Hillingdon Council supports home self-testing service for households with schoolchildren

With pupils welcomed back to the classroom, a new 'community collect' home-test service has opened to households with children of primary school, secondary school and college age, as well as school staff and those providing childcare and in support bubbles. 

The testing kits - available to order online, or to collect from local testing centres - will enable parents, family members and those in support bubbles to test themselves twice a week and self-isolate faster if they test positive. 

Children in secondary school or college will be supplied with home tests by their school, once they have completed their three supervised tests. The same applies to staff members and schools will make contact independently to organised these. 

Collecting your testing kits is easy and can be done in any of the following three ways: 

1. Book online to have a supply of kits delivered.  
2. Collect your kits from the Topping Lane PCR test site near Brunel University, found at Topping Lane Car Park, Uxbridge, UB8 2TF. There's no need to book, simply turn up. 
3. Collect some kits from one of the council's seven community testing sites located in Hayes, Uxbridge, Harlington, Northwood, South Ruislip, Sipson and Harefield. 

To find out more, visit our webpage to check availability, or book a collection slot. 

Everyone plays their part

Testing continues to be a vital part of our response to coronavirus (COVID-19), to help us discover more cases and break the chains of transmission. It's important to make sure that each positive COVID-19 case is found as quickly as possible. Despite more and more people in Hillingdon getting their vaccinations, everyone still has a part to play in keeping the virus under control, while also helping keep children and young people in school. 

Around one in three people with coronavirus show no symptoms and are potentially spreading it without knowing. So targeted, regular testing will mean more positive cases within households can be found and prevented from entering schools and colleges, helping to keep educational settings safe. 

Rapid testing detects cases quickly - in under 30 minutes - meaning positive cases can isolate immediately. This can be the difference between children being able to stay in school, or a class being sent home due to an outbreak. It could also be the difference between a workplace having to close temporarily or staying open. 

Cllr Ian Edwards, Leader of Hillingdon Council said: "The community collect service will be key in helping us to prevent the spread of COVID-19.  

"Households with school-aged children can play their part by taking these simple, easy and painless tests twice a week. This will help us detect cases where someone is without symptoms and could have otherwise gone unnoticed, potentially spreading the virus and possibly causing a school or workplace to close. 

"With children back in school, this programme makes testing easy and convenient. It will help support their education, which is vital, by detecting cases early, while also helping reduce the spread of the virus in our communities." 

Residents can collect up to two boxes, each containing seven kits and will need to test twice a week. You can share your results online - instructions are included in the test kit - or by phoning 119. 

To speed up our recovery from the pandemic, it's important for everyone to play their part with by regular testing, continuing to follow the guidelines of 'hands, face, space', getting tested quickly if you have COVID-19 symptoms, and self-isolating when required.