Covid-19: Educational Settings

Baroness Barker Excerpts

Thursday 7th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Department for International Trade (Baroness Berridge) (Con)]

My Lords, first, I pay tribute to all the staff who are making provision available to pupils in our schools and to those who are remote learning. In response to the questions asked by the noble Lord, Lord Watson, first, in relation to for the timing of the decision to close schools, obviously we made it very clear that that would be a last resort. The pace of the spread of the disease was such that, unfortunately, decisions could not necessarily be made as timeously as we would have liked.

For exams, there cannot be a plan B, because the department is working on a number of contingency plans. The disease means that the circumstances presented can be varied. Those contingency plans form the basis of the consultation that Ofqual will set out. We are aware that parents, children and schools need certainty as soon as we can provide it, but Ofqual must first conduct a valid consultation, which will take weeks rather than months.

In relation to online provision, strengthened guidance and direction has been given to schools on the number of hours per day they need to deliver, their accountability, and their monitoring daily to see whether students are engaging with it. We have spent more than £300 million on digital support for online learning, and we have provided considerable support to schools themselves, linking some schools to other schools that were very good at such online provision, and were using technology before the Covid crisis. We have funded schools’ access to either Microsoft Education or Google Classroom, and more than 2 million accounts have been opened. Schools have been enabled to deliver this, which is why the direction is now in place.

By the end of next week, more than 750 million laptops will have been delivered to schools and children. It is not possible for officials in the department to identify the children who need the laptops: that is a job for schools, which know their pupils better than anybody. And yes, a contextual decision can be made by head teachers: if to access to a device or connectivity are a significant problem for a child, the head teacher and school leadership have the discretion to make a place available to that child. But, with the provision that I have just outlined, we do not expect that to involve thousands of children.

BTECs were not an afterthought. The examination and assessment system for BTECs is a rolling system, and when the decision was made to close schools we were aware that, unlike for GCSEs and A-levels, the content for certain of those assessments had already been taught, and children were about to sit the exams this week. Some of those exams are a pathway into work, so we tolds colleges that we would allow them to decide—in consultation with students, obviously, particularly those who needed that assessment to enter the next occupational stage. So it was right to give colleges that discretion.

The early years sector remains fully open, including maintained nurseries and nursery provision within school premises. The data that I have says that children from 0 to five years old are the lowest of all the cohorts in our population for the presence of Covid, and there is no evidence that these settings are a vector of transmission. Early years settings are educational settings, and we have learned more and more over the years about how essential that stage is for very young children. Also, that is one type of education that cannot be delivered remotely, so it is important that those settings remain open.

As for the points raised by the noble Lord, Lord Storey, the expert group on differential learning will still be in place, and that information will be available to the department and to Ofqual. As I have said, there is no evidence of any more of a risk of the disease within school settings. This is really about limiting the number of contacts; they reflect community transmission, and we had to close schools to limit those contacts.

The noble Lord mentioned vulnerable children and the pupils who need teaching the most—disadvantaged children—and their access to the online curriculum. For them it is essential that there be a means of redress if parents raise questions, although of course we expect them to talk to the class teacher and the head teacher about the provision first. Overwhelmingly, schools are doing a wonderful job, but there are certain situations in which, if provision is not good enough, pupils and their parents should have a means of redress. So Ofsted will conduct monitoring visits, and can make a monitoring visit to any grade of school if there is a basis on which to go in because of the quality of remote education.

We are aware that a number of homes rely on the mobile phone network to access broadband for children to access the education curriculum remotely. I pay tribute to a number of major mobile phone networks, which we have worked with. For parents who rely on this, we have arranged for the data cap to be lifted to a level that enables children to access the amount of remote education specified in the direction—either three, four or five hours. It will be lifted every month, on the basis that that additional limit gives those children access. We cannot guarantee what families then do with it, but that is the formula that we have arranged with many mobile phone companies.

As the Secretary of State made clear, there should be some training and support for teachers for the exams. Whether there is a form of moderation is a matter for the consultation. As I have said, there will be issues to do with differential learning loss.

Free school meals are available. The eligibility criteria have not changed. As many noble Lords know, sometimes there is a lag with the census figures used for funding, but this is flexible. We have recommended that schools make food parcels and local vouchers available, not only because the catering suppliers need their business but because they have purchased food. We do not want food waste as a result of schools being closed. However, if those two means do not work, we will have some form of national voucher scheme, but it is important that caterers that were anticipating delivering school meals should use that food, if at all possible.

Settings for alternative provision are open on the same basis. It depends, as some children are dual-registered with their mainstream school still and are under the responsibility of the local authority. Local authorities also have a responsibility for children’s social care.

I had not noticed anything to do with the portal, but schools guidance, including the remote information I have outlined, is up. There is an edtech part of that site, which I encourage noble Lords to look at, because it is easily accessible and all secondary schools and about half of primaries can order more laptops through that site. In relation to catch-up funding, £650 million is going directly to schools. A portion has already been allocated, but we have delayed the other portions based on needing new census figures to accurately give schools the correct sums.

Finally, 60% of tuition partners in the National Tutoring Programme had the ability to move online. The academic mentors, who were the other limb and are important for disadvantaged students, should also have moved remotely. We are doing what we can, but we recognise that reopening is important for children and we will do that as soon as public health allows. We are aware that catch-up has taken on a different dynamic with, sadly, this second decision to close schools.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Barker) (LD)]

We now come to the 30 minutes allocated for Back-Bench questions. I ask that questions and answers are brief, so that I can call the maximum number of speakers.