Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether guidance issued by his Department during the first national covid-19 lockdown in March 2020 allowed children without access to the internet at home to attend school.

Guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision. The overall definition of vulnerable children has been in place since March 2020. It includes children who are assessed as being in need under section 17 of the Children Act 1989, children who have an education, health and care plan, and children who have been identified by the education provider or local authority as otherwise vulnerable for any other reason. Since the outset, guidance has been clear that education providers and local authorities have had full flexibility to allow children to attend school based on their assessment of the child’s needs.

A number of examples of the factors that providers may wish to consider under this third category of vulnerability have been provided throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. This is not an exhaustive or definitive list and the guidance states that these categories are given as examples that providers might wish to factor in when identifying otherwise vulnerable children. Education providers should interpret this in light of the wide range of information they have available to them, such as the needs of the child and their family.

One specific example within this list includes the term “those who may have difficulty engaging with remote education at home (for example due to a lack of devices or quiet space to study)” which was first used in published guidance on 28 August 2020 to include reference to the fact that children having difficult engaging in remote education might be a factor that education providers may wish to consider when identifying children who may be vulnerable.