Meeting of the Parliament (Virtual) 23 July 2020
Mr Greene has asked four questions. First of all, the Government has made clear that the planning assumption is to reopen schools full time to all pupils in August, and that is what we and our partners are working to achieve. However, we can do that only when it is safe to do so, and we must see the continued suppression of coronavirus in our community. Therefore, it is important that we make the judgment at the correct moment, when we can see some of the effect of the relaxation of lockdown that has taken place.
Mr Greene mentioned some of the relaxations that have taken place. We must monitor the data to determine whether there is any increase in the prevalence of coronavirus as a consequence of some of the measures taken to relax the lockdown, and we must guard against any of that taking its course. Therefore, the decision will be taken next week and communicated to Parliament next Thursday.
Secondly, on the return to schooling, all local authorities will open their schools on 11 August, as we indicated that they would. That is the start date for the school term. Schools must make individual judgments, based on the circumstances that they face and those that might face individual pupils, on whether it is safe for pupils to return. For example, we need to take great care to ensure that proper and effective transition arrangements are put in place to meet the needs of young people with additional support needs. Ensuring that there is local flexibility in that respect within a national framework to resume education on 11 August, as we have promised, will be a priority for the Government.
Mr Greene asked about the emergence of coronavirus in localised clusters. I suspect that it is fairly likely that we will see outbreaks of coronavirus within the school estate once schools reopen. The Government is currently dealing with a localised outbreak in Lanarkshire. We will take the type of targeted action that is currently being taken in Lanarkshire to deal with a particular circumstance, should an outbreak arise in an individual school, because we want to avoid having more extensive lockdowns than are, in fact, necessary.
Finally, I acknowledge that there are funding issues associated with the reopening of schools. That is why, as a consequence of my statement today, £70 million will be invested directly in the delivery of education in Scotland. That is within the context of two other factors. The first is that the Government has allocated about £1 billion-worth of public expenditure to local authorities in order to provide flexibility and support their activities. The second is that the Government is actively engaged in dialogue with local authorities to assess the proceeds of their cost-collection exercise on the reopening of schools, which have not yet been supplied to the Government in full. The Government will consider that issue in due course. It is important to consider the context in which the Government has, today, announced a significant amount of money to support local authority activity.