Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much the Government has spent on campaigns to encourage better ventilation in schools to tackle covid 19 in (a) 2020 and (b) 2021.

Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, the department has emphasised the importance of ventilation and provided guidance and updates to nurseries, schools and colleges on ventilation requirements. It is important for nurseries, schools and colleges to ensure that they are well ventilated and that a comfortable teaching environment is maintained.

The department has also supported wider national government activity to raise awareness of the importance of ventilation as well as providing detailed advice and guidance to nurseries, schools and colleges on gov.uk, via stakeholder briefing and in direct emails.

On 21 August 2021, the department announced that CO2 monitors would be provided to state-funded nurseries, schools and colleges backed by £25 million in government funding. These monitors will be delivered by the end of the Autumn term and will enable staff to identify areas where ventilation needs to be improved and provide reassurance that existing ventilation measures are working, helping balance the need for good ventilation with keeping classrooms warm. Feedback shows that schools are finding the monitors helpful to manage ventilation and, in the majority of cases, existing ventilation measures are sufficient.

On 18 August 2021, it was announced that 1,000 Department for Education-funded air cleaning units will be made available for poorly ventilated teaching spaces and staff rooms in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision settings, including SEND units in mainstream settings, where quick fixes to improve ventilation are not possible. These settings are being prioritised given the higher-than-average number of vulnerable pupils attending those settings.