Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he is planning to reintroduce public health measures into schools to help ensure they remain open during the ongoing high levels of covid-19 infection.

National infection data shows the prevalence of COVID-19 to be on a downward trajectory. Whilst there are some groups where cases are likely to continue rising, including in primary-age children, it is likely that the Omicron wave has now peaked nationally. There remains significant pressure on the NHS, but hospital admissions have stabilised, and the number of patients in intensive care units remains low and is falling. This means it was right we removed the most stringent restrictions around wearing face coverings from education.

Local directors of public health may temporarily reintroduce face coverings where this is proportionate due to specific local public health concerns. A range of protective measures remains in place in all education providers:

• Testing remains important in reducing the risk of transmission of COVID-19 within schools. Staff should continue to test twice weekly at home. Schools are encouraged to ask all visitors to take a lateral flow test before entering.
• Unvaccinated adults who have COVID-19 symptoms, or have had a positive test, should isolate for 10 days. Adults and young people aged 5 to 18 years and 6 months with COVID-19 must continue to isolate for up to 10 days if their test remains positive but can end their self-isolation after 5 full days if they test negative on days 5 and 6.
• All young people aged 12 to 17 years are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccinating children should reduce the risk of spread of COVID-19 within schools. Children aged 5 to 11 years in a clinical risk group or who are a household contact of someone who is immunosuppressed are also able to be vaccinated.
• We have provided carbon dioxide monitors backed by £25 million in government funding. Over 99% of eligible education providers have now received these, with over 350,000 delivered. The government is now making available at least 9,000 funded air cleaning units for poorly ventilated teaching spaces.
• Schools should regularly review their risk assessments and continue to comply with health and safety law, implementing proportionate control measures in line with our guidance, such as ensuring good hygiene and maintaining appropriate cleaning regimes.
• All education and childcare providers should already have contingency plans in place in cases of outbreaks within schools, as set out in the contingency framework, to help break the chains of transmission. This framework is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-local-restrictions-in-education-and-childcare-settings.
• 99.9% of education providers have been able to remain open to support face to face education since the start of the year and we are hugely grateful to all the teachers and staff for the hard work and dedication that has gone into responding to the challenges of COVID-19 to make this possible.