The government cannot “decree” that keeping schools open must be prioritised over pubs during local lockdowns to combat spikes in coronavirus cases, the schools minister has said.
Nick Gibb insisted this morning that all children will return to school in England in September, but said the decisions to enforce closures to prevent new outbreaks will be made locally.
Experts have made it increasingly clear that some restrictions will need to return in order to fulfil the government’s commitment on schools while preventing the rapid spread of Covid-19 from resuming.
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Children’s commissioner Anne Longfield has said today the reopening of schools “should be prioritised”, insisting they must be first to reopen and last to close - after pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops - during any local lockdowns.
But asked whether he agreed with her, Mr Gibb told BBC Radio 4‘s Today programme: “It’s a more nuanced response. It does have to depend on the facts of the case and that’s why the local director of public health will be responsible for the response to that spike.”
Pressed on whether schools should be the last to close, he said: “What I’m saying is that all children will be returning to school in September, including in those areas that are currently subject to a local lockdown - Manchester, Greater Manchester, Leicester and so on - because it is important children are back in school.
“But you can’t decree this for every single case and it will depend on the circumstances of a local increase in the infection rate, and that is why it is being led by the director of public health in localities. But we want all children back in school.”
Professor Neil Ferguson, whose modelling led to the decision to impose the lockdown, suggested ministers would need to “row back on the relaxation of restrictions”, such as in social and leisure venues and with increased working from home, to allow a full-time return to schools.
He told Today: “I mean that really is a policy decision, but I’m just saying, in my view, it is likely that some form of those measures will be necessary to maintain control of transmission.”
Prof Ferguson, whose advice continues to inform the government’s response despite his resignation from the Sage advisory group, said there is some evidence older teenagers transmit the virus just as effectively as adults.
“The risk then is that big schools, comprehensives, universities, FE (further education) colleges, link lots of households together, reconnect the social network which social distancing measures have deliberately disconnected. And that poses a real risk of amplification of transmission, of case numbers going up quite sharply,” he said.
