I live in Lewisham in South East London where my two-year-old daughter attends a local nursery. She loves everything about it – arts & crafts, reading books, playing with her friends, and the wonderful care she gets from the dedicated staff there. But those very staff are putting themselves in the path of Covid-19 daily and need our help to get prioritised for vaccines.

While schools have been told to close, nurseries have been told to stay open. Though under-5s are thought to catch and transmit the virus less readily, staff are regularly exposed to coronavirus when commuting to work on public transport and liaising with colleagues and parents. Some staff are high risk or have household members who are, and many are BME putting them at greater risk of dying. Staff say they feel vulnerable and scared.

Vaccinating nursery staff is also an economic issue. If a nursery must shut down due to a positive case, parents will have to keep their children at home while also having to work. Childcare is disproportionately done by mums meaning women are more likely to be furloughed thus reducing their income, and potentially putting them first in line for redundancy. This will undo decades of hard-won progress for women in the workplace.

In addition, because nursery staff are not yet vaccinated, they have to take a quick-turnaround test every week yet are having to travel to do so – rather than taking tests onsite – which further exposes them to the virus on the bus and in the testing queue.

Nursery staff do not deserve to feel undervalued by the society they so selflessly serve. Please join our call for the country’s brave and tireless nursery staff to be prioritised for the vaccine.