‘Fake’ key workers take children to school

Beauticians and museum staff claim priority while firefighters’ pleas to accept their youngsters rejected

‘I am angry, frustrated and scared. I’m being asked to make lifeand-death decisions for my own and others’ families’

THE school closure policy descended into chaos yesterday as beauticians and museum staff arrived claiming to be “key workers” while firefighters and microbiologists were turned away.

Head teachers complained of being left to make “life-and-death decisions” about which pupils to let in, while facing abuse from parents.

Schools must stay open this week to provide childcare only for the most vulnerable children and those whose parents are “key workers”.

The list of key workers was initially expected to include NHS staff, police and delivery drivers. But the full published list includes anyone working in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure as well as those in the oil, gas and electricity sectors. It also includes anyone working in “food production, processing, distribution, sale and delivery”.

Head teachers warned last week that the list is “far more extensive” than they expected.

School leaders urged parents – including those whose jobs were included on the key worker list – to only use schools as a “last resort” if it was unsafe to keep their children at home.

But it appeared that in some parts of the country, their calls were not heeded with beauticians, hairdressers, museum workers and pet shop employees among those who arrived at the school gates demanding that their children should be given a place on the basis that they are key workers.

Tanning shop workers, nail technicians and dog groomers also turned up at schools expecting a place for their child, according to a survey by Times Education Supplement.

Jonny Mercer, MP for Plymouth Moor View, said he has written to the chief executive of Plymouth city council asking why it told all its employees that they are counted as key workers.

“I have had people write to me saying that one of them is a worker for a museum that is not open,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

“The impression this gives to local businesses trying to make things work at a difficult time – it’s clearly not right.”

Pets At Home, which sells food, toys, medication and accessories for animals, came under fire for telling its employees that they are included in the definition of “key workers”.

A spokesman for the retailer said they believe their employees are key workers, according to government guidelines, since people rely on its services to feed and care for pets. They added that “there is no question that NHS workers and others on the front line are the utmost priority” and their employees should only use school places if “absolutely necessary”.

Meanwhile, there were reports of legitimate key workers having their chil- dren turned away. Mark Atkinson, a firefighter from West Yorkshire, told The Telegraph that his child was “refused entry to school”.

He is trying to get in contact with his local MP to find out whether he will be able to appeal against the decision.

Mark Neilson, a microbiologist from Bury, said that he and his wife are both biomedical scientists who work in a lab that processes coronavirus test results.

But their children have been denied school places on the basis that they do not meet the definition of key workers.

Christian Wakeford, the MP for Bury South, said: “By the sound of it, the microbiologists don’t fit within the key worker categories but the list is still going to be fluid and changing as to when the demands change. They may well end up being key workers and people bumped off the list also.”

Mr Wakeford said that schools in his constituency have been inundated with children arriving yesterday, explaining: “Schools were expecting 10 per cent of pupils to turn up but [it’s] more like 30 to 40 per cent.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers, said: “We have heard from schools today about people dropping children off because they don’t want to be disturbed when they work from home.”

Meanwhile, Vic Goddard, principal of Passmores Academy in Essex, said: “I am angry, frustrated and scared. I’m being asked to make life-and-death decisions for my own and others’ families.”

Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, said: “Early indications are that the number of children attending school today is low, and we thank parents for making the right choice.”