Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 22 July 2020 to Question 76046, what recent discussions he has had with school leaders on providing financial support for expenses incurred following the covid-19 outbreak on (a) additional cleaning, (b) signage (c) supply staff, and (d) other anticipated extra costs that they expect to incur from September 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Ministers and officials continue to engage regularly with school leaders and their representatives on a wide range of issues around COVID-19, including discussions in relation to costs faced by schools at this time.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) primary and (b) secondary school pupils who have suffered a family bereavement since the start of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The government does not collect information from schools or local authorities on the number of primary and secondary school pupils who have suffered a family bereavement since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. There are no official estimates of the number of children who are affected by family bereavement, neither usually nor since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The government remains committed to promoting and supporting the mental health of children and young people. Access to mental health support, including bereavement support, is more important than ever during the COVID-19 outbreak and the department has taken action to ensure schools and colleges are equipped to support children and young people.
We have worked hard to ensure that all pupils and learners were able to return to a full high-quality education programme in September. Our £1 billion COVID-19 catch-up package, with £650 million shared across schools over the 2020-21 academic year, is supporting education settings to put the right catch-up and pastoral support in place.
Staff need to be equipped to understand that some pupils may have experienced bereavement. Our guidance for the full opening of schools signposts to further support and resources, and is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
This includes the MindEd website which has specific material on bereavement and dealing with death and loss, and their website is available here:
https://www.minded.org.uk/.
This is in addition to the department’s remote learning guidance and the National Children’s Bureau’s (NCB) self-review tool, ‘Preparing for recovery: Self-review and signposting tool’, which signposts online support from the Childhood Bereavement Network and Child Bereavement UK. More details on the NCB’s self-review tool is available here: https://www.ncb.org.uk/resources-publications/mental-health-and-wellbeing-primary-schools-preparing-recovery.
The website for the Childhood Bereavement Network is available here:
http://www.childhoodbereavementnetwork.org.uk/.
The website for Child Bereavement UK is available here;
https://www.childbereavementuk.org/.
These materials were supported by webinars over the summer which reached thousands of school and college staff.
We are also investing £8 million in the Wellbeing for Education Return Programme, which will provide schools and colleges all over England with the knowledge and practical skills they need to support teachers, students and parents, to help improve how they respond to the emotional impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. The programme is funding expert advisers in every area of England to train and support schools and colleges during the autumn and spring terms. The training includes specific examples of supporting bereaved children.
School and college staff are not mental health professionals, and it is important that more specialist support is available for children and their families. All NHS mental health trusts have ensured that there are 24/7 open access telephone lines to support people of all ages. We have also provided £9.2 million of additional funding for mental health charities, including charities such as Young Minds, to support adults and children struggling with their mental wellbeing during this time.
In addition, Public Health England and Health Education England have developed advice and guidance for parents and professionals on supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.?This includes a specific section on dealing with grief and bereavement. The resources are available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-on-supporting-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-and-wellbeing.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) primary and (b) secondary school pupils who have suffered a family bereavement in each local authority area since the start of the covid-19 outbreak .
Answered by Vicky Ford
The government does not collect information from schools or local authorities on the number of primary and secondary school pupils who have suffered a family bereavement since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. There are no official estimates of the number of children who are affected by family bereavement, neither usually nor since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The government remains committed to promoting and supporting the mental health of children and young people. Access to mental health support, including bereavement support, is more important than ever during the COVID-19 outbreak and the department has taken action to ensure schools and colleges are equipped to support children and young people.
We have worked hard to ensure that all pupils and learners were able to return to a full high-quality education programme in September. Our £1 billion COVID-19 catch-up package, with £650 million shared across schools over the 2020-21 academic year, is supporting education settings to put the right catch-up and pastoral support in place.
Staff need to be equipped to understand that some pupils may have experienced bereavement. Our guidance for the full opening of schools signposts to further support and resources, and is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
This includes the MindEd website which has specific material on bereavement and dealing with death and loss, and their website is available here:
https://www.minded.org.uk/.
This is in addition to the department’s remote learning guidance and the National Children’s Bureau’s (NCB) self-review tool, ‘Preparing for recovery: Self-review and signposting tool’, which signposts online support from the Childhood Bereavement Network and Child Bereavement UK. More details on the NCB’s self-review tool is available here: https://www.ncb.org.uk/resources-publications/mental-health-and-wellbeing-primary-schools-preparing-recovery.
The website for the Childhood Bereavement Network is available here:
http://www.childhoodbereavementnetwork.org.uk/.
The website for Child Bereavement UK is available here;
https://www.childbereavementuk.org/.
These materials were supported by webinars over the summer which reached thousands of school and college staff.
We are also investing £8 million in the Wellbeing for Education Return Programme, which will provide schools and colleges all over England with the knowledge and practical skills they need to support teachers, students and parents, to help improve how they respond to the emotional impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. The programme is funding expert advisers in every area of England to train and support schools and colleges during the autumn and spring terms. The training includes specific examples of supporting bereaved children.
School and college staff are not mental health professionals, and it is important that more specialist support is available for children and their families. All NHS mental health trusts have ensured that there are 24/7 open access telephone lines to support people of all ages. We have also provided £9.2 million of additional funding for mental health charities, including charities such as Young Minds, to support adults and children struggling with their mental wellbeing during this time.
In addition, Public Health England and Health Education England have developed advice and guidance for parents and professionals on supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.?This includes a specific section on dealing with grief and bereavement. The resources are available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-on-supporting-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-and-wellbeing.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) schools and (b) colleges in Wirral that are facing difficulties in keeping fully open to students as a result of delays in teachers or their family members getting covid-19 test results.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Keeping close track of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases in schools is a priority to the Government. The Department is currently collecting data from schools on a daily basis, as well as gathering information from local areas and following up with individual settings to confirm that procedures for requiring pupils to isolate are well understood and that necessary decisions are made on the basis of public health advice.
Testing capacity is the highest it has ever been, and we are working to provide further priority access for teachers. The home testing kits supplied to schools and colleges are only for those who develop the symptoms of COVID-19 and face significant barriers to accessing a test. In particular, these tests kits will help symptomatic staff who test negative, and are not close contacts of confirmed cases, to get back to work as soon as they feel well enough.
The Department collects data on the number of schools that have indicated that they have sent children home due to COVID-19 containment measures and have attendance data for schools that have done so. We are currently looking at the quality of the data with a view to publishing it as part of the official statistics series. The series includes published data on school openings and attendance, which shows that over 99.9% of state-funded schools were open on 10 September and that attendance in state-funded schools was 88%. More information is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.
Public Health England (PHE) leads in holding data on infection, incidence and COVID-19 cases overall. PHE have published data on COVID-19 incidents by institution, including educational settings, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-covid-19-surveillance-reports (page 16).
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of schools in England that are facing difficulties in keeping fully open to pupils because of delays in teachers or their family members getting covid-19 test results.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Keeping close track of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases in schools is a priority to the Government. The Department is currently collecting data from schools on a daily basis, as well as gathering information from local areas and following up with individual settings to confirm that procedures for requiring pupils to isolate are well understood and that necessary decisions are made on the basis of public health advice.
Testing capacity is the highest it has ever been, and we are working to provide further priority access for teachers. The home testing kits supplied to schools and colleges are only for those who develop the symptoms of COVID-19 and face significant barriers to accessing a test. In particular, these tests kits will help symptomatic staff who test negative, and are not close contacts of confirmed cases, to get back to work as soon as they feel well enough.
The Department collects data on the number of schools that have indicated that they have sent children home due to COVID-19 containment measures and have attendance data for schools that have done so. We are currently looking at the quality of the data with a view to publishing it as part of the official statistics series. The series includes published data on school openings and attendance, which shows that over 99.9% of state-funded schools were open on 10 September and that attendance in state-funded schools was 88%. More information is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.
Public Health England (PHE) leads in holding data on infection, incidence and COVID-19 cases overall. PHE have published data on COVID-19 incidents by institution, including educational settings, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-covid-19-surveillance-reports (page 16).
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the regional distribution of schools with an above national average proportion of pupils living in relative poverty.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The national funding formula for schools includes a deprivation factor that acts as a proxy measure for schools that are most likely to need extra resources to support their pupils in reaching their full potential. This is identified through two indicators - eligibility for free school meals (current eligibility and historic eligibility through the “Ever6” measure, which records pupils who have been registered for benefits-based free school meals at any point in the last six years); and the level of relative deprivation in the postcode where the pupil lives (measured using Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index, or IDACI). IDACI measures the proportion of children in an area living in income-deprived families and provides funding based on the relative socio-economic deprivation of the areas in which their pupils live. By using this measure, we have broadened the scope of deprivation funding beyond just those who are eligible for free school meals and the pupil premium.
The Department applies a “banding” methodology whereby IDACI scores are grouped into seven bands, with each band representing an increase in the expected level of deprivation. The table below shows the proportion of pupils aged 4 to 16 in mainstream schools, in each IDACI band, in different regions, based on the October 2019 census. Band A is the highest level of deprivation, and band F is the lowest (Band G – which is the least deprived and largest band – is not shown because it is not funded):
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department made available through exceptional costs during the covid-19 outbreak between March and July 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We are providing additional funding to schools, on top of existing budgets, to cover unavoidable costs incurred between March and July due to the COVID-19 outbreak that cannot be met from their existing resources.
Schools are eligible to claim for: increased premises related costs associated with keeping schools open over the Easter and summer half term 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 required due to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, over and above the cost of existing cleaning arrangements.
The first claims window for the COVID-19 schools fund closed on 21 July. There will be a further opportunity in the autumn for schools to claim for exceptional costs that occurred between March and July. This second claims window will be for available for schools who were unable to claim in the summer and will be for the same eligible cost categories.
Schools have claimed £104 million against the standard expenditure categories in the fund, as set out above. Schools have already received payments of £58 million against the standard expenditure categories.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the total value is of claims made by schools under the exceptional costs programme from March to July 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We are providing additional funding to schools, on top of existing budgets, to cover unavoidable costs incurred between March and July due to the COVID-19 outbreak that cannot be met from their existing resources.
Schools are eligible to claim for: increased premises related costs associated with keeping schools open over the Easter and summer half term 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 required due to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, over and above the cost of existing cleaning arrangements.
The first claims window for the COVID-19 schools fund closed on 21 July. There will be a further opportunity in the autumn for schools to claim for exceptional costs that occurred between March and July. This second claims window will be for available for schools who were unable to claim in the summer and will be for the same eligible cost categories.
Schools have claimed £104 million against the standard expenditure categories in the fund, as set out above. Schools have already received payments of £58 million against the standard expenditure categories.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the scientific evidence on wearing face coverings in communal areas in schools to reduce the risk of transmission of covid-19.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 21 August 2020, the World Health Organisation published a new statement advising that “children aged 12 and over should wear face coverings under the same conditions as adults, particularly when they cannot guarantee at least a 1 metre distance from others and there is widespread transmission in the area.” As a result, the Department has revised its guidance on face coverings in schools and colleges, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-in-education/face-coverings-in-education.
The guidance outlines that in areas of national government intervention, in schools where year 7 and above are educated, face coverings should be worn by staff, visitors and pupils when moving around indoors. This includes corridors and communal areas where social distancing is difficult to maintain.
Nationwide, the Government is not recommending that face coverings are necessary in schools generally because a system of controls provides additional mitigating measures. However, schools have the discretion to require face coverings in indoor communal areas where social distancing cannot be safely managed, if they believe that it is right in their particular circumstances.
In primary schools where social distancing is not possible in indoor areas outside of classrooms between members of staff or visitors, head teachers have the discretion to decide whether to ask staff or visitors to wear, or agree to them wearing, face coverings in these circumstances. However, children in primary school do not need to wear a face covering.
Based on current evidence, and in light of the mitigating measures schools are already putting in place, face coverings will not be necessary in the classroom. Face coverings would have a negative impact on teaching and their use in the classroom should be avoided.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of information on new infections provided to schools to aid local decision making.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 2 July 2020, we published guidance for schools outlining the actions they need to take to prevent and respond to any confirmed case of COVID-19. It also sets out some of the measures they should have in place to plan for any potential local lockdown: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
Schools will be supported to respond to any outbreaks within their settings by their local health protection team.
In addition, the Government has published the ‘Contain Framework’. This national framework will support local decision-makers by clarifying their responsibilities and empowering them to take preventative action and make strong decisions locally, supported by mechanisms that safeguard key national assets. The framework can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/containing-and-managing-local-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreaks/covid-19-contain-framework-a-guide-for-local-decision-makers.
Information on the number of cases broken down by region and local authority is updated on a daily basis on the COVID-19 dashboard, available here: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/.
The Department has also been working with the Joint Biosecurity Centre to produce and publish a series of Action Cards to support educational settings and provide instructions on what to do in the event of one of more confirmed cases of COVID-19. The Action Cards can be found here: https://coronavirusresources.phe.gov.uk/reporting-an-outbreak/resources/Education-Action-Cards/.