Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of schools in York that have adequate ventilation to prevent the spread of covid-19.

During the autumn term, we provided over 353,000 carbon dioxide monitors to all state-funded education providers, including early years, schools and further education providers, backed by £25 million in government funding. Feedback suggests that schools are finding the monitors helpful to manage ventilation and, in the majority of schools, colleges and nurseries, existing ventilation measures are sufficient.

Maintaining adequate ventilation remains the responsibility of individual providers. Where an area of poor ventilation has been identified that cannot be resolved through simple measures such as opening doors and windows, schools are advised to explore what remedial works may be required to improve ventilation. Where it is not possible to maintain adequate ventilation, it may be appropriate to consider the use of an air cleaning unit while the underlying ventilation issue is addressed.

When used properly, air cleaning units can help reduce airborne contaminants in a poorly ventilated space, including viruses like COVID-19. Air cleaning units are not a substitute for ventilation and should never be used as a reason to reduce ventilation. They are not necessary in spaces that are adequately ventilated.

The department is also making up to 8,000 air cleaning units available for poorly ventilated teaching spaces in state-funded education providers, where quick fixes to improve ventilation are not possible.

State funded schools, further colleges and early years providers can apply for a funded air cleaning unit if they meet strict eligibility criteria. For further information on these criteria and application process is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K9jZhgH1fjbBvYKg2b4sjIMiVWrQK1vH/view. We will prioritise spaces with the poorest ventilation to receive units based on criteria such as carbon dioxide levels and occupation density.

Deliveries of air cleaning units will start from this week to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) providers. These were allocated in the first application round announced in November 2021. The second round of applications is open until 9am on 17 January 2022. All state funded schools, colleges and nurseries can apply.  Special and AP providers that were not successful or did not apply in the first round are also eligible to apply in this round. Once applications have closed, all applications will be assessed against strict criteria and allocated to providers based on need. Providers with successful applications will be contacted individually to arrange delivery, with deliveries expected from February 2022.

For those providers that are not eligible for funded units, the online marketplace provides a route to purchasing air cleaning units directly from suppliers at a suitable specification and competitive price. Further information is available here: https://s107t01-webapp-v2-01.azurewebsites.net/list/air-cleaning.

Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, we have emphasised the importance of ventilation and provided guidance to providers on ventilation requirements. In addition to our existing guidance on ventilation, we have given providers guidance on how to use the air cleaning units as well as how to order a unit via the marketplace. The application process has been communicated to providers via our daily bulletin, and we continue to support providers with their queries via the department’s Coronavirus Helpline.