"I've read in Gavin Williamson's statement that he says that the department had not done any planning by this point for school closure because their priority was keeping schools open, Coles said when giving evidence to the inquiry on Monday. I almost fell off my chair when I read that. I think that's an extraordinary dereliction of duty by the leadership of the department both political and civil service."
"Coles told the inquiry that from early March 2020 he and his team were beginning to meet and discuss the challenges Covid was likely to present. From 10 March onwards we were starting to communicate, really on a daily basis, about what we could see coming down the track, he said. And on 10/11 March we were saying to schools, we can see that schools are going to close in the near future'. I don't think that was based on anything other than common sense."
Jon Coles, chief executive of the United Learning Trust and former Department for Education director general, described the absence of DfE planning for school closures before March 2020 as an extraordinary dereliction of duty. He stated that United Learning began meeting in early March 2020 to assess likely Covid-related challenges and communicated daily from 10 March about emerging risks. On 10–11 March the trust warned schools that closures were likely. In the absence of DfE direction, the trust ran webinars to guide schools on how to prepare and respond to potential closures.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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