Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:27 pm on 21 September 2021.
Business Minister, following on from a question to the First Minister last week, please can I call for a statement from the relevant Minister—an updated statement—on the advice for sending children and young people to school or other educational settings when a member of their household has tested positive for COVID? Obviously, this is causing significant distress for many headteachers, parents and young people, as children and young people are still being advised to go to school after a member of their household has tested positive. This is, of course, worrying and increasing because the number of people testing positive for COVID is increasing.
Obviously, our priority needs to be to keep our children in school as much as possible this year, but it has been suggested that perhaps children and young people stay off school and college until their PCR tests come back as negative. From my own personal experience recently, I'm aware that the results are coming back now within 24 hours, roughly. The worry is, of course, that more children and young people will end up going off in the long run if we don't manage this correctly. Therefore, to reassure anxious headteachers, parents and young people alike, can we have the current guidance and can you reassure us that it is in the best interests of our children and young people? Can we have a statement on that, please? Thank you.