Management Information Sheet
Managing COVID-19 in education
- Recent changes to Coronavirus legislation
- Maintaining face to face education
- Conditions of funding for the 12-15-year-old school vaccination programme.
- Ventilation
- Contacting the Norfolk Outbreak Management Centre
- Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) settings
Changes to Coronavirus legislation and requirements
The governments announcement to recall the remainder of the Coronavirus legislation signals the next phase in the response to the pandemic. The public health guidance that has been in place and you have all been operating to over the last 2 years will remain and the areas like isolation that were covered by legislation will now be included in this guidance. Therefore, until the end of March there is generally little change in the public health messages. The principles of hands, face, space and fresh air remain key to infection control, guidance on the protection of more vulnerable people are still in place and we continue to ask people to act responsibly by staying at home and away from others if they have symptoms or test positive for COVID-19.
A summary of the changes is provided below.
From 21.02:
- Regular asymptomatic testing in mainstream education and childcare settings is no longer recommended by government. However, while test kits are still freely available (until end March) settings may wish to continue to ask pupils and staff to do so, particularly if they have been to, or before attending, a high risk situation e.g. crowded indoor social event, they are a close contact of a household positive case or have stayed overnight in a positive household. They will need to obtain test kits from community routes to do this.
- Staff and students of secondary age and above in SEND settings, alternative provision settings, and SEND units within mainstream settings, or equivalent in further education colleges, should continue twice-weekly testing. Further information is available in the guidance.
- You may be asked to reintroduce testing by Public Health in the event of enduring transmission. All education settings will continue to be able to order self-test kits for groups of staff, pupils and students in these circumstances. The DFE has produced FAQ on testing you may find helpful.
- Anyone with symptoms should continue to book a free NHS PCR test and follow the latest guidance.
- Please continue to promote vaccinations. These are a key tool to reducing the impact of COVID-19.
From 24.02:
- There will be no legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test. However, public health advice remains that adults and children who test positive should stay at home and avoid contact with other people for at least 5 full days and then continue to follow the guidance until they have received 2 negative test results on consecutive days.
- Public health advice is that where a staff member or child is symptomatic or has been confirmed as COVID positive but still wishes to attend the setting, you should follow your established policy in relation to any other communicable disease such as chicken pox or norovirus and the person should keep away from setting in line with the above.
- Routine national and local contact tracing will end and reliance will be placed upon positive cases making their relevant contacts aware. Contacts will no longer be required to self-isolate or take daily tests, although while asymptomatic kits are still freely available testing is advisable and guidance to take extra care to keep others safe will remain. You may wish to communicate to your school community regarding this to help people do the right thing.
From 01.04:
- Free universal symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for the general public in England will end although some higher risks groups may still be able to freely access testing in some way. The details of this are not yet clear. This will clearly have implications for your school absence/infection control policy as it becomes more difficult to distinguish between Coronavirus and other respiratory viral infections. You may therefore wish to think about how you will reflect this in your policies.
As soon as we receive the detailed guidance on these areas we will refresh and update the guidance available on the Norfolk Schools site.
Maintaining face-to-face education
As a reminder, the DfE have published case studies on developing and adopting flexible learning approaches which may offer some help with managing staff shortages and maintaining face-to-face education wherever possible.
In extreme cases where there is insufficient staff to safely keep a class open, you may decide to make an operational decision to temporarily close a class and provide remote education as an alternative, while prioritising the face-to-face education of vulnerable students and where possible the children and young people of critical workers.
Norfolk Outbreak Management Centre (OMC) continues to provide specialist public health advice to settings to support delivering this priority in a way that best manages the Covid-19 risk. Please note that Public Health is very unlikely to recommend a partial or full closure to manage an outbreak of COVID-19.
So called 'circuit breaker' closures are not recommended without further specialist public health advice, as 'circuit breaker' closures are not an effective means of stemming transmission. Operational decisions made by headteachers when considering general health and safety and the impact of staff absence on safe operations should be clearly identified as such.
Please continue to consult the compliance code for all educational settings for information regarding infection control measures, and the Management of cases guidance to help in response to an outbreak in your setting.
Conditions of funding for the 12 to 15-year-old school vaccination programme
The DfE have published the conditions of funding for the 12 to 15-year-old vaccination programme funding for schools which includes information on allocation amounts, eligibility and payments.
Further guidance on how to work with and support your school age immunisation service (SAIS) can be found in the DfE Vaccines document sharing platform.
Ventilation
Please note that the DfE Ventilation google platform now has additional resources. The DfE have also made available the following videos:
We would highly recommend viewing the videos and reviewing the resources provided as ventilation will likely remain a key part of baseline mitigation measures as we move to a new stage of living alongside COVID-19 as "business as usual".
Contacting the Norfolk Outbreak Management Centre
Settings should continue to contact Norfolk Outbreak Management Centre (NOMC) via the online form if they are concerned about an outbreak and require further support.
The Management of Cases guidance has been updated to clarify that if you have met the thresholds outlined in this guidance you may have an outbreak, however you do not need to report this to NOMC unless you require advice or support. Please note the NOMC keep an eye on case reports and may also contact you proactively regarding the number of cases in setting and your infection control measures.
Please note that the NOMC is no longer open at weekends and is now operating weekdays Monday to Friday 08:00-17:00 only.
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Settings
As of 21 February 2022, registered settings no longer have to tell Ofsted about COVID-19 cases at their setting. Please continue to notify the EYFS team at csearlyyearsadviceline@norfolk.gov.uk or telephone 01603 222300.
Please note: you do not need to notify the Norfolk Outbreak Management Centre (NOMC) of positive cases via the online form, unless you are concerned about an outbreak and require further support.