Special Educational Needs: Coronavirus and Ventilation

(asked on 21st June 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to issue guidance to special schools on making adjustments and improvements to (a) improve ventilation and (b) reduce the risk of covid-19 transmission in those settings during the 2022 summer holiday period.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 27th June 2022

When carrying out works to make building improvements, schools should use the environmental standards set out in the department's guidance. The current version was updated and published in November 2021. This can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/output-specification-generic-design-brief-and-technical-annexes.

In 2021/22, the department provided over 386,000 CO2 monitors to state-funded education providers, including early years, schools, and further education providers. This was backed by £25 million in government funding. The monitors enable staff to identify areas where ventilation needs to be improved and provide reassurance that existing ventilation measures are working, helping balance the need for good ventilation with keeping classrooms warm.

In line with the living with COVID-19 announcement in April 2022, which prioritises the most vulnerable, the department has distributed additional CO2 monitors to special schools and alternative provision providers, including special educational needs units in mainstream settings, given their higher-than-average numbers of vulnerable pupils. These additional monitors will provide coverage in roughly all teaching rooms and some non-teaching rooms.

In January 2022, the government committed to fulfil all eligible applications for air cleaning units to state-funded education settings for poorly ventilated teaching spaces, where quick fixes to improve ventilation are not possible. The latest delivery figures can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/delivery-of-air-cleaning-units.

Maintaining adequate ventilation remains the responsibility of individual schools. The law states employers, including education and childcare providers, must make sure there is an adequate supply of fresh air in enclosed areas of the workplace. This has not changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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