Children: Coronavirus

(asked on 28th April 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that vulnerable children are (a) identified and (b) supported while school attendance rates are low during the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 7th May 2020

Our latest guidance on supporting vulnerable children is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-schools-and-other-educational-settings.

Identifying and supporting vulnerable children is a top priority for the government.

Attending school is a strong protective factor for many vulnerable children and young people. This is why educational establishments remain open for these children. We are closely monitoring the attendance of vulnerable children and encouraging attendance where that would be in their best interests. My right Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education has written to all education settings and Directors of Children’s Services in England to encourage attendance for these children. Around 58,000 vulnerable children were attending an educational setting in the week ending 1 May, compared to about 50,000 the previous week.

The Secretary of State for Education has also stressed the need for schools, local authorities and social workers to maintain contact and supporting services for vulnerable children and young people throughout this period. Officials from the Department for Education (DfE) and re-deployed Ofsted inspection teams are working with local authorities directly to ensure the systems and processes for maintaining contact with vulnerable children are robust in every local authority in England. DfE has issued detailed guidance explaining how education providers can support vulnerable children, including to monitor and encourage attendance.

Where vulnerable children and young people are not attending a nursery, school or further education setting, we have asked local authorities and educational settings to ensure every vulnerable child knows that their setting is there to support them and that systems are in place to keep in touch with those children who are unable to attend.

The government is providing an additional £3.2 billion for local authorities to manage pressure arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, including within children’s social care. The government has also announced £750 million in funding to support frontline charities during the pandemic, including those supporting vulnerable children. We are meeting regularly with the leading children’s charities to ensure they are able to continue to deliver frontline services. We are also continuing to support Childline and have provided an additional £1.6 million to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for them to expand and promote their adult helpline, so more adults will be able to raise concerns and seek advice about the safety and wellbeing of any child that they are worried about.

These are rapidly developing circumstances; we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.

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