The Elizabeth Foundation's Family Centre

COVID-19 Coronavirus update

We are giving the ongoing COVID-19 Coronavirus situation our maximum attention, as we evaluate how to support families and operate as a charity through this uncertain period.

Our Senior Management Team meet regularly about the COVID-19 outbreak and ensure that they keep up-to-date with advice from the Government, especially in relation to our position as a provider of preschool nursery services for deaf children.

We regularly send out the latest information to parents and we have put signage around the building reminding everyone to remain vigilant about health and hygiene. Our team is following the guidance from the Government, as specified in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Policy.

We are continuously reviewing all of our activities and fundraising events in light of the COVID-19 outbreak and in line with official advice.

We remain absolutely committed to all our families and will continue to support them during these unprecedented times.

Educational services

Summer Term 2021

We welcomed children back into the Baby, Toddler and Preschool classrooms at our Family Centre at the start of the Summer term on 19 April 2021. We have implemented a wide range of measures to lessen risk for children, parents, staff and volunteers – as specified in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Policy.

In line with the latest Government Guidance, children are permitted to attend more than one setting, as long as all settings are happy with arrangements and each setting had a COVID-19 Risk Assessment in place.

Spring Term 2021

In early January 2021, the R factor continued to rise across the country, with rapid increases in the number of people testing positive for COVID-19. Combined with the increased ease of transmission and the distances our families travel to attend, we made the reluctant decision to move to remote learning from 5 January 2021. We did not take this decision lightly, but the safety of parents, children, staff and volunteers was our utmost priority

Although the government has announced its plans that all primary and secondary schools were opening from 8 March 2021, travel restrictions were still in place until 29 March 2021.  As our service is unique and families travel to our services from across the South of England, we made the difficult decision to continue with our remote teaching and online support until after the Easter 2021 holidays. Our main priority is to keep everyone safe and well. With people travelling distances and parents staying in baby, toddler and Listen groups, we felt this cautious approach for re-opening face-to-face services was the safest option  for everyone – children, parents, staff and volunteers.

Autumn Term 2020

We fully restarted face-to-face provision of our Baby, Toddler and Preschool nurseries on 7 September 2020, with a wide range of measures in place to lessen risk for children, parents, staff and volunteers. We also restarted our Listen! groups.

Summer Term 2020

After careful consideration of official advice, consultation with parents, and extensive discussions amongst staff/trustees, we re-started face-to-face provision of our Preschool nurseries on 8 June 2020, and our Toddler and Baby nurseries from 15 June 2020, on a reduced capacity basis.

Spring Term 2020

In light of government COVID-19 regulations announced on 17 March 2020, we closed the nurseries for face-to-face learning at The Elizabeth Foundation from the end of 20 March 2020. We continued to provide support, education and therapy for our children and families, keeping in regular contact with all parents of children attending our nurseries, providing learning activities for use at home and other support and advice.

Let’s Listen and Talk online learning and support programme

From 26 March 2020 we waived all fees until further notice for our online Let’s Listen and Talk programme so that families who need it at the current time can benefit from our advice, information and guidance.

Summer Residential Programme 2021 – cancelled

The dramatic rise in the number of daily cases, particularly of the Delta variant, during June-July 2021 has placed The Elizabeth Foundation in a position that we now have to make a responsible decision about whether the Summer Residential Programme planned for 26-30 July 2021 could safely go ahead in the current circumstances. Bearing in mind the growing numbers of people/children that are being asked to self-isolate, either after testing positive or being in close contact with someone who has tested positive, we have very reluctantly taken the decision to cancel the 2021 Summer Programme.

We have taken this decision after much deliberation and consideration of the available facts. But our primary concern is to keep everyone safe and secure in these difficult times. With the sharp rise in numbers, we have sadly been left with no other options. The health, safety and well-being of all our children, families, staff and volunteers is paramount to our decision-making towards mitigating risk.

Although we have cancelled our Summer Residential Programme 2021, we plan to be back next year for our Summer Programme 2022. If you have a deaf child aged 3 to 5 years old and are interested in attending our 2022 Summer Residential Programme, please contact us.

Fundraising events

Our fundraising team are prepared to hit the ground running, with events already in the pipeline for the eventual lifting of restrictions later in 2021.

It is also now looking likely that some mass participation events towards the end of 2021, including the Great South Run, will take place. Please check with the event organisers for the latest updates.

Outdoor UK challenge events

With ongoing uncertainties over international travel, we are offering a range of UK-based outdoor fundraising challenges in partnership with leading company Charity Challenge on our events page although some are currently on-hold or being re-arranged for dates later in 2021. These challenges range from tackling Ben Nevis in the Scottish Winter to a marathon distance trek between the 10 London Royal Parks from Richmond to Greenwich. Please note that the availability of these challenges may be affected by the ongoing pandemic – please check the COVID-19 advisory on the Charity Challenge website and their COVID-19 UK Challenge FAQs for further details.

Supporting our event fundraisers

Over the last year, in line with guidance and risk assessment around travel restrictions, social distancing and helping to keep our wonderful supporters, staff, volunteers and beneficiaries safe at the present time, we have unfortunately not been able to come along to support and celebrate individuals/groups undertaking sponsored events for us. Despite this, we hope that all our fundraisers will know that they are still very much in our thoughts and that we truly appreciate their efforts. We also remain happy to share (with permission) any photos and information on social media. We hope to be able to come along to cheer you on soon!

Further information

Read our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Policy.

We will aim to keep this page updated with any changes, but for the latest updates and information please follow us on Twitter or Facebook or contact us.

Page last updated: 14 July 2021
Page created: 16 March 2020

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