Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that pupils engage with the covid-19 testing regime.

The Department’s priority is for schools to deliver face-to-face, high quality education to all pupils. The evidence is clear that being out of education causes significant harm to educational attainment, life chances, mental and physical health.

The Department for Education has worked closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England to revise guidance for schools from Step 4, available to view here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/999602/Schools_guidance_Step_4_update.pdf. The aim is to balance the risks associated with COVID-19 whilst moving to a ‘steady state’ that minimises both the burden of implementing a system of controls on staff and parents and the impact those measures have on young people’s educational experience.

The Department will be removing the need to keep children and young people in consistent groups (‘bubbles’) in schools, colleges, and out-of-school settings, and the need to reduce mixing in nurseries from Step 4.

Face coverings will no longer be recommended in schools or on dedicated school transport. Individuals are free to wear a face covering in communal areas and on dedicated transport to school, where social distancing is difficult to maintain, if they wish to.

Twice weekly home testing will continue to be offered over the summer break in settings that remain open (e.g., nurseries, summer schools and colleges). On return in the autumn, asymptomatic testing is expected to resume for staff and for students of secondary age and above. Schools and colleges are preparing to offer students two lateral flow device tests at an on-site Asymptomatic Test Site, 3 to 5 days apart. Following the first two on-site tests, students should then prepare to resume twice weekly testing at home. New guidance emphasises that it is vital that staff and secondary school and college students continue to test for the last few weeks of this term, and throughout September.

From Step 4, schools and childcare settings will not routinely be required to undertake contact tracing. Instead, pupils who test positive will be subject to the normal test and trace process, which will identify close contacts. Unless they test positive, children and those who are fully vaccinated will not be required to isolate from 16 August, if they are identified as a close contact. Self-isolation continues for those who have tested positive for COVID-19.

In areas where there is a high prevalence of the Delta variant, the Department is increasing the availability of testing for staff, pupils, and families. We are also working with directors of public health to reduce local transmission. On 8 June, the Government announced an enhanced support package for any areas affected by local outbreaks. The package includes specialist Rapid Response Teams, surge testing and enhanced contact tracing, military support, specialist communication, supervised in-school testing, and discretion to reintroduce face coverings in communal areas in schools if directors of public health decide it is appropriate. Further information on responding to individual or regional outbreaks can be found in the contingency framework for education and childcare: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-local-restrictions-in-education-and-childcare-settings.

Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, the Department has acted swiftly to help minimise the impact on pupils’ education and provide extensive support for schools. We know the COVID-19 outbreak has caused challenges for some children who may already have been disengaged from education. That is why the Department is working closely with local authorities and schools to help them re-engage pupils, including providing best practice advice. In June 2020, the Department announced a £1 billion catch-up package including a National Tutoring Programme and a catch-up premium for this academic year. In February 2021, the Department committed to further funding of £700 million to fund summer schools, the expansion of tutoring programmes and a Recovery Premium for the next academic year.

Where pupils are away from school for a limited period, for example because they are self-isolating, schools have a legal duty to provide remote education. To provide clarity to the sector, the Department issued the temporary continuity direction in October 2020 which places an express legal duty on schools to provide remote education for state-funded, school-age children unable to attend school due to COVID-19.

Where remote education is needed, the strengthened remote education expectations published on 7 January 2021 remain in place. These require schools to deliver 3 to 5 hours per day dependent on key stage and have a system in place for checking on a daily basis whether pupils are engaging actively with their work and education.