COVID-19 BULLETIN - 7th January 2021 - Lancashire County ...

COVID-19 BULLETIN – 7th January 2021

Message from Delyth Mathieson, Head of Service Education Improvement
We know this is a challenging time to be running a school, and that the virus rates and the
many adaptations you are making in response to changes in guidance will be taking up
much of your thoughts for the whole school community. Having spoken with many of your
representatives over the last few days I know that you are working on risk assessments and
plans with your teams to enable the safety of your staff and children to be able to deliver a
positive learning environment for all your children-be they in school or at home undertaking
remote learning. LCC is fully supportive of all our head teachers and the often difficult
decisions they have to make to protect pupils and staff and reduce the spread of the virus.
We share your commitment to ensuring all children get an excellent education and so in
today's bulletin we are focussing on staffing; allocation of places for vulnerable and key
worker children; and remote learning.

Arrangements for Recovery Planning and Implementation
Risk Assessments
If headteachers need any support in reviewing their COVID Risk Assessment or developing
a COVID Testing Risk Assessment, they can contact their Health and Safety Officer direct
or the Health, Safety and Resilience Business Support Team: tel 01772 538877, e-mail:
Health.SafetyCYP@lancashire.gov.uk.

Waste generated from coronavirus testing
While schools are not fully open then testing requirements, initially in high schools, should
be manageable. In terms of staff and pupils getting tested, it is important to separate out
the different types of waste that results from using the testing kits. The packaging can go
into normal black bags, but the vials and swabs need to be put into yellow bags and the
PPE into tiger bags (yellow and black striped). These bags should then be stored and
collected separately. Please get in touch with whomever empties your bins to secure
separate collection of the yellow bags and the tiger bags. Most schools have a council
collection, and the district councils have all been made aware of what they need to do.
However, councils will need to discuss with you where the extra bins can go etc. They can
also advise you further on waste separation.
We do need to prepare for the large amounts of test waste that will be generated once all
high schools are back and testing is rolled out to include primary schools as well as high
schools.

Critical workers
Schools are providing as many places as they can in line with their risk assessment, for
children of critical workers and pupils from vulnerable families, and are working closely with
parents to manage the situation. We understand that in many cases there is high demand
for places, and while schools are doing their best to accommodate all requests for children
to be in school this is balanced against a duty to operate safely in line with those risk
assessments. LCC are fully supportive of schools making decisions on this basis.

COVID19: 07 January 2021

Information for nurseries to share on maintaining social distancing
We have put together the below for nurseries to share with parents to support social
distancing at and around nursery settings. Please feel free to use this on your social media
or other messaging to parents. Schools may also want to use and adapt this in their settings
too.

With high Covid rates around the country, it's really important to remember the basic
guidance. We all need to protect each other at this time.
When you're dropping off or picking up children from nursery, if you can, please keep the
number of people coming to pick up a child to a minimum. Ideally just one person per child.
We know that some families can’t do this, due to work commitments for another
parent/carer, so other children might need to come with you.
People want to catch up with other parents and children while they're at the nursery, but
please remember to keep two metres apart.
Keeping your distance from other people protects you and them, by reducing the risk of
passing on Covid to each other.
Many people have Covid, but don't have any symptoms, so it's important to do your bit and
follow the guidance. By reducing the number of cases and the spread of Covid, we can help
to keep each other safe.

COVID19: 07 January 2021

Clinically Extremely Vulnerable Staff
In the National lockdown: Stay at Home guidance, the Government state that those who are
clinically extremely vulnerable should not attend work. Unfortunately, they have not yet
updated the official Guidance on shielding and protecting the clinically extremely vulnerable
since the national lockdown was announced. However, in terms of attending work, the
advice under Tier 4 would apply.
This advice relates to those identified through a letter from NHS or a specialist doctor as
being in the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV) category (CEV or shielding list). Those
in this category are advised to work from home and where this is not possible, they should
not go into work. Therefore, headteachers should talk to staff in the CEV category about
how they will be supported to work from home, and those staff should be paid on their usual
terms.
Those living in the same household as someone who is CEV can continue to attend work,
following the System of controls: Protective measures outlined in Guidance for Full Opening:
Schools.
Schools Forum are currently considering the impact of this amended advice on the Supply
Insurance Scheme and will be issuing an update to the scheme after they have considered
it next week.

Payment for agency workers
Where schools had supply agency workers in place prior to the current period of school
closures due to Covid-19, and the intention was to retain that member of staff until February
half term or later, the Local Authority's view is that the commercial contract with the Agency
should be honoured and the worker utilised and paid until the originally intended contract
end date. Ideally, the supply worker should continue to be used by the school, working either
on the school premises on the rota or from home undertaking school work. Schools continue
to receive funding for staffing costs, which includes the cost of any supply workers. If you
have any queries with regard to the use of supply workers, please contact one of your
representatives in the Schools HR Team.

Free School Meal Vouchers - Edenred
As covered in Tuesday's bulletin, we have been exploring how we can utilise Edenred to
enable schools to order term-time vouchers to support benefits-eligible FSM pupils. For the
Christmas Holidays (and the upcoming February half-term holiday), funding was provided
by central government as part of the Covid Winter Grant which enabled you to place voucher
orders free of charge to yourselves.

During term time, schools are financially responsible for free school meals provision and,
as outlined in Tuesday's bulletin, this may be in the form of food parcels or vouchers for
those children not attending school. To support you in this, we will be crediting the Edenred
account to enable you to place orders for vouchers to be sent direct to a benefits-eligible
pupil's parent or carer as per the Christmas voucher process. Should you choose to order
vouchers to support your term-time FSM provision this must be done on the understanding
that any orders will be recharged to your school. Any orders already submitted via the
system for term-time vouchers will also be recharged back to the school.

COVID19: 07 January 2021

Vouchers should be ordered on a fortnightly basis for benefits-eligible pupils not currently
attending school. If you are re-using your bulk order spreadsheets from the Christmas
holidays, ensure that any pupils attending school have been removed from the list. Schools
will be recharged for all vouchers ordered, so please check that you are not duplicating
provision for children receiving in-school meals. We recommend that you reconcile your
order forms with school attendance fortnightly. If your school is contracted to Lancashire
Catering, be assured that you will not be billed for meals that would normally be consumed
on site so your existing budget should be used to cover the cost of vouchers.

If you wish to opt-out of using Edenred in order to make local arrangements to meet your
FSM obligations, please complete the following e-form.

We are currently awaiting further information regarding additional free school meals funding
as outlined by the Secretary of State for Education yesterday. We will provide an update on
what this means for schools once this is received.

Post-16 Online Resources
The attached document (1) is designed to support schools in the careers education,
information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) being delivered to pupils in key stage 4/Year
11. The information has been provided by post 16 institutions across Lancashire to show
their course offer, onsite facilities, support for students, and how young people can apply
for a place. This information is intended to help support students in the decisions they are
making about their futures by showing what each institution is able to provide.
Due to the continuing Covid-19 situation, post 16 institutions are restricted in how they can
support schools and young people at this time in relation to offering open events, tours and
taster days. With that in mind, the focus of this document has been to provide as many
links as possible to things like documents, video clips and course information to make it
easier to navigate provider websites.

DfE Guidance and Information
Education Secretary outlines plans to support young people – Published 6th Jan
The full package of measures set out by the Education Secretary in parliament include:
    Remote learning - Strengthened minimum standards of remote learning: schools
       will be expected to offer pupils online lessons and a set number of hours of remote
       education for pupils – increased from the government’s previous minimum
       expectations. previous minimum expectations. The government expects schools to
       have a digital platform, such as G-Suite or Microsoft Education, and should provide
       at least some of their remote provision via video lessons – this could be done by
       school-led videos or using other providers like Oak National Academy. Ofsted will
       play an important role in holding schools to account for the quality of remote
       education
    Examinations - Next steps on exam alternatives arrangements: students will not
       be asked to sit GCSE, AS and A level exams this summer. The Education
       Secretary expects Ofqual to consider a teacher assessed system as a replacement
       for GCSEs, AS and A levels. A consultation will be launched next week and
       conclude swiftly to give certainty to schools, colleges and students, while also
       giving them the opportunity to have their say.

COVID19: 07 January 2021

   Free school meals - Extra funding will be provided to support schools to provide
       food parcels or meals to eligible students. The national voucher scheme will also
       re-open so that in the event schools cannot offer food parcels or provide an
       alternative local solution, every child can access free school meals while they are
       learning at home. Further details on the national voucher scheme will be provided
       shortly.
       Schools should work with their catering providers so that meals continue to be
       available to any eligible pupils still attending school – including all infants and those
       receiving benefits-related free school meals – as well as for meals or food parcels
       for eligible pupils staying at home where necessary.
      Devices - The government has committed to providing over one million devices to
       help schools and colleges throughout the pandemic. The scale of deliveries has
       now been increased. Every secondary school is now able to place their order for
       devices, and the vast majority will have received their full allocation by the end of
       this week. Devices will be systematically delivered to primary schools over the next
       two weeks, with the most disadvantaged areas being prioritised.
       Support will also be extended to disadvantaged 16-to-19-year-olds, during the
       spring term, including those in further education. Schools with sixth forms, colleges
       and other FE institutions will be invited to order laptops and tablets to further
       support disadvantaged learners to access remote education.
      Accessing additional mobile data - The government is working with the UK’s
       leading mobile network operators to provide access to educational sites. Schools
       can already request free mobile data uplifts for disadvantaged families, via the
       Department for Education’s website.
       The level of additional data for families will vary by provider, but for example Three
       customers will receive unlimited data and EE customers will receive an extra 20
       gigabytes per month. Other providers supporting the offer include Tesco Mobile,
       Smarty, Sky Mobile, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone and O2.
      Rapid testing programme for secondary schools and colleges will continue for
       those on site, with daily testing of close contacts available to students and staff and
       weekly testing available for staff. Primary staff will be included later in January as
       planned, and more detail will be set out in due course about reaching all secondary
       students as they return to face-to-face education.
      Ofsted - As announced in December, Ofsted’s routine graded inspections will
       remain suspended for the spring term but during this period Ofsted will conduct a
       programme of monitoring inspections in inadequate schools and some that require
       improvement. These will have a strong focus on the quality of remote education
       being provided. In addition, Ofsted can inspect a school of any grade if it has
       serious concerns about the quality of remote education being offered to pupils.

Remote Education
When teaching pupils remotely, schools are reminded to:
    set assignments so that pupils have meaningful and ambitious work each day in a
      number of different subjects
    set work that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in
      school, and as a minimum:
    provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher or
      through high-quality curriculum resources or videos
    have systems for checking, at least weekly, whether pupils are engaging with their
      work, and inform parents immediately where engagement is a concern

COVID19: 07 January 2021

 gauge how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum using questions and
      other suitable tasks, and provide feedback, at least weekly, using digitally
      facilitated or whole-class feedback where appropriate
     enable teachers to adjust the pace or difficulty of what is being taught in response
      to questions or assessments, including, where necessary, revising material or
      simplifying explanations to ensure pupils’ understanding

The Get help with remote education portal provides information, guidance and support on
educating pupils and students during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Additional
information includes:
     statutory obligations and expectations
     safeguarding procedures to follow
     resources and examples of good practice to support remote education
     information about how to apply for funding to get access to devices, internet
       access and digital platforms
     supporting pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
     support to help students falling behind including premium funding and support
       through the National Tutoring Programme

COVID19: 07 January 2021