Covid-19: NI schools to get £5.5m for tracing pressures

Most pupils returned to class on Tuesday

Northern Ireland's education minister has acknowledged that schools are facing "pressure" due to the number of Covid-19 cases and contact-tracing.

Michelle McIlveen said over £5.5m in extra funding was being made available to help schools.

In a letter to principals, she also said that a helpline for schools would stay open for longer from next Monday.

Most pupils only returned to schools across Northern Ireland for the new term on Tuesday.

But many schools have already sent some pupils who are close contacts of a positive case home to self-isolate.

• Pupils in contact with Covid case can stay in class

• How are schools being kept Covid-safe this term?

New guidance for schools on self-isolation is aimed at preventing large numbers of pupils and staff having to repeatedly self-isolate for 10 days if they are identified as a close contact of a positive case.

The new guidance from the Public Health Agency (PHA) is based on Department of Health (DoH) policy guidance.

The guidance is detailed but generally pupils and staff who are close contacts and have no symptoms do not have to self-isolate if they have recently tested positive for the virus themselves.

If they have not received a positive test within the previous 90 days, then they can cut their period of self-isolation with a negative PCR test.

Contact tracing issues

But the task of tracing asymptomatic close contacts has fallen mainly on school principals and staff.

In her letter to principals on Friday, Ms McIlveen said she was aware of "a number of issues" for schools around "contact tracing, due to the new rules on close contacts, the numbers of cases and the pressure which this had caused in some schools".

• What are Northern Ireland's Covid-19 rules now?

She said the Department of Education (DE), the Education Authority (EA), the PHA and DoH had been working "to quickly address these issues".

She added that £5.65m from the EA in extra funding would "assist schools in addressing the current challenges presented by Covid-19 cases, contact tracing and asymptomatic testing" and there would also be other immediate changes to some operations.

An EA confirmed cases helpline for schools will extend its opening hours to 08:00 BST to 20:00 from Monday to Friday.

More autonomy

Ms McIlveen said there would be a "more focussed approach to identifying close contacts to mitigate the risk of whole year classes being sent home unnecessarily and the disruption that causes to schools, pupils and parents".

Schools will also be given "autonomy to identify close contacts without first contacting PHA, if schools feel able to do so".

The minister said that would "minimise" time spent by school staff waiting for a call back from the PHA.

She also encouraged all school staff and post-primary pupils to take lateral flow tests twice a week.

Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan said principals are "urgently seeking an intervention" by Ms McIlveen.

"I have called on the minster to directly put in place the necessary resources and personnel to support our school communities at this time including; the re-deployment of DoH and Education Authority staff to assist with contact tracing.

"If this is not possible, urgent consideration should be given to allowing our principals to employ contact tracers and this should be funded by the DoH."

Call for Larne testing centre

Meanwhile concerns have been raised by an Alliance MLA that the absence of a PCR testing centre in Larne means that pupils sent home as close contacts will not get a PCR test to enable them to return to school.

Stewart Dickson said that was causing "serious problems" for schools in the area.

"The lack of a centre has hit home today as a secondary school has had to send three classes home with parents complaining that they cannot afford or the inconvenience of having to travel to Carrick, Ballymena or Belfast," he said.

"Cost is a major factor for families on benefits."