Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that covid-19 home testing kits are readily available in early years settings.
Answered by Vicky Ford
All education and childcare workers currently have prioritised access to testing alongside other essential workers.
Ensuring access to tests for all education and childcare staff is a key priority for our department and we are currently considering how we can improve all early years settings’ access to testing.
Further guidance on testing can be found in the ‘Actions for early years and childcare providers during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak’ guidance, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of covid-19 risk posed to nursery workers who have returned to work since 1 June 2020.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Keeping children and staff safe is the government’s utmost priority.
Settings must comply with health and safety law, which requires them to assess risks and put in place proportionate control measures. Public Health England is clear that the risk of transmission and infection is substantially reduced if nurseries and childminders implement the protective measures as set out in the ‘Actions for early years and childcare providers during the COVID-19 outbreak’ guidance. This guidance is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures.
Adults should minimise contact with each other while at work. However, in situations where social distancing between adults in settings is not possible (for example when moving around in corridors and communal areas), settings have the discretion to recommend the use of face coverings for adults on site, both staff and visitors.
We continue to keep this guidance under review as we learn more about COVID-19.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking with local authorities to ensure that children’s services are not adversely affected due to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Ensuring that vulnerable children remain protected is a top priority for the government.
The department has been working closely with local authorities to assess the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, setting up dedicated regional teams that are in frequent contact. Bringing together expertise from across the department, these teams monitor the challenges local authorities are facing. This includes any increases in demand and can provide support and guidance where appropriate.
We are also monitoring referrals to children’s services via our regional teams and via the Vulnerable Children and Young People survey, which collects data fortnightly from local authorities in England. As well as this, as part of a phased return to routine inspection, Ofsted are making assurance visits to children’s social care providers.
The government has provided an unprecedented package of support for vulnerable children, including:
We have also made temporary legislative changes to help reduce pressure on the system and enable children's services to continue to support vulnerable children during these unprecedented times.
Our latest guidance on supporting vulnerable children and young people during the COVID-19 outbreak is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-childrens-social-care-services.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance his Department has published for schools on (a) parents, (b) pupils and (c) teachers with covid-19 symptoms who are unable to access a covid-19 test.
Answered by Nick Gibb
All schools and further education colleges have been sent an initial supply of home testing kits that they can give directly to parents or carers collecting a child who has developed symptoms at school, or staff who have developed symptoms at school. These are for use where an individual is symptomatic and has significant barriers to accessing a test elsewhere, and where providing a test will therefore significantly increase the likelihood of them getting tested.
Guidance for schools and colleges has been published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-home-test-kits-for-schools-and-fe-providers/coronavirus-covid-19-home-test-kits-for-schools-and-fe-providers.
When a child, young person or staff member develops one or more of the symptoms of COVID-19 they should be sent home and advised that they must self-isolate in line with the Department’s guidance and encouraged to arrange a test. All staff and students attending an education or childcare setting have access to a test if they display symptoms of COVID-19 and are encouraged to get tested.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will issue guidance to schools (a) recommending that the six thinking hats technique is not used in schools and (b) noting the potential effect of identifying a black hat on unconscious negative bias relating to the use of the word black.
Answered by Nick Gibb
All state-funded schools in England have a duty to teach a broad and balanced curriculum that prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences of later life. Under the Equality Act 2010, schools must also not discriminate against a pupil in a number of respects because of a characteristic protected by the Act.
The Department trusts teachers to choose curriculum resources that are appropriate for their pupils and to ensure that how they deliver the curriculum does not discriminate. The Department has already published guidance to help schools fulfil their duties under the Act, which can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-2010-advice-for-schools. This includes advice on the Public Sector Equality Duty, which requires public bodies, including state-funded schools, to have due regard to the need to: foster good relations across all protected characteristics; advance equality of opportunity for people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it; and eliminate discrimination and other conduct prohibited by the Act. Additionally, the Independent Schools Standards requires independent schools to encourage respect for others, paying particular regard to the protected characteristics set out in the Act.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to support the families of pupils on free school meals during the school summer holidays in 2020 in Erith and Thamesmead constituency.
Answered by Vicky Ford
I refer the hon. Members to the answer I gave on 23 June 2020 to Question 54195.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the higher mortality risk from covid-19 among Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups, what guidance he is giving to schools on protecting staff and children from a BAME background and their families from covid-19; and what support he is giving to schools to enable them to implement that guidance.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We are aware that there is emerging evidence that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) individuals can be more severely affected than the general population by COVID-19. On 2 June, Public Health England published their review into disparities in the risk and outcomes of COVID-19, which included ethnicity. There is still much work to do to understand the key drivers of disparities, the relationships between the different risk factors and what we can do to reduce the impact. The Government is considering how the review and ongoing work on this issue should inform our approach. Schools should be especially sensitive to the needs and worries of BAME members of staff, BAME parents and BAME pupils, and consider if any additional measures or reasonable adjustments may need to be put in place to mitigate concerns.
We have provided detailed guidance on implementing protective measure in schools on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings.
This includes advice on approaches and actions schools should implement to create an inherently safer system, where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the covid-19 outbreak, what additional funding he is making available to schools to cover the costs of adapting premises to meet social distancing requirements.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We have made over £200 million in Devolved Formula Capital allocations available to schools for the financial year 2020-21. Schools can invest this in capital projects to meet their own priorities. There is, however, no expectation that schools carry out building works to adapt their premises to support social distancing.
We have published guidance on the additional funding we are providing to schools to cover unavoidable revenue costs incurred due to the COVID-19 outbreak that cannot be met from their existing resources. The fund is targeted towards the costs we have identified as the biggest barrier to schools operating as they need to at this challenging time.
The cost categories covered by the fund are clearly set out in the guidance – increased premises related costs of opening over school holidays; support for free school meals for eligible children who are not in school, where schools are not using the national voucher scheme; and additional cleaning costs relating to cases or suspected cases of COVID-19, above the cost of existing cleaning arrangements. Details are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-schools/school-funding-exceptional-costs-associated-with-coronavirus-covid-19-for-the-period-march-to-july-2020
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to (a) ensure that vulnerable children have access and contact with social workers during the covid-19 restrictions and (b) support teachers working in school who are the only point of contact outside the home for vulnerable children to maintain that contact.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Our latest guidance on supporting vulnerable children is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-vulnerable-children-and-young-people.
We are committed to ensuring the safety and protection of vulnerable children and young people, particularly during the current period. This is why education settings remained open for these children and local authorities are maintaining contact with them.
Children’s social care guidance states that we expect local authorities and social workers to make judgements about visiting vulnerable children. Within the statutory framework, they should prioritise children’s welfare as paramount, balancing the risks to children, the risks to families and risks to the workforce. There are many ways to keep in touch with a child, young person or family without physical face-to-face contact and it is expected that these will be utilised appropriately and proportionately in response to the risk assessment undertaken for the child on a case by case basis. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-childrens-social-care-services/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-local-authorities-on-childrens-social-care.
To ensure children and young people can maintain contact with a social worker, we are providing laptops and tablets to children with a social worker who do not have access to a device otherwise, either privately or through school. We are also providing 4G wireless routers to children with a social worker at secondary school in order to support them to maintain contact with their social worker and/or access remote education at home.
The department’s safeguarding guidance sets out that a school’s child protection policy should be updated to reflect the arrangements in place to keep children not physically attending safe, especially online, and how concerns about these children should be progressed. In addition, the advice sets out that the Designated Safeguarding Lead (or deputy) should provide support to teachers and pastoral staff to ensure that contact is maintained with children (and their families) who are not yet returning to school. The guidance is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-safeguarding-in-schools-colleges-and-other-providers/coronavirus-covid-19-safeguarding-in-schools-colleges-and-other-providers.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what adjustments will be made to exams taken in 2021 to account for lost contact time between staff and pupils as a result of the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We recognise that students who are studying GCSE, A level or equivalent courses, and are due to take exams and assessments in 2021, will have experienced disruption to their education. We are working with Ofqual and the awarding organisations to develop our approach to next year’s exams and assessments in light of this.