- Education settings to be provided with carbon dioxide
monitors from September, backed by £25 million in government
funding
- Monitors will help identify areas where ventilation needs to
be improved
- Children and young people in England will start to return to
school over coming weeks
CO2 monitors will be provided to all state-funded
education settings from September, so staff can quickly identify
where ventilation needs to be improved.
Letting fresh air into indoor spaces can help remove air that
contains virus particles and is important in preventing the
spread of Covid-19.
Backed by a £25 million government investment, the new monitors
will enable staff to act quickly where ventilation is poor and
provide reassurance that existing ventilation measures are
working.
The majority of c. 300,000 monitors will become available over
the autumn term, with special schools and alternative provision
prioritised to receive their full allocation from September given
their higher-than-average numbers of vulnerable pupils.
The government has also launched a trial of air purifiers in 30
schools in Bradford, which is designed to assess the technology
in education settings and whether they could reduce the risk of
transmission.
As students in England return to classrooms from next week, this
is just one of the measures that will be in place in schools to
help reduce transmission. Students and staff will also be asked
to continue twice-weekly testing, with two on-site tests provided
for secondary and college students as they return.
Education Secretary
said:
“Providing all schools with CO2 monitors will help
them make sure they have the right balance of measures in place,
minimising any potential disruption to education and allowing
them to focus on world class lessons and catch up for the
children who need it.
“By keeping up simple measures such as ventilation and testing,
young people can now enjoy more freedom at school and college.”
Health and Social Care Secretary
said:
“We are all enjoying the return to a more normal way of life and
getting our children back into school is a really important part
of that process. We want to ensure schools are both safe and
comfortable for students and staff – and have been clear that
good ventilation is crucial.
“As well as offering vaccines to 16 and 17 year olds and regular
testing, we continue to work with the Department for Education to
manage COVID-19 in schools and colleges. This includes the pilot
we are running to test different air cleaning methods in school
settings.”
CO2 monitors are portable so schools and other
settings will be able to move them around to test their full
estate, starting with areas they suspect may be poorly
ventilated.
The programme will provide schools and other settings with
sufficient monitors to take representative readings from across
the indoor spaces in their estate, assessing all spaces in a
relatively short space of time.
More details will be available following the completion of
procurement, however all schools and colleges are expected to
receive at least partial allocations during the autumn term,
enabling all settings to monitor areas where they believe airflow
may be weakest.
As the monitors are rolled out the department will provide
guidance on their use.
Secondary schools and colleges will be conducting on-site covid
testing of their pupils, which can start before the start of
term. They can stagger the return of pupils over the first week
of term as needed to support the delivery of testing. Pupils
should then continue to test twice weekly at home until the end
of September, when this will be reviewed.
ENDS
Notes to editors
- The department will launch a procurement exercise on Monday
23 August to purchase CO2monitors.
- The number of devices available to each mainstream school
will be dictated by the size of their estate, and be in the
region of one device per two classrooms and staff rooms. Final
numbers are subject to the completion of the procurement
exercise. Further details will be provided in September.
