Sajid Javid says school ‘bubbles’ will be scrapped from July 19 ‘Freedom Day’ despite Boris Johnson suggesting the change will not be made until September as parents, pupils and teachers face uncertainty
- Sajid Javid said school ‘bubbles’ will be scrapped from ‘Freedom Day’ on July 19
- Boris Johnson previously suggested change will not be made until September
- Education Secretary Gavin Williamson will provide an update on issue tomorrow
Sajid Javid today said school ‘bubbles’ will be scrapped from ‘freedom day’ on July 19 despite Boris Johnson suggesting the change will not be made until September.
The Health Secretary told MPs ‘that on July 19 it is our plan to remove bubbles and to end the requirement for early years settings, schools and colleges to routinely carry out contact tracing’.
Mr Johnson had also confirmed that the policy will be ditched but he did not set a firm date for doing so.
The PM said the Government’s intention is to ‘remove bubbles and contact isolation for pupils’ amid mounting fears over the number of children being forced to stay at home.
Last week Mr Johnson suggested that the shift away from ‘bubbles’ would not be immediate as he said the summer holidays could act as a ‘natural firebreak’.
Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, will unveil the Government’s proposals for protecting pupils tomorrow.
Tory MPs have demanded the Government ditch ‘bubbles’ as soon as possible even if that means it is ‘just for the last few days of term’.
Sajid Javid today said school ‘bubbles’ will be scrapped from ‘freedom day’ on July 19 despite Boris Johnson suggesting the change will not be made until September
Last week Mr Johnson suggested that the shift away from ‘bubbles’ would not be immediate as he said the summer holidays could act as a ‘natural firebreak’
Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference this evening: ‘We are looking to move to a different regime for fully-vaccinated contacts of those testing positive and also for children.
‘And tomorrow the Education Secretary will announce our plans to maintain key protections but remove bubbles and contact isolation for pupils.’
Mr Javid told the Commons at the same time: ‘The Education Secretary will be saying more later this week but I can confirm to my honourable friend that on July 19 it is our plan to remove bubbles and to end the requirement for early years settings, schools and colleges to routinely carry out contact tracing and I will have more to say on how we intend to exempt under-18s who are close contacts from the requirement to self-isolate.’
The summer term for many schools is due to finish shortly after the July 19 ‘freedom day’ – the final stage in the PM’s lockdown exit roadmap.
Should the Government decide to ditch the ‘bubbles’ policy immediately it would raise the prospect of teachers having to adapt to new arrangements for the last few days of term.
Current rules state that children have to self-isolate for 10 days if another pupil in their ‘bubble’ tests positive for coronavirus.
This has caused entire year groups to be sent home following outbreaks at some schools.
Official statistics showed last week that the number of pupils self-isolating at home had quadrupled in two weeks to 375,000.
The Prime Minister said Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, will unveil the Government’s proposals for protecting pupils tomorrow
Ministers are planning to replace the ‘bubbles’ policy with daily testing to keep more pupils in school
The Government is planning to replace the ‘bubble’ approach with daily testing to avoid pupils having to self-isolate if they are a contact of a positive case.
The Prime Minister said last week that he understood the frustrations of parents and teachers over the policy but urged them to be patient.
He said: ‘They haven’t concluded yet so what I want to do is just to be cautious as we go forward to that natural firebreak of the summer holidays when the risk in schools will greatly diminish and just ask people to be a little bit patient.’