Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that no child misses time in education this year as a result of local lockdowns.

It is the Government’s intention that all pupils, in all year groups, return to school full time for the autumn term. On 2 July, the Department published guidance to support schools to do this. While our aim is to have all pupils back at school in the autumn, every school will need to plan for the possibility of a local lockdown and how they will ensure continuity of education.

In local areas where restrictions have been implemented (from national direction), we anticipate that education and childcare will usually remain fully open to all. There may be exceptional circumstances in which some level of restriction to education or childcare is required in a local area. In those situations, local and national partners will carefully consider which tier of restriction, as set out in the Department of Health and Social Care’s Contain Framework, is the most appropriate to implement. The framework is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/containing-and-managing-local-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreaks/covid-19-contain-framework-a-guide-for-local-decision-makers#annex-3-tiers-of-national-restriction.

The aim will be to retain as much face to face education and access to childcare as possible. These tiers of restriction will ensure that extensive limitations on education and childcare are a last resort, and that full time onsite provision is available for vulnerable children and children of critical workers in all cases.

Where a class, group or small number of pupils need to self-isolate, or there is a local lockdown requiring pupils to remain at home, we expect schools to have the capacity to offer immediate remote education. Schools are expected to consider how to continue to improve the quality of their existing offer and have a strong contingency plan in place for remote education provision by the end of September. Further information to support schools is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.