Plans to end access to free Covid testing for almost all schools and to ask pupils with the virus to only isolate for three days have been branded a “shambles” by a headteachers’ leader.
School leaders have also called for the “scientific evidence” behind the decision on Covid isolation guidance for people under 18 to change from five to three days from tomorrow, under the government’s “living with Covid” plan.
Guidance sent to headteachers this morning confirms that free testing will not continue at almost all education settings from the end of this week.
And schools have also been told in an email from the Department for Education that they should not give out any excess stock of Covid test kits to teachers, pupils or other staff.
Under the new guidance, published by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) yesterday, children and young people aged 18 or under who have tested positive for Covid will be advised to stay home for just three days from 1 April.
In an Education Hub Blog post, the Department for Education said the reason for this decision was that “following expert advice”, it is known that “Covid presents a low risk of serious illness to most children and young people, and most of those who are fully vaccinated”.
Schools have been told that adults and pupils who are unwell and have a high temperature should stay at home and avoid contact with other people.
The announcement on changing isolation rules has sparked concern in the sector, amid the sharp rise in Covid cases and the latest government data showing around one in 10 staff were absent from school.
Previously, secondary schools were told that while guidance for regular testing was ending, they would still be able to access testing during Covid outbreaks.
However, the DfE blog yesterday only mentioned this scenario for residential special school settings at secondary age or above.
‘Abandoning’ free testing ‘makes no sense’
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The advice itself confirms the scrapping of free Covid tests for almost all education settings, thus dispensing with one of the few remaining mitigations against transmission of the virus.
“This comes at a time when there are very high levels of staff and pupil absence in many schools and colleges caused by Covid. Abandoning free testing in this context, and with public exams looming, makes absolutely no sense at all.”
He added: “The guidance then goes on to advise that children who test positive after 1 April should isolate for three days. Not only is this confusing because free testing will have been withdrawn, but there is no explanation about the basis for this change to the isolation period.
“The most likely outcome of all of this is that there will be more cases and more transmission in schools and colleges with more disruption including among students taking exams. It is a shambles.”
Call for ‘scientific evidence’ behind new rules
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, has called for “the scientific evidence” that justifies the reduction in isolation guidance.
He said it was an “immediate concern” that by letting pupils back to school who were still contagious, settings “could see an increase in cases and therefore more, rather than less, disruption”.
“If the medical advice has changed, then the government has a duty to explain that to schools,” he added.
Vic Goddard, co-principal of Passmores Academy in Essex, which is part of a trust of four schools, warned that much of the issue was the lack of testing.
While Mr Goddard is pleased that pupils with Covid, on the whole, tend to be fine, he said that teachers’ health was more likely to be affected.
“I get the fact that three-day isolation means pupils are missing less school if they test positive, but it doesn’t matter how much they miss or don’t miss if we haven’t got the teachers,” he added.
Simon Kidwell, primary headteacher of Hartford Manor Primary School and Nursery in Cheshire, thought the move was “encouraging” for pupils who have been well enough to be in school.
However, he said that if staff still have to isolate for five days, schools could face “a period of significant disruption”.
Mr Kidwell said he was seeking clarification from the local director of public health today on the guidance for schools around isolation periods for teachers, amid concerns about further disruption as the number of second-time infections rises.
On Tuesday, the DfE announced that Covid vaccinations in schools would end this week and confirmed that 5- to 11-year-olds would be able to get vaccinated from early April.
‘Unscientific guidance’ could fuel rise in cases
There have also been criticisms of the “unscientific guidance” from epidemiologists.
Dr Deepti Gurdasani, clinical epidemiologist and statistical geneticist, took to Twitter to share her concerns.
Labelling the new guidance as “unscientific”, she warned the move would “fuel more transmission” in schools and “ultimately increase educational disruption and impact health”.
And Professor Christina Pagel highlighted that no one would be testing anymore after 1 April, when tests will cease to be free to the majority of the general public.
Last month, prime minister Boris Johnson announced the “living with Covid” plan, marking an end to free testing from April and the scrapping of the legal requirement to stay home after a positive test.
However, school leaders have recently criticised the government over its lack of mitigating in schools as the latest DfE data revealed that Covid cases in pupils had more than tripled in a fortnight.
Mr Whiteman said that given the current situation in schools, it seemed “reckless” to be removing access to free testing for most of the public.
“Testing is one of the few tools schools have left to try to break chains of transmission and there is a real concern that we could see more cases and outbreaks in schools as a result of this decision,” he said.
Yesterday, Mr Barton criticised the DfE after talks about Covid in schools due to be held with stakeholders in the sector were cancelled on Tuesday.
Speaking about the high levels of Covid, he said schools were “on a knife-edge”.
