no isolation in schools for close contacts of positive cases

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

It seems they will just test close contacts of positive cases daily instead. They only get sent home if they test positive on the LFT.

This doesn’t sound like a reassuring way of open all schools to all pupils. Can someone with a science background please reassure me that this plan is fine?

That’s been binned, not happening.

Have you got a link for this? I thought they'd backtracked on this..

They got rid of this after various expert bodies pointed out that lateral flow tests are appropriate for identifying asymptomatic cases, but are totally inappropriate as a control measure following exposure to a positive case.

Have you got a link to say that the government are reintroducing this?

I work in a secondary a school and got emailed a letter about this this evening, plus a consent form.

It specifically states it’s to allow staff and students to remain in school rather than to automatically isolate.

Dammit. I thought they had backtracked on this. It’s fucking reckless.

There's nothing to say this in the new guidance- the idea was scrapped a while back. Who was this letter from?

Suspect the school wheeled out January’s letter and changed the date without checking.

I think it's up to individual schools.

The school my oldest goes to has already said they're not doing this and that kids must isolate at home.

But I must admit I'm pretty confident that if a child has a cough or feels a bit unwell, many parents will do a lateral flow test and then send them in if it's negative rather than get a proper test, which involves booking and going to a place. It's a bit dangerous as this LFT is only 40% effective. I'm not sure how they're going to avoid that though as they can't simultaneously plug testing as the answer and also say it's not effective if you're actually sick.

The MHRA refused to approve the use of the tests for that purpose. I think your school is probably just wrong.

New guidance here this definitely isn't the case!

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/963541/Schools_coronavirus_operational_guidance.pdf

That is weird - I worked in a school until Friday and close contact testing had been binned. Seems a bit quick to have changed again.....

I think that's an oversight from your school.

But I must admit I'm pretty confident that if a child has a cough or feels a bit unwell, many parents will do a lateral flow test and then send them in if it's negative rather than get a proper test, which involves booking and going to a place. It's a bit dangerous as this LFT is only 40% effective.
That's my concern.
Plus, if you're a family who is in a financially precarious position and your child doesn't have symptoms it's understandably quite tempting not to do the regular lateral flow tests at all.

Unsurprisingly for our government, it's not been properly thought through.

[quote Cantaloupeisland]New guidance here this definitely isn't the case!

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/963541/Schools_coronavirus_operational_guidance.pdf[/quote]
Any chance you could point us to a page, so I don’t have to read the whole document?

Well I’m praying my school has just made an awful admin error. I’ll try to find out from what my local authority education bod has to say on Twitter. He’s usually pretty supportive of school staff and everyone’s safety.

I notice that Boris has glossed over details of school opening somewhat. He has just mention testing but hasn’t said in what circumstances it will be used.

@CurlyhairedAssassin

Well I’m praying my school has just made an awful admin error. I’ll try to find out from what my local authority education bod has to say on Twitter. He’s usually pretty supportive of school staff and everyone’s safety.

I notice that Boris has glossed over details of school opening somewhat. He has just mention testing but hasn’t said in what circumstances it will be used.

All pupils are to be tested twice weekly I thought.

School has that wrong, I'm afraid. The official doc (linked above) specifically says - (p27)

"Based on advice from Public Health England (PHE) and NHS Test and Trace, the testing programme initially included offering those who came into close contact with a positive case in schools the option of 7 days of daily contact testing (with self isolation if a subsequent test was positive) as an alternative to self-isolation. PHE
and NHS Test and Trace have now reviewed their initial advice in light of the higher prevalence and rates of transmission of new variants. They have concluded that these changes in virus mutations warrant further evaluation work and that daily contact testing in place of self-isolation should be paused until this evaluation has
taken place. We will update this guidance once this evaluation is complete."

@CurlyhairedAssassin can categorically confirm that is incorrect. Daily contact (serial) testing was paused a couple of weeks ago and isn't happening.

@Lemons1571 page 29 onwards is all the testing guidance

@Incogweeto definitely not up to individual schools. Should not be happening anywhere

Just read page 29, where it talks about the asymptomatic testing for returning pupils on phased return week beginning 8th March. That's fair enough. But you're right, nowhere in that document you linked does it say that LFTs are to be used for close contacts to remain in school, as my school's letter seems to be saying:

"School staff will be tested weekly for the remainder of spring term. Any staff member or student who has come into contact with positive cases in our school can be tested daily for seven days to allow them to remain in school."

Further down:

"The staff member or student will be notified that they are a close contact by the school. If close contacts agree to be tested each day for a maximum period of 7 days, and they test negative every time, they will allowed to remain in school that day. In this instance they shouuld notify NHS Test and Trace that they are a close contact through school and are participating in daily contact testing. If they do not want to take the tests, they will need to self-isolate as per the national guidelines. The option of daily testing does not apply to household members or close contacts of a positive case outside of school, who will still need to self-isolate."

This seems to go completely against the guidance document linked. Either my school has got this wrong, or the public has not been told that some schools are allowed to take this option.

Sorry, to be clear, that was taken from my school's letter from today.

Even if this is correct, I can't see many people taking up their offer of testing so that they can remain in school.

Given your letter has gone out so soon , I expect they haven't read the full document and assumed it would be the same approach. The government document is clear. (Caveat; the document says "should", not "must". So technically it's not law that this is the plan that should be followed, but schools would be very ill-advised not to.)

Your school has got it wrong. 100% promise you that there is no secret agenda that the public isn't aware of on this.