Coronavirus: Educational Institutions

(asked on 2nd November 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what scientific advice the Government received from SAGE on keeping schools and colleges open during the November 2020 covid-19 lockdown in England and the potential effect of that decision on the transmission of covid-19 in communities.


Answered by
Nadine Dorries Portrait
Nadine Dorries
This question was answered on 11th November 2020

The Department of Health and Social Care has worked closely with the Department for Education and Public Health England to ensure that we are appropriately assessing the impact of keeping schools and colleges open during the November 2020 COVID-19 lockdown and to develop specific guidance for school and college settings.

The Government is mindful that being at school is important for children’s education and for their wellbeing and that there can be detrimental cognitive and academic impacts of being out of school, particularly for disadvantaged children. Where schools and colleges implement the system of controls outlined in our guidance, in line with their own workplace risk assessment, we are confident that these measures create an inherently safer environment for children and staff where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced. As a result, on current evidence, the Government’s advice is that schools and colleges are not currently considered high risk settings when compared to other workplace environments.

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