Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of suspending the School Attendance Order for parents who do not want their child to return to school during the covid-19 outbreak, particularly in cases where the child or a member of that child’s household is considered to be clinically extremely vulnerable.

Pupils in all year groups and from all types of school should now have returned to school full-time, as this is the best place for them to be for their education, development and wellbeing.

Parents have a duty to ensure that any of their children who are of compulsory school age receive a full-time education, either through regular attendance at school or through alternative arrangements, such as home schooling. A local authority will only serve a school attendance order if parents fail to satisfy the local authority that their child is receiving this.

Guidance on protecting people who are clinically extremely vulnerable is clear that all pupils should continue to attend school at all local COVID alert levels, unless they are one of the very small number of pupils under paediatric or other specialist care and have been advised by their GP or clinician not to attend school. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19.

Schools have their own measures in place to limit the risk of transmission. If parents of pupils with significant risk factors are concerned, we have recommended that schools discuss their concerns and provide reassurance of the measures they are putting in place to reduce the risk in school.