Ms Lorraine Dempsey:

The home tuition scheme is different to the scheme that has been proposed for the continuity of education for children who are deemed to be very high risk. Under it they would still be on the roll of their base school. Currently, the only children that can apply for the home tuition scheme are those without a school placement and a significant number of children on the autistic spectrum fall into that category. Children who cannot attend school due to their own medical conditions and who historically have had huge gaps in their attendance at school are a separate category to those who are now identified as being at very high risk from Covid. There are also children who, for psychological or psychiatric reasons cannot engage in a school setting.

The existing home tuition scheme, even that for 2020-21, is still for the original cohort. Although it is something at which we want to look, it is not currently proposed to consider children who are at high risk or very high risk and who cannot come into the school settings, although they have a base school, for the level of access a child on the home tuition scheme receives, which may be anything from ten to 20 hours of teacher contact time every week of the school year rather than just informal remote learning packages. We would like consideration to be given to providing packages based on individual children's needs and home and family circumstances rather than saying a child is either over the line or in the home tuition scheme. To be clear, children who are considered very high risk as regards Covid will not be considered for the home tuition scheme. Children with medical needs who have already missed substantial parts of their schooling due to hospitalisations and so on can apply for the scheme. It is for those who have an existing issue with regard to school attendance.