Coronavirus: Plans in place to cope with school closures in Northumberland amid Covid-19 outbreak

Coun Wayne Daley, the county council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for children’s services, said that this includes developing plans to offer online learning portals and how food and meals can be provided to the most disadvantaged pupils.

Writing on Twitter last night, Coun Daley said: “I am aware that many parents are contacting councillors regarding the coronavirus outbreak and the impact on schools.

“I wanted to outline the latest updates on education. This will give some reassurance to you that detailed planning has been going on for a number of weeks.

“There is no HM Government directive YET to close our schools. This may happen in the next week or so but as it stands, they remain open.

“I have been involved with children’s services on continuity planning and asked for detailed plans to be put in place on some key areas of work.

“If schools are ordered to close, we are developing plans for how we offer online learning portals.

“We are looking at how we can offer food/ meals to the most disadvantaged pupils, who may be impacted over the loss of the school meals service. This detailed work includes how we might open kitchens, work with supermarkets and restaurants.

“We are awaiting information from the Department for Education on exams and how these are managed.

“Detailed work has been taking place for weeks and the cabinet is involved in emergency planning. We want to thank the amazing staff, leaders and partners who are working to help people across the county in all departments.”

Online learning and pupils on free school meals were among the issues raised by the leader of Northumberland Labour Group, Coun Susan Dungworth, in a letter to the authority’s leader and chief executive ahead of a meeting of the emergency committee on Monday.

It also covered issues such as social care, financial support and the ongoing provision of core council services.

That same day, the Local Government Secretary, Robert Jenrick, told council leaders that the Government stands ready to do whatever is necessary to support councils in their response to coronavirus.

He reaffirmed a commitment to supporting councils to focus their efforts on the priority area of social care, providing vital support for vulnerable people and supporting their local economies.

Following the postponement of local elections from this May until next year, it was also announced that local authorities will be able to use their discretion on deadlines for Freedom Of Information requests and the deadline for local government financial audits will be extended to September 30.

Routine inspections by the education and health and social care watchdogs – Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission – have been suspended, while the Government is also considering legislation to remove the requirement for annual council meetings to take place in person and to allow council committee meetings to be held virtually for a temporary period.