Education secretary Gavin Williamson announced schoolchildren and their families would be tested for coronavirus if they develop symptoms, as he struck a conciliatory tone on Saturday in a bid to reassure parents and appease unions.
With some children set to go back to school at on 1 June under proposals announced last week, relations between teaching unions and the government have become fraught in recent days. On Friday the British Medical Association threw its weight behind unions which oppose the government’s push to reopen schools in England, after the infection rate in the UK rose, potentially close to the point at which the virus starts spreading again.
In the daily Downing Street coronavirus briefing, Williamson said that the government’s approach was based on the best scientific advice with children “at the very heart of everything we do”.
He said: “School staff can already be tested for the virus, but from the first of June we’ll extend that to cover children and their families if any of them develop symptoms.
“Together these measures will create an inherently safer system where the risk of transmission is substantially reduced for children, their teachers and also their families.”
Speaking directly to teachers, Williamson paid tribute to their outstanding work in continuing to teach children of key workers and making sure resources were available for children at home, and stressed schools would only be reopened if certain criteria were met.
“We have been quite clear all along that we’d only start inviting more children when our five key tests have been met,” he said. “That position has not changed nor will it. We can now start the planning for very limited return to school for some pupils potentially as early as next month.”
The government’s five tests include ensuring that a second wave that would overwhelm the NHS is avoided, the rate of infection decreasing to “manageable levels”, and the provision of adequate testing availability.
Joined by the deputy chief medical officer for England, Dr Jenny Harries, Williamson apologised to students for the sacrifice they had made.
Asked by the BBC if he was comfortable effectively ignoring the BMA – and many teachers – in reopening schools, Williamson said the government was prepared to look at all advice and evidence.
“This is why we put the different thoughts as to how we bring schools back to Sage [the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies], to ask quite clearly as to [how] that fits in terms of their modelling and actually how that fits into the whole roadmap that the whole government is doing in terms of not just schools but right across industry and everything else,” he said.
“Because it’s not just something that can be seen in isolation, it has to be seen in the totality of what [we’re doing].”
Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT, the teachers’ union, said following the press conference: “It is urgently important that the government takes every available opportunity to provide the necessary assurances that teachers are seeking.
“The bottom line is that no teacher or child should be expected to go into schools until it can be demonstrated that it is safe for them to do so.”
It came after a further 468 people who tested positive for Covid-19 were confirmed to have died, taking the total across all settings in the UK to 34,466.
