A new report reveals how a Department for Education helpline effectively collapsed last year, just as the Covid pandemic took hold and schools needed it most.
In the week last March when school closures were announced, the helpline “struggled to cope” with the volume of enquiries, a National Audit Office report published today finds.
The helpline received 17,900 weekday calls in total for the week beginning 16 March, an average of almost 3,600 per day.
Background: Covid case advice hotline for schools to be launched
Covid: School helpline beset by lengthy waits
Related: Schools ‘to close to all but children of key workers’
More than half (55 per cent) of those ringing to request guidance abandoned calls and the average waiting time for the remaining calls to be answered was over 35 minutes.
DfE Covid helpline was overwhelmed
However, from 23 March, the DfE increased the number of advisers from around 90 to 300, and the average wait time dropped to less than five seconds, with almost all calls answered.
The number of calls and emails that were answered, and for which details were recorded, peaked at 2,900 per week for schools in the week beginning 9 March, and 3,750 for parents in the week beginning 16 March.
The most common subjects raised by schools and parents concerned disease control and free school meals, with staff answering calls directing 88 per cent of calls from schools and 79 per cent from parents to existing advice.
The average number of calls and emails dropped to 600 per week for schools and 750 per week for parents from 1 June to 17 July.
In March, Tes reported that a headteacher had been waiting for an hour and 45 minutes for advice from the helpline, and said the advice he then received over one of his questions was “concerning”.
“An hour and 45 minutes is not good enough. There needs to be more people staffing in the DfE call centre. Heads need advice quickly and they need reassurance,” he said at the time.
