A CAMPAIGNING councillor was moved to tears by the plight of early years’ workers who feared distancing themselves from children could damage their mental health.

Lib Dem Beth Hooper is now at the forefront of a campaign pressing the Government to prioritise childcare staff in the coronavirus vaccination rollout.

Concerns have been raised that staff – who continue to work on through the pandemic – have been sidelined for the vaccine despite working with children who don’t understand social distancing.

Ms Hooper wrote to MP Sir David Amess urging him to lobby the Government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination to vaccinate all nursery and childcare workers as a matter of urgency.

After reading posts from early years’ workers who refuse to social distance from children over fears of damaging their mental health, Ms Hooper wrote to Sir David.

She said: “The reason I started this off was because I kept seeing really brave people saying ‘there’s was no way I’m socially distancing from a child’ and it actually made me cry.

“I had this vision of all these people who know it will damage children’s mental health if they’re rejected so are risking their lives, but with less PPE and with no knowledge of when they’re getting the vaccine and no data set following them.

“If a little baby comes up to you and throws their arms around you, you don’t push them away and explain social distancing.

“So in effect they’re more in danger. It’s a much more serious transmission there.

“Children don’t socially distance. So in effect we really should have been watching the early years more tightly than the senior schools because you can keep a distance.”

Ms Hooper stressed that she understands the importance of protecting all school staff, but wants the same protection afforded to early year workers.

She added: “All educators are important and I’m not dismissing that secondary and primary schools need the vaccine too.

“But I do know from working through different age ranges that early years need protecting.

“No early years practitioner will in any way ever reject a child so its kind of like these people who do great work for us who are often not valued to the same extent as teachers are and what I am afraid of is that when the dust settles and we can look at the data we are going to see that these people are not going to have been kept safe at all.”

The number of early years providers reporting cases of coronavirus has more than doubled. In the week commencing January 4 2021, there were 1,267 reports of positive cases – up from 582 the week before.

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance said: “As the only part of the education sector asked to remain open to all families, it is absolutely vital that the early years is given the practical support it needs to ensure that those working in the sector can remain as safe as possible during the pandemic.

“As such, we welcome this call by Southend councillors, and hope that those in other areas will look to follow suit.

“With new evidence emerging that vaccinations may not only prevent serious illness but also reduce the spread of the virus, it is more important than ever that the Government ensures that those working on the frontline in nurseries, pre-schools and childminding settings are given this vital protection.”

Lib Dem councillor Paul Collins added: “Some of these nursery workers aren’t young themselves and they feel fairly vulnerable but they feel they have a duty to do this because otherwise these children would be at home and these key workers wouldn’t be able to work.