Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the spread of the omicron variant of covid-19, what assessment has he made of the adequacy of the current (a) resourcing of and (b) support provided to special schools for (a) improving ventilation in schools and (b) implement other covid-19 mitigation measures.

Following our rollout of around 300,000 CO₂ monitors to schools during the autumn term – with over 350,000 monitors delivered to over 99% of eligible maintained schools, further education colleges, and the majority of nurseries – schools are finding the monitors helpful to manage ventilation and, in the majority of education providers, existing ventilation measures are sufficient. Feedback suggests that the monitors are acting as a helpful tool to manage ventilation, sitting alongside the other protective measures in place to manage transmission, such as regular testing, vaccinations and increased hygiene.

In November, the department announced that it was providing additional funding for 1,000 air cleaning units for poorly ventilated spaces in special educational needs and disability (SEND) and alternative provision providers. This includes SEND units in mainstream schools, where quick fixes to improve ventilation are not possible. These schools were prioritised given the higher-than-average number of vulnerable pupils in attendance. These units are being delivered from January 2022.

In addition, the department also announced on 2 January that it would make up to an additional 7,000 air cleaning units available for poorly ventilated teaching spaces in state-funded education providers, where quick fixes to improve ventilation are not possible. All state funded schools (primary and secondary), further education colleges and nurseries can apply. Special and alternative provision providers that were not successful or did not apply in the first round are also eligible to apply in this round. The deadline for applications is 9am on 17 January and the additional units will be delivered from February 2022.

Any that are not eligible for a department funded unit have access to an online ‘marketplace’, which provides a route to purchasing air cleaning units of a suitable specification and competitive price.

All nurseries, out-of-school settings, schools and colleges, including all special schools, are continuing to put in place a combination of measures to help minimise the risk of spreading COVID-19. These include handwashing, enhancing cleaning, ventilation and managing confirmed cases. Further information on this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak.

Settings should continue to conduct risk assessments for their particular circumstances and take appropriate action in line with our guidance, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus. There is also our guidance for special schools and other specialist settings which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-full-opening-special-schools-and-other-specialist-settings.

This provides additional information specifically targeted at special schools and other specialist settings to support the implementation of other COVID-19 mitigation measures.