Schools: Coronavirus

(asked on 25th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of school attendance targets on clinically vulnerable families attempting to shield from covid-19.


Answered by
Robin Walker Portrait
Robin Walker
This question was answered on 7th March 2022

Regular attendance at school is vital for children’s education, wellbeing and long-term development. School attendance is mandatory and parents have a duty, under section 7 of the Education Act 1996 to ensure that their child of compulsory age receives an efficient full-time education either by attendance at school or otherwise. No targets for school attendance are set by government, but attendance statistics are collected and published on a regular basis.

Following expert clinical advice and the successful rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine programme, people previously considered to be particularly vulnerable, clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV), and high or higher-risk are no longer advised to shield.

Children and young people previously considered CEV should attend school and should follow the same COVID-19 guidance as the rest of the population. This guidance is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus. Children and young people with a weakened immune system should follow the Department of Health and Social Care and UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) guidance for people whose immune system means they are at higher risk from COVID-19, available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-people-whose-immune-system-means-they-are-at-higher-risk/covid-19-guidance-for-people-whose-immune-system-means-they-are-at-higher-risk. If, however, a child or young person has been advised to isolate or reduce their social contact by their specialist, due to the nature of their medical condition or treatment they should continue to follow the advice of their specialist.

The NHS is also now vaccinating the most at-risk 5 to 11 year olds, ensuring they get their vital dose of protection.

As usual, school leaders continue to have discretion to grant leaves of absence in exceptional circumstances. Where a pupil is not attending school for reasons related to COVID-19, we expect the school to offer them immediate access to remote education. Schools must also have regard to the expectations for remote education published on GOV.UK: https://get-help-with-remote-education.education.gov.uk/statutory-obligations.

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