The government wants YOU to volunteer as a school covid tester

[noelgiraffe]

The govt have proudly announced that there will be mass testing in secondary schools, colleges and special schools from January.

What the headlines don’t quite convey is that schools will be expected to set up and man their own testing centres and that this make-shift testing of close contacts of positives will replace close contacts having to isolate. The tests pick up about 50% of positive cases so I’m sure this will be fine.

Covidy kids will be getting the bus to school to queue up and be tested by people who have watched a video and a couple of online worksheets.

Even better, they want those people to be YOU!

“The document says that reasonable costs for additional workforce will be reimbursed.

It adds that a school may want to hire temporary staff, such as agency and contract workers, or draw on volunteers such as parents, retired teachers, Red Cross, St John Ambulance and community organisations.”

If you can’t help in person, perhaps you can support by talking positively about this effort on social media and parenting forums?

“Under a section labelled “social media guidance”, the document reads that “consistent, accurate and positive communication about testing activity is essential”.

They want to see “proactive public social media using agreed materials” and schools are encouraged to “monitor your existing social media channels, parents forums etc. and provide any feedback”.”

Come on folks, do your bit!

schoolsweek.co.uk/7-staff-roles-2-hour-training-and-dhsc-sign-off-on-press-schools-given-mass-testing-instructions/

Silly question - when in that guidance it says "schools have access to rapid testing" does it mean "schools MUST do this".

Can schools say no? Thinking of, for example, special schools who have identified that it wiill be particularly difficult to test their students in this way.

@noelgiraffe

It depends on if they want to actually control the spread among kids, Appu or not.

Apparently not.

Yes I don't do conspiracy theories but this has always striked me as the plan for the under 50s in general. Immunity is the only way forwards for this age group as we can't vaccinate everyone. Not in the next year anyway. 1 in 11 are meant to have had the virus according to ONs. Not including kids or care homes (so more than that). On top of that we are vaccinating like crazy now.

Basically they plan too try and hit the nail at both ends!

Older people get vaccinations and kids get immunity antibodies by having the virus.

Just my opinion

Secondary school kids can swab their own noses.

For goodness sake, the test is pretty shite when done properly, this would make it totally pointless.

Might as well as a Magic 8 Ball.

Do people even want to prevent the spread?

It's not just the medical procedure bit, I'm not entirely sure that volunteers know what they'd be letting themselves in for in terms of the kids.

Y9 were awful today. Wet break and they were like herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically over the plain.

On that list of staff that were needed to staff this testing site, Y9 wrangler wasn't on the list. Who would be managing the behaviour? Teachers are all teaching.

Can we all sign up for the live event? It sounds interesting!

I pass thanks. I ready have to test myself every week and that's bad enough

@noelgiraffe

Dear god the circus continues.

In order to help schools prepare for launching this onsite testing in January, the DfE have announced a live event for asking questions. This Friday. The day schools break up.

They have no fucking regard for the workload they are putting on headteachers here at all.

I thought they'd never trump the time they released a teacher workload reduction toolkit to work through at the start of the summer holidays.

Or the schools opening guidance the Friday before schools opened.

But this, this is a mammoth task.

We were discussing today where on earth on our school site we could do this. No idea.

But won’t most schools have planned and for and be providing high quality inset for their staff on the last day of term, as recommended by the government?!

We aren't having an INSET as not enough notice. We are still providing an in-person high quality curriculum on Friday. Well I'm not as I have covid, but those who aren't ill or isolating are...

I don't know what people expect can be done instead? There aren't enough registered health care professionals to do this. There won't even be enough to do the vaccinations.

Chances are it will be a non medical person who does the vaccination. And if you're under 50 with no health issues it's likely it won't be until 2022.

@JacobReesMogadishu

I don't know what people expect can be done instead? There aren't enough registered health care professionals to do this. There won't even be enough to do the vaccinations.

Chances are it will be a non medical person who does the vaccination. And if you're under 50 with no health issues it's likely it won't be until 2022.

If there isn’t going to be sufficient staffing/funding/space to implement this idea which will inevitably cause an INCREASE of covid in schools, then it should not happen and we should continue with self isolating close contacts of positive cases until there is a better plan.

This is a worse plan than what is currently in place, so there is no need to implement a chance.

@JacobReesMogadishu

I don't know what people expect can be done instead? There aren't enough registered health care professionals to do this. There won't even be enough to do the vaccinations.

Chances are it will be a non medical person who does the vaccination. And if you're under 50 with no health issues it's likely it won't be until 2022.

They are recruiting, training and paying people to do the vaccinations. Although I’m fairly certain if you rang Hancock and suggested they could save a few quid by getting Kevin’s mum and her mates to do if for free then he’d be all over it.

Year 9, Monday morning, filing into the hall. Sitting 2m apart at the desks which were supposed to be used for mock exams. They've all washed their hands (somewhere?)
Kevin's mum says, reading from leaflet:

"Open the package and gently take out the swab.
Do not touch the cloth-end of the swab.
Put the swab gently into one nostril, you may feel a slight resistance (insert about 1.5cm or about half an inch).
Roll the swab 10 times slowly along the inside of the nostril. Remove the swab and repeat 10 times in the other nostril."

Alfie says "my mum changed her mind I'm not allowed to do the test".
Bob says "I've dropped this one, can I have another?"
Charlie says "how long is 1.5cm, miss?"
Debbie says "eww I'm not sticking that up my other nostril once it's been in the first nostril it'll have bogeys on it!"
Emma sticks it in too far and gives herself a nosebleed.
Freddie sticks it up his nose then flicks it across the room at Kevin.

Unless we genuinely believe that the government and it's advisors all have seriously sub normal IQ and the worst understanding of infection ever then we have to conclude that they really do not want to prevent or even slow down infection rates in school amongst students and staff or amongst parents of students. They are seemingly happy to leave whether it is also passed along to grandparents at the discretion of individual families.

They are not this 'thick' therefore the only answer is wilful refusal to do anything about infection control in above communities. Then you have to answer why which is either a) too cheap to fund it properly (but they've thrown millions at private companies for less effect) or b) actively wanting it to spread in above communities as part of their covid plan.

Unless you genuinely believe they are all really stupid and all of their advisors are teams of scientists and health experts are also really, really, deeply stupid you have to end up at deliberate spread because of a) or b) or another reason for deliberately allowing exponential spread in schools and their extended communities.

@JacobReesMogadishu

I don't know what people expect can be done instead? There aren't enough registered health care professionals to do this. There won't even be enough to do the vaccinations.

Chances are it will be a non medical person who does the vaccination. And if you're under 50 with no health issues it's likely it won't be until 2022.

I'd prefer to stick with what we have (isolation) rather than reduce safety in schools and do it badly.

This isn't even a good idea. Presumably they've bought all those crap tests they were warned wouldn't work and need to use them up.

George is now running around the hall with swabs sticking out of his nose shouting CORONA FOREVER

They are recruiting, training and paying people to do the vaccinations. Although I’m fairly certain if you rang Hancock and suggested they could save a few quid by getting Kevin’s mum and her mates to do if for free then he’d be all over it.

Yes, but they won't all be nurses, etc by a long shot. They will just pay Kevin's mum minimum wage to do it.

Just a reminder that the government has spent £22 billion pounds on the Test and Trace scheme so far.

And this is the best they can come up with for schools, eight months and £22 billion down the line...

It's shocking in its incompetence.

Interesting article on how mass testing in Wales does appear to have made any difference:

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/merthyr-coronavirus-testing-mass-rapid-19455218
What went wrong with mass coronavirus testing in Merthyr?

Was the rollout of rapid tests to everyone in the borough worth the money it must have cost?

@EndoplasmicReticulum

Year 9, Monday morning, filing into the hall. Sitting 2m apart at the desks which were supposed to be used for mock exams. They've all washed their hands (somewhere?) Kevin's mum says, reading from leaflet:

"Open the package and gently take out the swab.
Do not touch the cloth-end of the swab.
Put the swab gently into one nostril, you may feel a slight resistance (insert about 1.5cm or about half an inch).
Roll the swab 10 times slowly along the inside of the nostril. Remove the swab and repeat 10 times in the other nostril."

Alfie says "my mum changed her mind I'm not allowed to do the test".
Bob says "I've dropped this one, can I have another?"
Charlie says "how long is 1.5cm, miss?"
Debbie says "eww I'm not sticking that up my other nostril once it's been in the first nostril it'll have bogeys on it!"
Emma sticks it in too far and gives herself a nosebleed.
Freddie sticks it up his nose then flicks it across the room at Kevin.

Archie and Frankie swap their test packets over and think that’s really funny. Molly drops hers on the floor and refuses to pick it up because it’s got dirt on it. Molly cries. Jamie shows the teacher a text he’s just from his dad saying his brother has developed a temperature and he needs to go home now. Alex is coughing but his mum has told him to go to school anyway. He is coughing on everyone and there is nowhere to send him away from the others because the self-isolation room has been appropriated to store all the testing bags in. Mr X who is in charge of testing and did all the training is off as he tested positive the day before and Mrs Y can’t find half of the permission slips as they weren’t where Mr X told her they’d be.

Kevin’s mum, who promised to volunteer every day for the week hasn’t shown up and isn’t answering her mobile.

There was a power cut and the fridge went off over night. The testing kits were inside.

@JacobReesMogadishu

They are recruiting, training and paying people to do the vaccinations. Although I’m fairly certain if you rang Hancock and suggested they could save a few quid by getting Kevin’s mum and her mates to do if for free then he’d be all over it.

Yes, but they won't all be nurses, etc by a long shot. They will just pay Kevin's mum minimum wage to do it.

A paid employee is different to a volunteer. By virtue of being paid to administer the vaccine they become a HCP.

No one said it had to be a trained nurse.

But some random volunteer should not be doing this.

@JacobReesMogadishu

They are recruiting, training and paying people to do the vaccinations. Although I’m fairly certain if you rang Hancock and suggested they could save a few quid by getting Kevin’s mum and her mates to do if for free then he’d be all over it.

Yes, but they won't all be nurses, etc by a long shot. They will just pay Kevin's mum minimum wage to do it.

They’re (surprisingly) offering more than minimum wage.

The testing in schools programme isn’t going to achieve anything though, other than an even more rapid spread of covid.

But some random volunteer should not be doing this.

My school has already put out the call for parent volunteers. It will be interesting to see how many respond.

Plus if my experience is anything to go by the vaccinator recruitment programme is not going well. I signed up about 4 weeks ago and got an auto reply, then another email saying the pay rates had being reduced and they hoped I was still interested, that they'd be in touch in a week and then nothing.

I've now offered my services for free to the local GP practice federation as my mate works for them and said they are struggling to find vaccinators. And they're taking me on.

I've seen the national standard operating procedure , the only registered professional needs to be the one doing the health questionnaire/ screening on arrival. They then go down the production line to Kev's mum.

The problem I think is that even if they're just testing close contacts that's a heck of a lot of kids to test everyday bearing in mind how many kids we have self-isolating at the minute. Most years represented too. And as others have commented, every space is in use here. Never mind the staff to take on the 7 different roles. (And it doesn't mention who polices all those kids while they're waiting before and after.) Crazy. And that's assuming they'll all do as they're told.

The testing in schools programme isn’t going to achieve anything though, other than an even more rapid spread of covid

It doesn't have to. The lateral flow testing centre I worked in nobody came within 2m of anyone including the testers. Testers were behind a persepex screen in full ppe. One way system for people getting tested, clear instruction signs. People at various points in the lead up to the room enforcing social distancing. People took it very seriously. These were uni students getting tested.

I appreciate there's a risk of secondary school kids not behaving as well but if that's the case that can happen in the classroom, in the playground, on the bus, on the way to school. Not sure what difference a supervised, socially distanced 2 min march through a hall will make.