Decisions to close schools under the microscopepublished at 14:39 GMT
Nick Triggle
Health correspondent
One of the most contentious decisions during the pandemic
was to close schools – except for the children of key workers and some
vulnerable children – UK-wide in March 2020 and January 2021.
Up until mid-March 2020 the assumption, and much of the
planning within government, had been based on the premise that schools would
remain open.
Many have questioned how well pupils were supported when
learning moved online. And why, at points, shops, pubs and hairdressers were
able to re-open before schools.
There are wider questions too. As the then-president of the
Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Prof Russell Viner, warned: “When
we close schools we close their lives.”
Image source, PA Media
Mental health suffered and vulnerable children were put at greater risk of abuse.
At the time, Anne Longfield, who was the children’s commissioner during the first year of the pandemic, said it was making abuse invisible.
And it was not just schools. At various points children’s sport and other activities were banned. In evidence to the inquiry, Boris Johnson has said the rules probably went “too far” for children.
There is a whole separate module on children and young people – but Baroness Hallett will address some of the big decisions that affect children in this report too.
