Winter Readiness Toolkit for Educational Settings

Welcome to the Educational Settings Winter Readiness site, from the South West Public Health England Centre, which has been hosted by our colleagues in NHS England and NHS Improvement South West.

Our tool kit is designed to help educational settings with planning and preparation for winter infections and outbreaks, and in outbreak investigation and management.

This year, we have added some new Covid-19 resources, as well as redesigning our resources on flu/other respiratory infections and viral gastroenteritis.  The resources are quick-reference documents, designed to be used as needed for your setting.

The toolkit complements the national guidance documents on the Gov.uk website COVID-19, influenza and viral gastroenteritis. In addition, there are a wealth of other resources and web links on the web sites of the various professional health and social care organisations.

Keeping infections out of your educational setting

Are you ready for winter?

• Find out with our PHE SW self-assessment checklist

Infection Prevention and Control Preparedness for Educational Settings PHE SW educational settings IPC checklist

• Immunisation:

PHE guidance on   Flu vaccination in schools

Resources for dealing with infections in your educational setting

• Spotty Book 2021 This has been produced by the Public Health England SW Health Protection Team and should serve as a very useful practical guide to recognizing and managing common infectious disease and outbreaks in schools and other childcare settings, including basic infection prevention and control measures. It links to the national guidance for more detail where appropriate.
• Acute Respiratory Infections in Educational Settings: Infection Control, Single Case and Outbreak Management Checklist – a checklist of what to do for single cases and outbreaks of respiratory illness (including COVID-19 and Influenza/flu)
• Flowchart: Guidance for Childcare and Educational Settings in the management of COVID-19: an easy access flowchart of what to do for possible and confirmed cases and outbreaks of COVID.
• Checklist (integrated Care Pathway) for Outbreaks of Diarrhoea and Vomiting in Schools/Nurseries– Infection Prevention and Control, Preparedness, Recognition and Management of Outbreaks.
• Health protection in schools and other childcare facilities: This is the national Public Health England Guidance on managing common infectious diseases in schools and other childcare settings.
• Exclusion table: this replaces the old school exclusion poster and advises on the time period that a child needs to be excluded from school if they have an infectious condition.
• E bug: gives lesson plans for primary and secondary schools on infection prevention & control and antibiotic resistance. A new COVID-19 page is also available.

Posters and Leaflets relevant for educational establishments

• “Catch it, Bin it, Kill it” poster
• Hand hygiene poster
• “Stop norovirus spreading this winter” leaflet
• See also PHE Campaign Resource Centre

Glossary

Are you wondering what HPT stands for, or what the CCG do? If so, have a look in the Glossary.

Need any more information or advice?

If you can’t find what you need on line, and think that we might know the answer, email swhpt@phe.gov.uk. This is for non-urgent enquiries. If we don’t know the answer, we may know someone else who does.

What do you think of our web page?

Are we hitting the mark? Please let us know how useful this toolkit is by completing our on-line survey.