COVID-19 Updates
June 24, 2020
** This information is received from the Government and regularly updated
23/06/2020
Updated guidance on shielding and protecting people who are clinically extremely vulnerable from coronavirus (COVID-19)
On 22 June, the Government set out a series of steps for further relaxing shielding guidance which will come into effect on 6 July and 1 August, taking into account that coronavirus (COVID-19) infection rates have decreased significantly over the last few weeks.
From 1 August, the Government will be advising that shielding will be paused. From this date, those people previously shielding are advised to adopt strict social distancing rather than full shielding measures. Children who are clinically extremely vulnerable can return to their education settings if they are eligible and in line with their peers.
Where possible children should practice frequent hand washing and social distancing. The Public Health England guidance for people who are shielding has been updated to reflect the changes.
The full guidance can be found here:
Thousands of children to benefit from free meals and activities during summer 2020
The Government’s Holiday Activities and Food programme will support up to 50,000 disadvantaged children across 17 local authority areas and help them to stay healthy and active this summer. Ten providers were successful in their bid for the programme, and each organisation will deliver at least four weeks of free activities and healthy food during July and August 2020.
The full news story can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-of-children-to-benefit-from-free-meals-and-activities
Update on the educational settings status form
Thank you for completing this daily return. Your data helps us build a national picture of educational provision so that we can focus support more effectively, monitor the impact of the virus, and ensure children are safe.
As of today, we have removed a further question from the daily return to help minimise the time needed to complete it. We have replaced the question regarding pupils or students eligible to attend across all year groups and you will now only be asked how many students or pupils are on roll in each of the priority year groups.
Over the coming days we will begin automatically populating selected parts of the return from the previous day to reduce the time to complete.
The educational settings form can be found here:
https://form-sso.education.gov.uk/service/report-coronavirus-form
The information below has not changed since yesterday.
Collection of guidance for educational settings on GOV.UK
The Department for Education’s coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance has been grouped by subject and audience on GOV.UK to help you find the information relevant to you. In response to your feedback, future updates to guidance will also include a summary of the changes that have been made.
Guidance on what early years providers need to do during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/early-years-and-childcare-coronavirus-covid-19
Guidance on what school leaders, teachers and school staff need to do during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/guidance-for-schools-coronavirus-covid-19
Guidance on what colleges, universities and other providers need to do during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/further-and-higher-education-coronavirus-covid-19
Guidance on what local authority children’s services need to do during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-childrens-services-coronavirus-covid-19
You can sign up to alerts on GOV.UK to be notified by email when new pages are published or existing pages change. You can set the frequency at which you receive these emails and unsubscribe at any time.
Sign up to GOV.UK updates here:
https://www.gov.uk/email-signup?link=/government/organisations/department-for-education
Department for Education coronavirus helpline
The Department for Education coronavirus helpline is available to answer questions about COVID-19 relating to education and children’s social care. Staff, parents and young people can contact this helpline as follows:
Phone: 0800 046 8687
Opening hours:
8am to 6pm – Monday to Friday
10am to 4pm – Saturday and Sunday
If you work in a school, please have your unique reference number (URN or UK PRN) available when calling the helpline.
Handwashing advice
It is essential that everyone washes their hands more often, using soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Hand washing with soap employs mechanical action that loosens bacteria and viruses from the skin, rinsing them into the drain. Drying hands afterwards makes the skin less hospitable to the virus. Hand sanitiser can be effective if soap is not available or the situation makes using soap less feasible (i.e. when outside) but using hand sanitiser provides none of the virus-destroying friction that rubbing your hands together and rinsing with water provides.
The latest guidance and video on hand washing can be found at:
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/best-way-to-wash-your-hands/
The e-Bug project is led by Public Health England and has a dedicated webpage for learning resources on hand washing and respiratory hygiene. E-Bug has published posters on hand hygiene, and covering coughs and sneezes, to display in bathrooms, classrooms and shared spaces.
The hand and respiratory hygiene posters and other educational resources can be found here: