Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Department has taken to monitor the progress of children whose education has been disrupted by long COVID.

The department does not hold data on the number of children absent specifically due to long COVID.

Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. As set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ and ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’ guidance, schools and local authorities should work together to ensure that pupils at school with medical conditions, including long COVID, should be properly supported so that they have full access to education.

Both sets of guidance are available here:

• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.
• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3.