Responding to today’s government announcement on its plan to roll
out coronavirus testing in schools, Cllr , Chair of the
Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board,
said:
“Councils want to work with schools and local health teams to do
all they can to ensure staff, pupils, parents and visitors can be
in school settings, safely and securely, without risk of passing
on coronavirus.
“COVID-19 testing in schools is one tool to help local
authorities in their drive to keep schools open to ensure pupils
don’t fall further behind in their education.
“However, we are concerned over the impact on school staff and
the need for them to be trained if they are expected to
administer the testing fully and safely, as well as the expected
timescale to achieve this, which will fall to already exhausted
staff and leadership teams. Government also needs to recognise
and utilise the experience of school nurses in this roll-out and
learn from the experience of testing in the care sector.
“They all need to have full confidence in arrangements for
testing, knowing that the risks and benefits are fully
understood, alongside continued safety measures including use of
PPE, social distancing and hand hygiene.
"Schools are based in the heart of communities so it is vital
that schools testing aligns with other parts of the system, such
as contact tracing and test and trace local outbreak management,
and is planned and resourced alongside directors of public health
and councils.”
