Nurseries have been reassuring parents about the safety measures in place as they return to childcare settings today.
The early years sector is among the first to reopen to children, along with specific primary school year groups.
Among them are the Kids Planet and Kids Allowed nurseries - which make up the UK's third largest nursery chain - and Salford nursery chain Kidzrus, which has five sites across the city.
While the former kept 25 out of its 52 sites open across the region to care for nearly 1,000 key worker children during lockdown, Kidzrus had to close altogether.
Now both are back up and running and while they don't yet have the numbers they had pre-coronavirus, they are hoping more will return over the coming weeks.
Ahead of today's reopening all Kidzrus sites were all deep cleaned by Vaxinol Services, who performed a disinfectant service indoors and outdoors to each nursery at the weekend.
Ongoing safety measures that have been introduced include separate entry and exit points, clear social distance markings and children put into smaller groups.
Despite the necessary sterile environment and restrictions, staff are reassuring parents that their children will still receive the same care and attention as they did before.
Nicola Fleury, director of Kidzrus Nursery Ltd, said: "Parents are assured that if a child needs a cuddle or reassuring, we will be providing the same high level of care and attention to help them to settle as we have always done.
"Children are extremely resilient, but when in familiar surroundings and with the same consistent staff team we are able to provide that level of support to safeguard every child and reassure parents and staff during these unprecedented times."
She says children will be enjoying outdoor play as much as possible, with those at the Swinton site, in Manchester Road, able to enjoy the new forest school that's just been completed there.
"We will be outdoors as much as possible and fortunate we have lovely weather," she said. "We have made the necessary adaptations within the settings but not changed too much.
"We promote regular hand washing and good hygiene for both staff and children."
PPE is being used in the usual way for childcare settings, with more 'robust PPE' only necessary should a child become unwell on the premises.
Toys from home are not allowed, including buggies and ride-ons. Sand pits have been covered and additional reading areas created.
Hand sanitisers, tissues, wipes and gels have been strategically placed around the nursery premises and each staff member has their own individual pack containing a pen, note pad, tissues, wipes and hand sanitiser.
Nicola added: "In addition to the safety measures we have implemented, we are following the government guidelines and continuously applying lots of common sense.
"We appreciate every parent's decision is individual and circumstances are very different for each family, we respect and understand the decision is not an easy one to make.
"However we have worked tirelessly to implement the safety measures with detailed risk assessments and we want to welcome our children and parents into a safe and familiar environment.
"It will take some time before we are back to where are we were prior to the closures, but we are delighted to open all five Kidzrus nurseries today and do what we do best, safeguard and care for our wonderful children and continue to support our families."
At Kids Planet and Kids Allowed, attendance numbers are at 35 to 40% of what they were pre-lockdown.
Practical steps they have taken include parents dropping off children outside nurseries to limit the number of people inside, putting children in smaller groups and dividing rooms into areas so children are cared for by the same member of staff throughout the day.
Clare Roberts, CEO at Kids Planet and Kids Allowed, said: “We’ve had amazing support from our colleagues, parents and the communities we operate in. Our committed team has worked tirelessly to prepare for more children returning into our care this week. We feel like we’re well placed for reopening because many of our sites have remained open throughout lockdown to look after the children of frontline workers.
“Our priority is to look after our team and children in order to provide duty of care which adheres to - and in our case exceeds - staff-to-child ratios and creates a safe and enriching learning environment for children."
Has your child returned to nursery today? Are you confident about the changes that have been made? Share your views in the comments, or on our Manchester Family Facebook page.
