Schools return: Matt Hancock hints January reopening plans could change ahead of Gavin Williamson statement

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is expected to make an announcement on schools at 3.30pm on Wednesday.
Daniel O'Mahony30 December 2020

The Health Secretary has hinted that current plans for the return of schools next week may have to change in the face of surging coronavirus cases across the country.

Matt Hancock said the Government wanted to “protect education as much as possible”, but acknowelged that the new, more infectious strain of Covid-19 was harder to contain.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson would be making a statement later on Wednesday. Asked whether any further delay to schools reopening would be announced, Mr Hancock: “I don’t want to steal his thunder.”

Current plans for a staggered start would see primary, Year 11 and Year 13 students return to school on January 4, with other pupils beginning the term online to allow for the roll-out of mass testing.

On Monday cabinet minister Michael Gove said he was “confident” schools would be able to reopen as planned.

But as coronavirus infection rates continue to spiral across the country, Boris Johnson was expected to chair a key meeting on Wednesday looking at further delay for secondary schools, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Mr Hancock said: “The Education Secretary will be setting out his proposals later today. Clearly we want to protect education as much as possible.

“But the new variant does make it much easier for this disease to transmit. So we are going to protect education as much as we can.”

Mr Williamson is expected to make his statement at about 3.30pm on Wednesday, following Mr Hancock’s announcement on extending Tier 4 restrictions across England.

More than 50,000 new Covid-19 cases were reported in the UK on Tuesday for the first time since the start of the pandemic, as pictures of ambulance queues outside hospitals surfaced on social media.

There are now more coronavirus patients in hospital than at the peak of the first wave in April. Health officials have warned that the NHS is at serious risk of being overwhelmed.

London mayor Sadiq Khan said he did not want to see schools closed or the education of children disrupted.

“With the situation in our hospitals at critical levels, ministers must take action to reduce the spread of the virus and delay the reopening of secondary schools for in-person learning for most children until later in January, with the exception of vulnerable children and the children of key workers,” Mr Khan said in a statement.

Professor Neil Ferguson, a member of the Government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said schools staying shut may be “required” if it was “the only alternative to having exponentially growing numbers of hospitalisations”.

Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) members Professor Andrew Hayward and Dr Mike Tildesley have also suggested a possible “slight delay” to having pupils back on site.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told a Westminster briefing on Tuesday: “We’re still planning for a staggered opening of schools and we are working to ensure testing is in place.

“As we have said throughout the pandemic, we obviously keep all measures under constant review.”

With reporting by PA

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