EARLY years child carers have been praised for "stepping up to the challenge" during the coronavirus crisis.

Hundreds of key workers in Powys have been able to keep working during the pandemic thanks to the efforts of early years childcare providers to cover thousands of hours of childcare every week, councillors were told as a manager in the authority pointed to the unsung work they have done.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s health and care scrutiny committee on Wednesday, councillors received a briefing on how early years childcare settings have been running during the pandemic.

Early years childcare has been available at 29 settings in Powys from 8am to 6pm, seven days a week, to help people stay in work during the lockdown, with funding coming from the Welsh Government’s Childcare Assistance scheme which runs until June 18.

Joanna Harris, the council's strategic children’s programme manager, said childcare in Powys is "complex", with private nurseries, school-based nurseries and childminders all providing support, and that early years care should not be confused with the childcare hubs set up to support school-age children during the pandemic.

Ms Harris added: “The childcare workforce has stepped up to the challenge and we have had to deploy staff from settings which are closed to those that remain open so that we can deal with that demand.”

Responding to a question about whether the cost of cover would be supported by the Welsh Government, Ms Harris told the committee that the council had asked childcare providers in March whether they intended to stay open or close and put their staff on the furlough leave scheme during lockdown.

Ms Harris said: “Once we had that information we were able to go back to the Welsh Government with the block funding model and we booked the maximum number of spaces in each of the settings that remained open.”

They were then able to allocate children to their nearest open childcare setting and provide financial stability for the childcarers.

She said she anticipates that more childcare settings will shortly open and could start taking fee-paying children.

“But the funding for key worker or vulnerable children will remain the same,” added Ms Harris.

Last week, 5,841 hours of childcare were provided across the county and the early years childcare setting met their demand in full.

292 keyworkers have been supported by early years childcare provision.