Questions remain unanswered about how school places will remain open to the children of key workers, Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the NAHT, the school leaders’ union, has said.
In a statement he said:
The government has made clear that every child who can be safely cared for at home should be. And their advice makes clear too that this applies to children of key workers.
For the vast majority of children and young people, school buildings will close tonight and not reopen for the foreseeable future.
Taking up a place at school during this time of wider closure is the offer of last resort, for the minority of key workers, who have no alternative.
School leaders have many questions that remain unanswered about how this will work in practice. We will continue to work with the government throughout the day to provide greater clarity to schools to enable this reduced offer to be up and running as soon as possible.
NAHT
(@NAHTnews)“Taking up a place at school during this time of wider closure is the offer of last resort, for the minority of key workers, who have no alternative.”@PaulWhiteman6 comments on school provision during #covid19UK #schoolclosuresuk https://t.co/mxO6QHbGZl pic.twitter.com/dl5seZ5KL4
The Conservative MP for Lewes, Maria Caulfield, has said she will be returning to the NHS to support efforts to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.
Maria Caulfield MP
(@mariacaulfield)I will be returning to the front line in the NHS to support the fight against the Coronavirus , important we all help where we can @MattHancock https://t.co/39UFerXpkA
She told PA she had kept her nursing registration since becoming an MP in 2015 and would return to her job as a nurse alongside her political role.
Her announcement follows a call from the health secretary Matt Hancock for doctors and nurses who have recently left the NHS to return to help fight Covid-19.
Matt Hancock
(@MattHancock)We’re calling on nurses and doctors who’ve recently left the NHS to return.
We need you now as part of the national effort to fight coronavirushttps://t.co/eMzDyXe11q
She said she was returning to nursing because “the NHS will be getting unprecedented numbers of patients needing care, but also because staff are liable to get sick themselves.
“They can only go at 110% pace for so long and will need breaks themselves.”
In her tweet, she said it is “important we all help where we can”.
Good morning. As schools close to most children across the UK today, the government has published a list of key workers whose children will still be able to go to school, following some confusion over who would be classed as a “key worker” after the announcement on Wednesday. It includes doctors, nurses, midwives, teachers, nursery staff, police, transport workers and others.
Later, at the daily coronavirus press conference, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is set to announce an employment and wage subsidy package to try to protect millions of jobs, with many firms including Marks & Spencer and Next warning of collapse. Letters are also being sent to more than 65,000 retired doctors and nurses in England and Wales asking them to come back to help the NHS fight the outbreak. Train services across Britain are to be stripped back from Monday after Covid-19 caused a 70% drop in the number of passengers. And the Catholic Church will suspend public masses from this evening until further notice.
We will be covering the latest on this, and all other UK coronavirus developments, as the day goes on.
For the worldwide picture, do read our global coronavirus outbreak live blog.
You can find all the latest Guardian coronavirus articles here, including this morning’s edition of Today in Focus on social distancing and the new normal – here.
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