Covid-19: Schools

Lord Polak Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge]

My Lords, in the specific provision for disadvantaged children, one of the main initiatives has been to increase the number of devices, so that they can access online learning. The criteria for distributing the 200,000 laptops and tablets purchased include whether they are care leavers, children in contact with a social worker or disadvantaged students currently in year 10.

[Lord Polak (Con)]

My Lords, so many individuals in the department and within schools are working positively and enthusiastically to ensure that children will be not only safe but educated. Sometimes, I wish the teaching unions would be as positive and enthusiastic. Can my noble friend the Minister confirm that the department has worked closely with the sector, including the unions, throughout the period of partial closures and during preparations for wider opening?

[Baroness Berridge]

My Lords, I join the noble Lord in paying tribute to all the teachers and support staff who have, during this period, kept most of our schools open for vulnerable children and the children of critical care workers. The department has indeed, at both ministerial and official levels, been consulting and engaging with the unions, mostly on a daily basis, to ensure that their views are put forward in the difficult decisions that we have to make about reopening schools.