Support staff have little confidence in government school safety plans, says UNISON

An overwhelming majority of school support staff don’t feel reassured by government claims that English schools are safe to open to more pupils from the beginning of June, according to a UNISON survey published today (Friday). Only 2% of employees felt reassured by the Prime Minister saying it was safe to open schools more widely from 1 June. Almost all staff (96%) felt ministers hadn’t put safety first when developing their back to school plans, according to the survey of 45,200 teaching and classroom assistants, cleaners, administrative, management staff, and technicians*. The primary, secondary, special and early years workers were surveyed soon after Boris Johnson’s call earlier this month for children in reception and years 1 and 6 to return to schools in England from a week on Monday. More than three in five (61%) of staff surveyed were already working in schools – on a rota basis or full-time throughout the lockdown – so are well aware of the challenges of operating in schools during the pandemic. Workers’ confidence in their own schools’ ability to be ready for a wider opening in June was low. Just over three quarters (77%) didn’t feel their school would have the resources to cope with the additional responsibility of putting health, safety and risk assessments in place in time. As well as the threat to their own health, staff were concerned about the impact of a rushed return on their own children. Of those wi...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: News Press release coronavirus coronavirus schools Covid-19 Source Type: news