Mr. Andy Pike:

For our members the immediate measure that would assist them would to be to stop hearing from Government representatives that education staff are now front-line workers. The Government should stop saying that unless it is going to treat them as front-line workers, provide them with the flu vaccine, give a commitment that they will be part of the schedule for the Covid vaccine when it is available, and provide them with proper PPE.

The issue of contingencies for school closures in respect of SEN students is a critical one. Plans should be in place so that if schools were to close - let us hope that they do not - the situation that we saw in March 2020 would not occur, where there was a considerable delay in getting assistance to SEN students, whose families were at their wits' end by end of May. That should not happen again and planning should already be under way on a contingency basis.

In terms of self-isolating students, many schools, especially at second level, are putting a lot of content online. As we have just discussed, there are problems with the availability of broadband and devices, but for self-isolating students, that is one way of continuing education during the weeks they cannot attend.