Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, is today
(Wednesday) publishing a new briefing setting out the key actions
needed to ensure children are at the heart of planning for any
future coronavirus lockdowns, including making sure all children
are back in school in September.
The Children’s Commissioner argues that if any local or national
lockdown takes place, schools should be the last places to be
locked down, after pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops.
Given what we know about how Covid-19 affects children, and how
much children travel outside the home, the Children’s
Commissioner says the scientific argument for keeping educational
settings open is strongest for nurseries, followed by primary
schools, followed by secondary schools. But once the wider social
costs of school closures are factored in, it is clear that all
schools should be kept open as far as possible, and only closed
as a last resort once other options have been exhausted.
The briefing calls for regular testing of pupils and teachers –
regardless of whether they have Covid-19 – which is essential for
keeping schools safe by both providing assurance that they are
safe and preventing entire ‘bubbles’ or year groups from having
to be sent home once a case of Covid-19 occurs. This will be
particularly important in the 2020/21 winter flu season when
clusters of flu could be mistaken for a Covid-19 outbreak and
result in unnecessary closure or interruption.
It argues that the results of testing on teachers and students
should be pooled with attendance data to model risks of
transmission and test effective strategies for minimising risk.
Any outbreak in a school should be thoroughly investigated so
that potential links in the chain of transmission can be
pre-emptively broken in future.
The Children’s Commissioner says that if schools do have to close
they must remain open for children of keyworkers and vulnerable
children as before the summer holidays. This latter group of
children should be renamed ‘priority children’ and a concerted
effort must be made to work with these families to increase their
child’s attendance. The Government should consult on the type of
children covered by the priority list and allow more flexibility
for teachers to identify children as a priority where they have
specific concerns.
The briefing argues that where other children need to work
online, the Department for Education must expand its laptop
programme so that children in all year groups who need them can
receive devices and 4G Wi-Fi routers quickly, in order for them
to undertake home working. Work should be undertaken now to
assess the real level of need and ensure more flexibility for
headteachers to get laptops to the children who need them.
Consideration should also be given to the impact on those
children expected to take exams next summer so that these
children are not disadvantaged, especially in the case of
extended local lockdowns.
The briefing warns there is risk that some children will struggle
to transition back to school after a period away and that this
could manifest in a number of ways, including failing to attend
(or low attendance) and challenging behaviour. The Children’s
Commissioner argues schools should make pastoral care a clear
priority and identify reasons for non-attendance or challenging
behaviour and what support children need. The Department for
Education should closely monitor attendance and exclusion figures
within areas which have experienced a local lockdown or
increasing cases of Covid-19, in order to identify where further
help is needed.
With evidence of a rise in mental health issues among certain
children because of the lockdown, the Children’s Commissioner
calls for local NHS mental health teams to work with schools to
provide advice and support to prevent problems.
During the last few months, children in Young Offender
Institutions and Secure Training Centres have been spending over
20 hours a day in their cells, family visits have been banned and
face to face education has stopped. The Children’s Commissioner
calls for a greater relaxation of these conditions so that
children have access to better provision and quality of life in
future lockdowns.
The briefing also suggests the Government hold a press conference
aimed at children, and says children should be allowed and
encouraged to submit questions to any press briefings, just as
adults were in the previous daily press briefings.
Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, said:
“Too often during the first lockdown, children were an
afterthought. Despite the welcome decision to keep schools open
for vulnerable children, too few attended. Those schools that did
bring back more children before the summer holidays often found
classes were only half full. That must change in September.
“The Government’s promise that all children will be back to
school after the summer holidays is a step in the right
direction. However, if a second wave occurs, children must be at
the heart of coronavirus planning. That means schools must be the
first to reopen and the last to close during any local lockdowns.
Regular testing must be also in place for teachers and pupils, to
reassure parents.
“If the choice has to be made in a local area about whether to
keep pubs or schools open, then schools must always take
priority.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
A copy of the briefing is available to download here:
https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cco-putting-children-first-in-future-lockdowns.pdf
