Agenda item

The Corporate Director Education provided a verbal update on the current status of Covid-19 within Education and schools. Although, the Corporate Director stated that the situation was a dynamic one and changed on a daily basis.

The Corporate Director advised that the number of cases had increased over the last few days and the situation was deteriorating in the Authority’s education and learning settings. There were particular increases in the children and young people category aged between 10-19 year olds. The Corporate Director informed that at present there were 119 positive cases across Blaenau Gwent School estate of which were 109 learners and 10 members of staff. There was also a number of the workforce self-isolating. The highest numbers are within Abertillery Learning Community – Secondary Phase, Ebbw Fawr Learning Community – Secondary Phase, Tredegar Comprehensive and Cwm Primary School.  The Corporate Director noted that these were the figures for the second week of term, which emphasised the level of challenge faced and reminded Members that these figures were likely to change on a daily basis.

The Corporate Director referred to the meetings with headteachers to be prepared for the term ahead and advised that these meetings included education, environmental health, health and safety and support services. The responses from headteachers had been excellent and a common position was reached. The Welsh Government infection control framework was considered, which advocates managed self-isolation for children under the aged of 18. The contact groups would be identified for testing and monitoring and this course of action was taken with a view to maintain face to face teaching and learning, where possible. All schools would be providing support for TTP services as there was capacity challenges in this area.

The catering and cleaning staff are fragile due to the number of staff self-isolating and the Corporate Director confirmed that this would be closely monitored along with the situation with teachers and learners as we go through the autumn term.

At this juncture, Members raised the following questions which were answered accordingly.

How are PPE supplies within schools?

The stocks of PPE within schools are sufficient to support teaching and learning. It had also been confirmed that hardship funding would be continued, which would assist with such associated costs.

Have Welsh Government issued guidance on vaccinations for 12-19 year olds?

The vaccinations programme for 12-15 year olds has been agreed by the four Chief Medical Officers across the UK and a WG announcement was imminent. The vaccination programme is currently available for young people over the age of 16 years.

A Member praised the Local Authority in the approach and actions being taken in schools. The Member felt that it was being handled in a positive way.

Concerns were raised around children being sent to school if there was a positive case of Covid-19 within the home and there were mixed opinions of whether children should remain home to self-isolate or be sent to school. The Corporate Director Education advised that Welsh Government had provided some flexibility to work on a local basis, but there was clear guidance in place that needed to be in place by the 20th September. Therefore, Blaenau Gwent was working with Environmental Health colleagues to ascertain the best way forward to manage the situation. The Member felt that parents should be advised to keep children home to self-isolate.

The continued learning and wellbeing of pupils was a real balance as learners had already been disrupted and it was felt that being in school was important for both their emotional and physical wellbeing. It was added that the priority was to ensure learners stayed within their respective school settings. There would be instances where learners may need to work from home and a great deal of work has been done on blended learning should the need arise, however, focus was on maintaining face to face learning.

The Chair thanked the officers for the verbal update and felt it was important that these updates are provided in order to keep our constituents up to date.