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<p>The Department does not hold data on infection rates amongst (a) teachers, (b)
teaching assistants, (c) non teaching school staff, (d) staff in registered childcare
settings,<ins class="ministerial"> and</ins> (e) college staff<ins class="ministerial">.</ins>
<del class="ministerial">and (f) university staff.</del></p><p> </p><p><ins class="ministerial">For
(f) university staff, the department has asked higher education (HE) providers to
share information on their staff numbers and the number of staff COVID-19 cases that
have been reported to them. For the 183 HE providers which provided this information
to us for the 7 days between 10 and 16 December, our estimate is that there were 56.7
confirmed cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 non-academic and academic staff in HE providers
for that period.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">Estimates for more recent weeks
are not available due to: i) a pause in data collection over the winter break and
ii) inconsistencies arising from the effect of the national lockdown that began this
month.</ins></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Advice from the Children's Task and Finish group
is that children are at very low risk of serious illness from the virus, and there
is also no current evidence that staff<ins class="ministerial"> in schools and colleges</ins>
are at higher risk of infection than those working in other sectors. This advice can
be accessed here: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/948617/s0998-tfc-update-to-4-november-2020-paper-on-children-schools-transmission.pdf"
target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/948617/s0998-tfc-update-to-4-november-2020-paper-on-children-schools-transmission.pdf</a>.</p><p>
</p><p>The safety and wellbeing of staff, pupils and students in education settings
is always our priority. The Government is doing all it can to minimise the risks to
those working and studying in our nurseries, schools, colleges, and universities in
this unprecedented situation, while mitigating the impact on education.</p><p> </p><p>On
7 January, the Department published guidance to universities and students returning
to higher education in the spring term. This guidance sets out how we will support
higher education providers to enable students to return as safely as possible following
the winter break, by staggering this process following the period of national lockdown
and to facilitate testing for all. The guidance is available here: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950367/Students_returning_to_and_starting_higher_education_in_Spring_Term_2021.pdf"
target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950367/Students_returning_to_and_starting_higher_education_in_Spring_Term_2021.pdf</a>.</p><p>The
Department also published ‘guidance: Actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak’,
which sets out what all schools will need to do during the COVID-19 outbreak from
January 2021. The guidance is available here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak</a>.</p><p>
</p><p>On 7 January, the Department published guidance for all early years settings
and local authorities in England, which provides information on how the national lockdown
restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19 will impact early years and childcare
settings. This guidance is available here: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950653/Education_and_childcare_settings_-_national_lockdown_from_5_January_2021_.pdf"
target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950653/Education_and_childcare_settings_-_national_lockdown_from_5_January_2021_.pdf</a>.</p><p>
</p><p>On 8 January, the Department published guidance on actions for further education
colleges and providers during the COVID-19 outbreak: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-further-education-provision"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-further-education-provision</a>.</p><p>
</p><p>The Department will continue to keep our plans under review and ensure our
position is informed by the latest evidence.</p>
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