UK ministers to consider ending isolation rules for schoolchildren

Ministers are to review the controversial Covid-19 school “bubble” rule in England that has seen hundreds of thousands of pupils being forced to self-isolate for 10 days if one person in their group tests positive for the virus.

Sajid Javid, the new health secretary, told MPs on Monday he had asked for “fresh advice” on the issue and that the policy was drawn up “with the data that was available at the time”.

Javid wants England to return to economic and cultural normality on July 19 and to learn to “live with” Covid. He told MPs that it was not possible to eliminate all risk.

Asked on Saturday whether he would end the school “bubble” policy, Javid, who succeeded Matt Hancock, said: “It is something that I have focused on from day one on this job.

“That decision was made with the data that was available at the time. Clearly, data is changing all the time and we must ensure that we keep that under review.

“I have asked for advice on that and will hopefully be able to say more on it as soon as possible.”

Department for Education figures for the week to June 19 showed extensive disruption to education as a result of Covid, with 214,000 children off school and self-isolating, a further 9,000 at home having tested positive and 16,000 waiting for a test result.

Current rules advise all secondary school children to take rapid Covid tests twice a week, and the close contacts of positive Covid cases must isolate for 10 days. Younger children, who are not able to reliably keep to a set group of contacts, are sent home in class or year-group sized bubbles.

Schools minister Nick Gibb told the BBC’s Today programme on Tuesday that a government trial on alternatives to bubbles would end on Wednesday. The trial is testing if children in contact with positive cases of Covid can take daily tests and keep attending school if they are negative, instead of self-isolating.

“We’ll look at the data to see whether that is an effective alternative to self-isolation,” Gibb said. “We want children to be in school, it’s a priority for the government . . . but of course we do also have to deal with the spread of this virus and to minimise its spread in the community.”

The DfE on Monday told schools they should test all pupils for Covid on school premises at the beginning of the next term. Schools would be told about the revised guidance “as soon as we possibly can”, said Gibb.

Dame Rachel de Souza, the new children’s commissioner for England, said there was an urgent need for children to get back to normal as lockdown restrictions had been a “real trauma” for many young people.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Dame Rachel said the need for children to go in and out of isolation was “a really big issue” and was proving “incredibly frustrating” for pupils and teachers alike.

“With bubbles, I think everybody would like it if we could get back to normal as soon as possible. Obviously we have to be safe and we have to take advice, but it’s very, very restrictive,” she said.

The Guardian quoted a senior government source as saying: “We will have a different system when schools return in September which combines proportionate protections when someone tests positive with trying as much as possible to keep schools open.”

Russell Viner, a University College London professor of children’s health and government adviser, on Monday said it was necessary to “rethink all of our rules about schools” in the new school year.

“If all adults are vaccinated and can move around freely we need to think carefully before we put restrictions on the one part of society, our children, who won’t be vaccinated,” he said.