The government’s approach to guiding schools through the coronavirus crisis has been branded “woeful” and “demoralising” by a union leader representing thousands of headteachers.

School leaders have been let down by the government’s poor advice and late decision making, while facing “ridiculous” assertions by ministers, according to Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union.

Mr Whiteman also warned that school leaders had not had a proper break since before the lockdown, and said the way the system has operated since March was not sustainable.

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Highlighting examples of schools getting late advice or facing problems because of government decisions, he listed:

• The way schools were first partially closed at the start of the coronavirus outbreak.
• Problems with supplying free school meal vouchers and laptops.
• The exams grading crisis.
• The way guidance on schools staying open during local lockdowns was published on a Friday night before a bank holiday.
• The current Covid-19 testing shortages.

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Whiteman: Schools are open and working with every pupil

Mr Whiteman said: “The advice has been poor and late. All the examples of that are there right from the day that the government chose to close schools to all but the most vulnerable children and those of key workers.

“That advice was frankly woeful, in that it came so late on, and when it did the list of key workers seemed to include almost everybody.

“But school leaders and their teams found their way through that, and then came the free school meals fiasco, where there was no support to feed the most vulnerable children.

“The government looked towards giving vouchers and the voucher system was a complete disaster, and schools have waded through that and came up with solutions to that - and then they found a way of educating children at home despite the ‘lazy’ narrative that some press outlets were reporting.

“There were no standards set, nobody had ever done this before, but schools kept education going and they kept it going well - and the support for that was late in coming, the technology was delivered late and, in fact, not everybody has got it now.”

Mr Whiteman also highlighted the exams row and now the lack of testing capacity as more examples of schools being caught up in national policy problems.

‘Blame-shifting on to schools’

He added:  “Now the support schools need for test, track and trace just isn’t there and we are beginning to see the very first examples of blame-shifting coming on, with [health secretary] Matt Hancock suggesting the reason there wasn’t capacity in the testing system was because schools are sending people for tests who did not need to be tested.”

Mr Whiteman added: “Well, there was pressure on the capacity before that anyway.  If you are telling me that one school sending more people along than they should have done [would] collapse the whole system - that is just ridiculous.

“It was a ridiculous thing for the health secretary to say and I am afraid it reflects the fact that throughout this schools have been an easy target and haven’t been recognised for the success that their efforts have achieved.”

Mr Whiteman said the situation was taking its toll on school leaders who need more support and more funding from government.

Late advice ‘taking its toll on school leaders’

“The late changes to advice is absolutely taking its toll,” he said. “And it was unnecessary during the lockdown, so while schools were locked down and only open to a number of children, the government producing advice that was poor, produced late-- always produced, it seemed to be, late on a Friday - and changing so often, was absolutely demoralising because it meant that the effort that was going in over the summer break was being wasted.”

The general secretary added: “One of the concerns NAHT members have at the moment is that lack of support. So not enough support for track and trace, not enough support for the funding to change the things they need to change, advice that frankly isn’t very good and comes late and is changed in the last minute and now examples of blame-shifting when problems come.

“What the public and parents can be absolutely assured of is that if classes close, if schools close, if children are sent home for a short period, that will be on the advice of Public Health England and they are doing what they need to do to keep people safe.

“It is in no way a failure in the effort and the success of schools.”

The DfE ‘needs to listen’

Mr Whiteman also suggested that some of the challenges that the government has faced during the pandemic could have been avoided if it had listened more to the profession.

“They need to listen to the profession - and I mean the profession across its breadth,” he said. “Not just those in the profession who agree with it. They need to listen to professional associations as well, and understand that the thousands of teachers and school leaders who want to be part of that debate bring something to offer.”

He continued: “We are in meetings [with the DfE] and we are giving freely of our views, opinions and members’ expertise in those meetings, and giving advice only to find that this advice is sometimes overlooked or only partially observed and then we see things go wrong.

“If we were truly being consulted with in a collaborative fashion and the government were truly listening to the advice we were giving, we would have avoided very many of the mistakes that the government has made - and they really need to learn from that.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Since the unprecedented closure of schools to most pupils in March, every major decision we have taken has been guided by the best scientific and medical advice and has been accompanied by engagement with stakeholders from the sector, including teaching unions.

“We made it a national priority to get all children back into their classrooms full-time, and published our plans for this in early July. We have kept the guidance under regular review to ensure it includes all the information schools need.

“Over 7 million children have now returned to school, with over 99.9 per cent of schools open. This milestone is testament to the work of school staff across the country who have worked hard to put in place a range of protective measures to reduce the risk for children and staff.”