Thousands of children and teachers are unable to come to school because they can’t get tested for Covid-19 symptoms, school leaders have revealed.
The Association of School and College Leaders said that schools cannot open under these conditions and heads are “rightly furious” about the situation.
The union’s head of policy Julie McCulloch suggested that the government is undermining its own guidance for schools reopening, which said that it would ensure tests would be “accessible, fast and convenient” and that those working in education would have priority access.
And the union’s general secretary Geoff Barton accused the health secretary Matt Hancock of being in denial about the problem.
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Ms McCulloch has revealed that the union has already had more than 200 schools or college leaders warning that staff or students could not get tests.
The news comes amid warnings that the lack of capacity for Covid-19 testing is undermining the drive to keep schools open.
ASCL produced a bulletin yesterday asking its members for their experiences accessing public tests for Covid-19.
Ms McCulloch said: “Within two hours of sending out this bulletin, we’d received more than 100 responses with details of symptomatic staff or pupils unable to access tests, and so having to self-isolate.
“School and college leaders [are] rightly furious. They can’t stay open under these conditions.”
She added: “[We have had] over 200 messages now from school and college leaders. Symptomatic staff and pupils spending hours trying to book tests, only to be told none are available or they have to travel hundreds of miles.
“Thousands of children and teachers unable to come into school.
“Government guidance for fully opening schools: ‘The government will ensure that it is as easy as possible to get a test through a wide range of routes that are locally accessible, fast and convenient...Anyone involved in education or childcare [will] have priority access’.”
The union also warned that the supplies of just 10 home testing kits per school were already being rapidly depleted.
And ASCL also said that even when tests had taken place, this was not the end of the problems.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We are very concerned that the fantastic work of schools and colleges in putting in place a raft of safety measures in order to fully reopen for the autumn term is at risk of being derailed by a lack of capacity in the test and trace system.
“This is not a criticism of the health workers involved, who are having to operate under great pressure, and are doing their very best in difficult circumstances.
“Our frustration is with the government which has failed to live up to its promise to ensure that the test and trace system is able to meet the level of demand that it must have been perfectly obvious would be needed.
“Even now, the health secretary seems to be in denial, choosing to blame people for seeking tests when they are not eligible, rather than addressing the problem.”
Some school leaders reported that it was taking three days or more for test results to be returned, and when there were positive Covid cases, a number said they had experienced difficulty in getting through to local health protection teams for guidance and support.
One school leader said: “I have approximately 10 pupils who are at home with symptoms all of whom are waiting for tests.
“Most have only been able to get postal tests, none have been able to get tests locally within seven days. Potentially I could have a number of positive cases linked to my school and not know it.”
Another said: “In our area we have had staff and students being asked to travel over 200 miles for a test and being told no home tests are available. This adds to the time staff are absent, putting more pressure on their colleagues and for some staff and students these sorts of distances are not realistic when they feel unwell or due to the very limited public transport in this area.”
The news comes after widespread reports of teachers and pupils being unable to get tests or being directed to testing centres hundreds of miles from their home.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has said that the situation has descended into an “absolute shambles”.
