Publication - Advice and guidance
Coronavirus (COVID-19): organised activities for children
Guidance for the safe running of organised activities for children and young people.
Overview
On Tuesday 5 January 2021, mainland Scotland moved from Level 4 to a temporary Lockdown. We published updated guidance for this new lockdown period (updated 12 March 2021).
Background
This guidance is for organised unregulated activities and services provided indoors and outdoors for children and young people under 18 years, including babies and toddlers, by voluntary, third sector, parent / peer led or unregulated providersIt includes activities where parent/carers are present during the session to facilitate child interaction. This guidance has been updated to include maximum numbers and organised activities allowed at each level. No indoor organised activities are permitted at level 4.
This guidance is not for regulated childcare settings which are registered with the Care Inspectorate or other registration body. Those services should consult guidance for early learning and childcare, school age childcare, fully outdoor or childminding services.
When considering indoor activity, other delivery options should continue to be fully considered at this time including outdoor and online activity which minimises contacts and reduce risks of transmission. It sets out our expectations for organisations and individuals that do not fall within the sectors that guidance is currently available for.
Organisations and service providers need to consider mitigations to ensure workplaces are as safe as possible and the risk of virus transmission is minimised for both paid staff and volunteers.
Because of the complexity of this landscape of activity, it is not possible to disaggregate types of activity into particular sub-sectors. The venues, size, age ranges and type of activity vary even within specific types of activity.
Club sizes may range from very small clubs with a handful of children and 1 adult to much larger groups with children attending from multiple primary and secondary schools within a community and across a wide range of ages.
It will be up to each organisation or individual to assess whether this guidance applies to their activity and what additional guidance they may need to refer to, to ensure that activity is of sufficiently low risk to undertake at this time. This should be done after carrying out relevant risk assessments and reference to the most up to date guidance.
Where the activity you deliver is related to a private business, such as a private tutor, then the regulations for businesses must be read in conjunction with this guidance. COVID-19 guidance on small and micro businesses.
Where an activity is classed as youth work, COVID-19 guidance on youthwork has been developed.
- soft play providers guidance
- sporting activities covered by the Scottish Governing Bodies
- support services for mental health and other vulnerable groups guidance
Where we are now
The guidance is not an instruction for all services and activities to open up at this time, since this will be based on the requirements that need to be met, relevant to each individual delivery setting.
The maximum number of people who can take part in an organised activity for children and young people, that is unregulated and not covered by any other guidance, at any one time are capped for each protection level as set out in the Coronavirus (COVID-19): Strategic Framework update.
Recognising the particular needs of babies and toddlers, this guidance now sets out the maximum number of adults who can attend indoor parent/ baby and toddler groups and associated organised activities at any one time, where all children are under 5.
Some activities are still restricted based on additional advice from the Advisory sub group on Education and Children on singing, music and drama and more detail is provided in the relevant sections.
No indoor organised activities for children covered by this guidance are permitted at Level 4, but they can continue outdoors.
Other sector specific guidance
- COVID-19 remobilisation of maternity and neonatal services
- COVID-19 guidance reopening school age childcare services
- COVID-19 guidance for reopening early learning and childcare services
- COVID-19 guidance for reopening childminding services
- COVID-19 guidance for reopening fully outdoor childcare services
- COVID-19 Play Scotland Guidelines
- COVID-19 guidance on returning to work safely
- COVID-19 guidance on small and micro businesses
- COVID-19 Guidance Community Learning and Development
- COVID-19 guidance on youthwork
- COVID-19 route map guidance what you can and cannot do
- COVID-19 Social Work Guidance
- COVID-19 Softplay guidance
- COIVD-19 guidance on performing arts
- Coronavirus (COVID-19): multi-purpose community facilities - guidance - gov.scot