Covid isolation means schools are understaffed

TEACHERS BEING SENT HOME AS PRECAUTION LEADING TO ISSUES

LEICESTER pupils are increasingly being sent home from school because there are not enough staff to keep classes open – rather than because they have actually been in contact with someone with coronavirus.

The attendance rates at the city’s 128 schools and colleges have dipped as the end of the autumn term approaches.

Martin Samuels, Leicester City Council’s strategic director of social care and education, said just over three-quarters (76 per cent) of the city’s 57,000 school-age children were currently in class.

Mr Samuels, pictured, said: “That is typical in terms of our statistical neighbours in Tier 3.

“The key issue is that although the numbers of staff and pupils testing positive is really quite low, we have a very significant number of staff who are being asked to self-isolate through having contacts.”

He said that about 15 per cent of pupils and staff were being asked to self-isolate at any one time and, while very few of those individuals go on to develop symptoms, it is a necessary precaution.

He added: “One of the consequences of this is that schools are often finding it very difficult to operate through lack of staff.

“We are increasingly finding children are being sent home not because they have the virus or who have been in contact with someone who has, but because the staff who would operate the school are not there.”

Mr Samuels said the council was working with Public Health England to try to introduce a new testing system for staff who have been in contact with an infected person but has no symptoms. This could allow them to continue working if the test comes back as negative.

He added: “Nothing will happen this term but we are hopeful something may be able to be in place by January.”

Mr Samuels told city councillors in a recent meeting: “The infection rate in schools remains quite low.

“So far it’s about 1.5 per cent of school pupils testing positive since the beginning of term.

He added: “To put that into context, that means on average we have about 400 pupils who are either testing positive or are believed to be positive and about 150 staff.”