Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi has been warned over headteachers’ concerns that tracing of Covid contacts is not happening among school pupils when cases arise.

Geoff Barton, tgeneral secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that heads have been concerned that NHS Test and Trace “appears to be doing very little, if any, contract tracing” of positive cases in schools.

And a survey of the NAHT school leaders’ union members shows that just 6 per cent have confidence in the current Test and Trace system.

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Data seen by Tes shows that 66 percent of NAHT members who responded to a survey said the Test and Trace system was ineffective or highly ineffective and another 27 per cent said they didn’t know yet.

Covid: Fears over Test and Trace in schools

The concerns from the two main school leadership unions come as the latest figures show that more than 200,000 pupils were off school for Covid-related reasons, with more than 100,000 testing positive for the virus and another 84,000 having a suspected case, last week.

In total 1.3 per cent of pupils have tested positive for Covid - which is more than double the rate in the middle of July.

Contact tracing was previously done by schools but since the end of last term this has been transferred to NHS Test and Trace.

When asked by Tes, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said it could not provide figures for the number of Covid contacts who have been traced in schools so far this term.

Mr Barton said: “We have received emails from members raising concerns that NHS Test and Trace appears to be doing very little, if any, contact tracing of close contacts of positive cases. We don’t know whether this is a localised issue or whether it is more widespread, but it is obviously of concern.”

For most of the past academic year schools had been identifying and sending home contacts to isolate - including whole-class bubbles if a pupil tested positive for the virus.

However, the system has been relaxed and schools have been taken largely out of the equation.

NHS Test and Trace was tasked with carrying out the contact tracing in schools at the end of the last academic year.

And in August the rules changed so that anyone who is under 18 or has been double vaccinated that is identified as a contact of someone who has tested positive for coronavirus is asked to do a PCR test rather than self-isolate. 

But headteachers are reporting that pupils with Covid and their families are not even being asked who their close contacts are in schools - meaning no other pupils are asked to take a PCR test as a result.

Mr Barton added: “The rules on close contacts have been greatly relaxed since last academic year, and the procedure is now for NHS Test and Trace to make contact and advise anyone identified as a close contact to take a PCR test.

‘If this isn’t happening, the risk of cases in class is greater’

“If this is not happening, or is not happening very often, then the risk of asymptomatic cases being in the classroom is obviously greater. We have raised this issue with the new education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, and asked him to ensure that contact tracing does happen.”

James Bowen, director of policy for school leaders’ union the NAHT, said: “We are certainly hearing from school leaders who are concerned about the way Test and Trace is operating and the impact that’s having on schools. The feedback we are hearing is that very few children are actually being identified as close contacts as a result of their interactions in classrooms.”

Simon Kidwell, the headteacher of a primary school in Cheshire and an NAHT national executive member, told Tes that to date his school has had 27 pupils test positive for Covid but none of these have been asked who their close contacts might be at school.

“The families have been asked about things like after-school clubs but they have not been asked who their contacts would be in a school,” he said.

Mr Kidwell said that the removal of school bubbles has also meant that identifying all of a pupil’s potential contacts would be more difficult.

“I think this needs to be looked at on a case-by-case basis but in schools where there has been an outbreak, there does need to be more contact tracing done,” he added.

When NHS Test and Trace took over contact tracing in schools in July, heads were told to only expect “a very small number of close contacts” to be identified on average for each case.”

A government spokesperson said: ““Education and childcare settings have done a brilliant job in identifying contacts over the course of the pandemic, but it is very resource-intensive. NHS Test and Trace already manage the contact tracing process for the rest of society and have expertise in supporting people to identify close contacts.

“We strongly encourage all close contacts to take a PCR test as soon as possible, and to test regularly using lateral flow tests, while schools are encouraged to maintain good hygiene and ventilation aided by our rollout of over 300,000 carbon-dioxide monitors to classrooms.”