Webchat with Vicky Ford MP, Minister for Children, Friday 15 May at 2.15pm

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

We're pleased to announce a webchat about COVID-19 and schools with Vicky Ford, Conservative MP for Chelmsford and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, at 2.15pm on Friday May 15.

As lots of you will already know, the government has recently announced plans to start sending Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 children, as well as nursery children, back to school and nursery settings from June 1. We know lots of you have questions about this, and about policy and plans for schools and schoolchildren in the COVID era more broadly. Vicky will be coming along to give us the government’s response to your concerns and questions.

Vicky was elected MP for Chelmsford in 2017, and has been Minister for Children since February 2020. Before joining Parliament she was an MEP for the East of England constituency in the European Parliament. In a previous life she worked in finance.

Please join us here on Friday at 2.15pm. If you can’t join us on the day, please post up your question in advance.

As always, please remember our guidelines - one question per user, follow-ups only if there’s time and most questions have been answered, and please keep it civil. Also if one topic is dominating a thread, mods might request that people don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point. (We may suspend the accounts of anyone who continues after we've posted to ask people to stop, so please take note.) Rest assured we will ALWAYS let the guest know that it's an area of concern to multiple users and will encourage them to engage with those questions.

Many thanks,
MNHQ

Why is it being seen as so important to get children back into school, when children with additional needs often spend years out of school with no effort put into making any kind of home learning materials available to them?

Sorry posted to soon, please take this as a continuation of my comment above!

My child has no school to go back to. I've been told there is no suitable school for him. With all this push to get children back into school it would be nice if disabled children who are unable to go to school for other reasons could also be prioritised in the same way

Question: what is the government's plans for supporting kinship carers who tend to be older and poorer than other parents (many being grandparents and in the self-isolating group) and have additional needs and pressures.

I am a special guardian to my 2 nephews and we and other kinship carers I know feel desperate during this current lockdown. As a group we are more susceptible to Covid-19, worried about keeping isolated and who will look after our children if we get ill, and financially on a knife edge. We really need not to be forgotten by the government. One valuable policy would be access to hardship grants, perhaps administered by a charity (and funded by the government).

Follow-up: my nephews have special needs arising from their early life experiences, are considered vulnerable, and one has an EHCP. They would benefit on many levels from the continuity of being in school, and the rest of the household would benefit from respite from their challenging behaviours (which they display at home not school). However we have really struggled to get their schools to take them. One goes 1-2 days a week and the other has been refused. Both schools have said they are essentially open only for the children of key workers.

Question: do you have plans to work with the Secretary of State for Education to issue more forceful advice to schools that they MUST make provision for vulnerable children and those with EHCPs.

Thank you

Please explain why the advice is to social distance and wear a face covering- unless you are a teacher. Why are you advising groups of 15 children, when all other countries have smaller bubbles? (alongside track and trace, testing, lower death rates before children went back etc etc)

I feel my 13 year old son has been abandoned by the education system.
His year group were sent out of school 3 days before lockdown. I’ve had no personal contact from the school in all this time. Not one call or personal email.
The work set is of poor quality. I feel the teachers are not teaching. We are managing most of the set work fine , but at least the 3 core subjects need online teaching. It’s not good enough. The staff are all on full pay whilst I’m struggling to earn £25 a day in self employment. And teach him key maths skills that his maths teacher is being paid to do. This is not right.

Please can you explain the rationale behind pushing to open schools in 2 weeks time when

1. the death rate today was +400 compared to ~120 for the week ending the 20th March when schools closed to most pupils?

2. When the scientific advisor to the DfE stated to the select committee yesterday that there was a high degree of confidence that children did not transmit the virus more than adults, a low degree of confidence that they transmitted it less, and agreed that we are about to let hundreds of potential vectors Into classrooms that could transmit covid?

3. and finally, when the recent analysis by the ONS shows that there is not difference in age of people testing positive for covid (statistically no difference between adults and children.

Now I am not an expert, but neither is the scientific advisor to the DFE who is an economist, but I have some niggling concerns that when you mix point 2 and 3 we would be facilitating transmission?

Could you please provide clarity for parents of clinically vulnerable (not clinically extremely vulnerable or shielding) children.
The current staying safe guidelines say clinically vulnerable children are to stay home as much as possible, but not shield.
The latest school guidance on reopening says shielding children are to stay away from schools, but clinically vulnerable children are to follow the medical advice.
Clinically vulnerable children include all those with mild and moderate asthma as well as other medical conditions, so there will be plenty of parents now trying to find this medical advice on whether to return to school.
The charity Asthma UK has said they are also seeking further clarification on this.
My child's own gp did not know the school guidance said this, and said 'I don't know' when asked whether my child should return this week.
My child's school have said it is up to me as the parent.
This is a grey area in the guidance, and so I ask for further details for clinically vulnerable children please, or where this medical advice can be found.
Thank you.

What assurances can you give parents that it's safe to reopen schools?

I'm a parent governor and the Head of our school has said there's no way he'll allow the school to reopen in June. There aren't sufficient handwashing facilities, lots of the kids have to get public transport in rush hour, lots of teachers have underlying conditions or live with people who do, lots of the kids live with grandparents.

Latest ONS research shows kids get the virus at the same rate as adults. They may not get as seriously ill in most cases but they may well be vectors.

What evidence has led you and your colleagues to believe that it is safe for children, their families, and teachers to reopen schools?

I'm a parent of a pre-schooler and very disturbed about the effects that social distancing will have in the early years setting, but equally , I worry for the staff that care for my child daily. How will you be managing these risks? Will track and trace me in place by 1st June?

There are 115 Middle Schools in the UK teaching children from Y5-Y8. We are being overlooked.
Can you explain why middle schools should ask Y6 to return when they are not moving to another school for another two years? Would you consider Y8 a better year group for us to work with and support their transition to their High School?

Please could you advise how section 7 child CAFCASS interviews and home inspections will be conducted, to ensure that a true family picture can be represented to scheduled court proceedings during the Covid-19 restricted movement period; Especially as court proceedings are urgently needed and still scheduled with the courts?

My follow up question would be what information has been prepared to support children through the CAFCASS interview process Taking into account the covid-19 situation and these unprecedented times.

Many thanks.

What extra funding is being made available to ensure schools have enough soap, hands sanitiser, paper towels, sealed bins, resources for every child so they don't have to share etc. Teachers are already buying basics for their classrooms due to budget cuts.

Hi
Please could you let us know dates for the autumn gcse and a levels. I have children who have been affected by the cancellation of both. The one doing a levels always leaves it until the last minute so knows she will need to take the autumn exams. It is very hard to get motivated not knowing whether they will happen and if will be in sept/Oct or Nov
Will they be in all subjects?
In terms of marking and grades currently how will you take into account the fact schools may not have finished the syllabus. How is it’s that’s some schools are still allowed to get children to send in work for the grading system when others stick to the rules of no work since schools closed in March
Thank you

Can you explain the different approach of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to reopening schools when they have presumably all seen the same scientific evidence that England have?

How can staff socially distance in a day nursery?? Settling children, changing nappies etc??

Hi DfoE. You get alot of messages from concerned parents daily and probably won't read myne and reply, but here goes.

As you can imagine eveyone is worried about the state of the world right now and we are in unprecedented times. The UK is struggling alot with cases and deaths. I have been following your posts regarding getting our children back to school and how social distancing measures will be in place. To be honest, this will not work and will only make matters worse. There will also be a 2nd outbreak as young children will not be able to social distance due to not only their age, but their understanding.
I have a 14, 9 and 5 year old and 2 of them go to a SEN school. My 5 year old hasent got the understanding about covid 19 no does he understand why he's been off school 9 weeks and what the hell social distancing means.
Sending children back to school on the 1st June is wrong and its far far to early to be doing this.
My children will be staying off till September and even longer if the latest figures are anything to go by.
I think you should all think twice about sending our kids back.

Thank you for reading this.

The lockdown is going to cause a huge mental health crisis amongst children and the people looking after them. What is the government going to do to help mitigate this?

Will you agree to force the exam boards to offer an autumn series in all exams so that private candidates who centres weren't prepared to grade can get a result this year? My daughter is Y10 but was sitting a GCSE that she's studied for over the last 2 years. She doesn't want to wait a whole year and the whole point was to get it out of the way. She's very disillusioned.

Will schools be funded for PPE or to hire extra staff and space if that’s the only way they can open safely?
Do you agree Govt decisions to remove schools from council control so there’s no local coordination or cooperation between schools and to assess pupils via one exam at the end of two years with no module scores or coursework looks really foolish right now?

I am a childminder at no point during the publication of guidance for the proposed reopening of education and early years settings has it been mentioned that childminders have these children into OUR homes. We can't leave our place of work at the end of the day, we are expected to remove all soft toys and furnishings (we have carpets and curtains it is our home!) and other members of the household should not enter childcare areas (again this is our home and our children count in our ratios age dependent).
Can you tell me what scientific evidence there is to show that it's safe to have 14 different children into my house from 11 different families from 1st June and yet all government lockdown guidance says we should stay at home with our own families and not mix households only meeting 1 person outside at a distance of 2m.
Childminders have been completely overlooked throughout this whole pandemic it would just be nice to get some clear guidance relating to our specific roles of looking after multiple families in our own homes.
Thank you

I work for an organisation that supports EY settings. The last 2 months have been a rollercoaster of misinformation and obfuscation by the DfE who seem to see them as an annoying add on to schools. Will you commit to actually spending some time with small providers to understand what's really happening in the sector?

Please could you advise if year 8's in 3 tiered schools who will also be transitioning will also be going back as per year 6's in 2 tiered schools. There has been no mention, they seem to have been forgotten about.

If most young children do not become unwell with the virus and show no symptoms, can they still spread it to adults (who then take it back their household)? Can they also pass it onto other children who then take it back to their household? How can schools monitor if children have the virus if they are not showing any symptoms? What is the Science? Social distance is impossible, no PPE, how are staff and other children and families protected?

My children are in Years 10 and 12, the eldest has an EHCP and is shielding. I am a teacher and finding it hard to balance remote working and home learning input. None of us can return to school under current advice, what support will we have so that they have adequate input in preparation for exams next year?

The guidance tonight is that rotas should not be used in primary schools. However, my question is not about the hours of planning that have been wasted in light of this drip feed of stipulations.

Given that many schools will be at capacity for space and staff once the priority year groups (Nursery, Reception, Y1, Y6) have been welcomed back alongside the key worker and vulnerable children who have been provided for all along, what would you say to the parents of children in year 2 to 5 who will not be able to go back to school? As all staff will be working with either priority year groups or the key group, will the government be providing high quality online learning with feedback and support for these year groups and their parents?