Students: Coronavirus

(asked on 15th July 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to help protect older and more vulnerable students at greater risk from covid-19 infection when attending reopened further education colleges in September 2020.


Answered by
Gillian Keegan Portrait
Gillian Keegan
Secretary of State for Education
This question was answered on 20th July 2020

The guidance published on the 2 July and updated on 15 July sets how Further Education colleges can reopen safely for all learners, including those that are older or vulnerable, in September 2020. It has been developed in close consultation with the sector and medical experts from Public Health England. It sets out in detail the steps colleges should take to protect their staff and learners with a requirement to undertake full health and safety COVID-19 risk assessments and implement the September reopening protective measures. These risk assessments must consider groups that are most at risk, including learners with protected characteristics. The guidance also provides advice on supporting young vulnerable learners and recognises that young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) may need careful preparation for a return to full time attendance.

We have also produced guidance for specialist education settings including special post-16 institutions. This sets out the actions special education setting leaders should take to minimise the risk of transmission in their setting, highlighting additional or different considerations for special education settings.

We are doing everything we can to make sure colleges and other providers are as safe as possible for learners and staff, and will continue to work closely with the country’s best scientific and medical experts to ensure that is the case. We will keep guidance under review as we continue to monitor the situation over the summer and we will adjust and adapt our approach as necessary if more evidence becomes available to us.

The guidance is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-further-education-provision/what-fe-colleges-and-providers-will-need-to-do-from-the-start-of-the-2020-autumn-term.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-full-opening-special-schools-and-other-specialist-settings/guidance-for-full-opening-special-schools-and-other-specialist-settings.

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