed for our youngest children.
Early years settings remain low risk environments for children and staff. Current evidence suggests that pre-school children (0<5 years) are less susceptible to infection and are unlikely to be playing a driving role in transmission. There is no evidence the new strain of the virus causes more serious illness in children and there is no evidence that the new variant of coronavirus (COVID-19) disproportionately affects young children.
PHE advice remains that the risk of transmission and infection is low if early years settings follow the system of controls, which reduce risks and create inherently safer environments.
Early years settings have been open to all children since 1 June 2020 and there is no evidence that the early years sector has contributed to a significant rise in virus cases within the community. Early modelling evidence from SAGE showed that early years provision had a smaller relative impact on transmission rate when modelled with both primary schools and secondary schools.
Read the full response on the petitions site.
Where the signatures came from
Signatures came from 650 constituencies on the boundaries used until the 2024 general election. The largest number, 497, came from Hemel Hempstead.
102,996 of the signatures were from the UK and 180 from elsewhere, by the location signers gave.
| Constituency | Signatures |
|---|---|
| Hemel Hempstead | 497 |
| West Ham | 477 |
| Poplar and Limehouse | 473 |
| Welwyn Hatfield | 468 |
| Kingston and Surbiton | 442 |
| Slough | 435 |
| Mid Sussex | 422 |
| Basingstoke | 414 |
| East Ham | 411 |
| Broxbourne | 407 |
| Region | Signatures |
|---|---|
| London | 21,235 |
| South East | 21,115 |
| East of England | 14,814 |
| North West | 8,935 |
| South West | 8,580 |
| West Midlands | 7,117 |
| East Midlands | 6,077 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 5,265 |
| North East | 3,081 |
| Wales | 1,589 |
| Northern Ireland | 684 |
| Scotland | 613 |
Debate in Parliament
MPs debated the petition in Westminster Hall on 22 March 2021. Read the debate in Hansard. House of Commons Library debate pack.
Source and receipt
- https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/566718.jsonUK Parliament Petitions API · read 2026-10-15 · SHA-256
db8b0d82fd10288d… - The petition on petition.parliament.uk
The petition's words are its creator's and the response is the Government's; this site quotes both and gives no view on either. Signature counts can still change while a petition is open. To report an error, send a correction request.