Summary
This guidance aims to encourage and support local authorities and other providers of schools and children's services in planning for a human influenza (flu) pandemic. It provides brief background on pandemic flu and its potential implications for schools and children's services. It outlines the role of government and local arrangements for responding to a pandemic, consistent with the Influenza Pandemic Contingency Plan and the core guidance on Scottish arrangements for emergency planning and response set out in " Preparing Scotland".
All those responsible for planning or managing services should plan for pandemic flu as part of their normal planning for responding to any emergency or 'business continuity' planning, and the Scottish Executive recognises that many organisations are already very active in terms of preparing for a pandemic.
This guidance explains why, for medical and child welfare reasons, schools, nurseries and group childcare settings might be an exception to the general 'business as normal' message that underpins our guidance to other sectors. It recommends that local authorities, schools, nurseries and childcare providers should plan both for operating during a pandemic and for the possible closure to children of schools and childcare services if the Executive proposes such closure for medical and child welfare reasons. Such decisions about whether to close will be taken at a national level. On the basis of national advice from the Executive and a framework of public health advice, local authorities will take decisions about when, and for how long.
The guidance sets out the processes that we would use to get information to local authorities, and other providers of schools, nurseries and children's services, via Strategic Co-ordinating Groups ( SCG's).
The guidance stresses the importance of reviewing plans regularly as there may be too little time immediately before the arrival of a pandemic to review plans and take necessary action.
Using this guidance
In order to help you develop and implement your plans for a possible flu pandemic, we recommend that everyone who is responsible for providing or operating schools or children's services should read Chapter 1, which sets out the general context, lines of responsibility and communications channels. You should also all take note of Annex A, which provides links to a wide range of other sources of information and guidance.
Each of Chapters 2-5 is relevant to specific services: schools (Ch 2); group childcare, early years settings and childminders (Ch 3); Children's Residential Units (Ch 4); other Local authority children's services ( e.g. children's centres, statutory youth services etc) (Ch 5). Click on the relevant entry in the index above to go to that part of the guidance.
Wherever we use the term 'parents' in this guidance, this should be read as referring to everyone with parental responsibility for a child, including social workers of looked after children, as well as foster carers or other carers.
Some brief information for parents and carers is also available on the Executive's website.
This guidance is for Scotland only, although it has been produced through joint working with other Education and Health Departments across the UK to achieve appropriate consistency. Parallel guidance is being issued by the Department for Education and Skills in England and the Welsh Assembly Government, and the Department of Education Northern Ireland is consulting on draft guidance. The Executive recognises that this initial guidance will need to be updated periodically to take account of ongoing planning and development and any improved intelligence about a human pandemic. As such, we would also welcome any constructive feedback or comment on the contents of this document, and these should be sent by e-mail to EYP Flu Comments.