Children: Coronavirus

(asked on 6th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what reference to the oral evidence session of the Education Committee on 22 April 2020 on the Inquiry, the impact of covid-19 on education and children’s services, how REACT teams are comprised with regard to (a) staff, (b) volunteers, (c) funding and (d) on the ground support.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 12th May 2020

Regional Education and Children’s Teams (REACTs) have been established to better co-ordinate how the Department and Ofsted capture information and intelligence about local needs and circumstances in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, whilst also offering support to local authorities where they need it.

There are nine REACTs across England, representing policy areas including vulnerable, children’s social care, special educational needs and disabilities, schools and further education. Membership includes representatives from Ofsted and the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). Membership is drawn from existing Departmental and Ofsted staff, so does not require additional funding.

REACTs provide a mechanism for the Department to coordinate conversations with local authorities across education and children’s services, preventing duplication. Through those conversations, REACTs discuss matching practical support offers to those local authority areas that require it. Specifically, Ofsted have to date agreed deployment of 242 staff to 114 local authorities, with 98 having started the deployment (as of 11 May 2020). The purpose of these placements is to assist frontline organisations deal with urgent activities related to COVID-19, or by back-filling roles that enable others to deal with urgent activities related to COVID-19, for example in contacting and tracking vulnerable children.

Reticulating Splines