Education unions are warning of chaos in schools unless the government rows back from a “reckless” decision to scrap Covid safety rules in England.
As announced on Saturday, the government is planning to scrap the legal duty for those who test positive for coronavirus to have to self-isolate.
According to weekend newspaper reports, the requirement will be lifted by Thursday.
Boris Johnson is due to meet with his Cabinet this morning before updating MPs in the afternoon on his blueprint for moving out of the pandemic.
The prime minister is also expected to set out a timetable for scaling back the availability of free coronavirus tests apart from for older and vulnerable people.
The prime minister has said his “living with Covid” plan will bring the country “towards a return to normality”.
But Unison, Unite and the GMB, which represent school support staff, are urging the prime minister to keep in place free testing and the requirement to self-isolate.
The three unions are warning that the failure to provide clear, detailed guidance risks a “super spreader free-for-all” in schools and other workplaces.
If remaining safety rules are axed, schools will be left in an “impossible situation”, the unions added.
Parents will be unsure about whether to send their children into school, transmission rates could soar and new, more potent variants could emerge, they warned.
Unison’s head of education Mike Short said: “Protection and safety are what’s needed, but there’s only confusion on offer from the government. Parents and staff are desperate for a return to normality - but not at any cost.
“The prime minister appears to care more about keeping in with his backbenchers than he does about the health of the nation.
“Rather than throw caution to the wind and jeopardise the education of children who’ve lost so much, it’s time to show leadership, put aside self-interest and err on the side of caution.”
Unite national officer Jim Kennedy said: “Once again the prime minister is disregarding working people’s and the public’s health - this time school staff, children and their families - through reckless measures meant only to please his backbenchers.”
GMB national officer Avril Chambers said: “You have to question the motive behind this reckless decision.
“We suspect it’s yet another decision taken by this prime minister out of self-interest rather than for the good of the country.
“Support staff have kept our schools open throughout the pandemic. They deserve to stay safe and our children deserve not to have their education interrupted any more than it already has been.
“The prime minister needs to act responsibly. He must leave free tests and isolation requirements in place until there is scientific evidence that they no longer serve a purpose.”
The comments come after headteachers’ leaders warned that schools were “in the dark” about what the government’s “living with Covid” plans would mean for the sector.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that the government’s plans were “sketchy”, and that he feared the detail that the sector needed would be supplied with “little advance warning”.
