Education secretary John Swinney has said he wants to see more vulnerable children attending hubs during the coronavirus lockdown.
Tes Scotland reported figures towards the end of April that showed fewer than 1 per cent of Scottish pupils are attending hub schools on average per day.
However, when appearing at the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Skills Committee today, Mr Swinney said figures were moving in the right direction, as the number of vulnerable children attending hubs had almost doubled since the Easter break.
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Mr Swinney said it was understandable that families might be “unnerved” by sending children to hub schools, but that he would be keen to encourage an increase in the number of vulnerable children attending them.
The education secretary - who is also deputy first minister - said that some young people who were not previously considered vulnerable will become vulnerable as a result of the trauma of the coronavirus pandemic, such as in cases where a child experiences the death of a close relative.
He also said that the current situation could make it more difficult to identify children at risk of harm, and that there were concerns about children spending more time in homes where domestic violence was a threat. However, there were some reassuring signs, such as high numbers of children with child protection plans having been visited during the Covid-19 lockdown.
When asked, Mr Swinney said he did not have comprehensive data on pupils’ access to digital resources during lockdown, but that, more generally, it was known that around 90 per cent of households have “some form of digital connectivity”.
Mr Swinney said there would be a “significant set of issues” created by the coronavirus outbreak, and agreed to look into the possibility of offering pupils from more deprived areas extra support as they prepare to return to school after the lockdown.
Scottish Labour education spokesman Iain Gray asked if Mr Swinney would consider a scheme being explored in the north of England, where certain pupils will receive extra tutoring in groups or one to one.
Mr Swinney said: “There is a distinctive approach that needs to be taken to meet the needs of young people from deprived backgrounds as they return to formal schooling.
“The idea that he’s put forward seems to me to be a reasonable idea, and I’ll make sure that it’s considered by the particular work stream of the Education Recovery Group (ERG) that’s looking at providing support to children and young people.”
