As reported by the Guardian, soon specialist schools and children’s care homes will no longer be able to access free COVID testing
As the UK returns to normal life, the government has dropped its recommendation that secondary school pupils should take regular COVID tests and special schools receive free tests.
Teaching unions and school leaders have expressed their concern that, without the testing, COVID cases could spread rapidly and families would be wary of sending their children to school.
The executive head of one group of special schools in the Midlands said “It’s taken a long time for us to persuade some carers that school is safe for their child but without testing we won’t have that daily reassurance”
The announcement came as part of the government’s ‘living with COVID’ plan, which included an end to the obligation to self-isolate.
From April, free lateral flow tests will no longer be available and most other free testing will come to an end.
The education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, has stated he wants the UK to “demonstrate to the world how you transition from pandemic to endemic”.
School attendance figures in recent weeks have been reassuring, though the latest ONS infection survey calculated one in 25 people in England had COVID at the beginning of March.
A group of education unions have sent a private letter to Zahawi, insisting that tests should remain easily available for schools, in order to best minimise disruption.
The director of policy at the Association of School College Leaders, Julie McCulloch, said: “The coronavirus has far from disappeared and all schools and colleges, and particularly those with vulnerable students, will be acutely aware that it might not take much for infection rates to rise rapidly again.
The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said: “Families want to be confident that after two years of chaos and disruption their children can fully participate in education and experiences without worrying about costs.”
“As the Conservatives’ cost of living crisis is hitting people’s pockets it couldn’t be clearer that ending free testing in schools now is the wrong decision at the wrong time.”
A Department for Education spokesperson commented: “We are now moving to living with – and managing – the virus, while maintaining the population’s wall of protection and communicating safer behaviours that the public can follow to manage risk. Decisions on testing will be outlined in due course.”
Plans are currently in place to extend the COVID vaccination to the parents of children aged five to 11 this spring.
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