Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 December 2020
29. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Education the criteria which the school-specific contact tracing teams will work off, including a clear outline of who will be identified as a close contact in the school setting; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39972/20]
View answerAs the Minister knows, Sinn Féin supports keeping the virus out of schools and safely keeping them open. This necessarily means swiftly dealing with Covid-19 cases as soon as they arise within schools. It is good to know that there are school-specific contact teams, but we need more clarity on the criteria by which they will work. A lot of school staff and students have been in touch with me. They are concerned that they were not deemed close contacts though it seemed self-evident that they were. These people need peace of mind. What are the criteria for determining who is a close contact? Will these criteria be published? Are they being revised as part of the roll-out of school-specific tracing teams?
I thank the Deputy. As he is aware, the management of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in schools is led by the HSE's departments of public health. The Department of Education and Skills does not provide guidance of a clinical or medical nature. The contact tracing teams are led by public health professionals. The HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, has published a definition of a close contact in an educational setting, which was communicated to all schools and their partners in education. I will outline that definition.
In accordance with current Health Protection Surveillance Centre guidelines, a clinical public health risk assessment will be undertaken for all educational settings where a confirmed case has attended whilst infectious. A public health risk assessment defines a close contact as any person who has had face-to-face contact within less than 1 m of a confirmed case of Covid-19 for more than 15 minutes in a school day, or any person who has been in contact between 1 m and 2 m of a confirmed case of Covid-19 for more than 15 minutes in a school day. Other mitigating measures including face coverings, pods, ventilation, infection prevention and control measures or uncertain compliance with other mitigating measures are also considered. Contacts are assessed from contact with a confirmed case of Covid-19 during the infectious period, 48 hours before the onset of symptoms if symptomatic or 24 hours before the test for Covid-19 was taken for those who are asymptomatic.
This definition is based on international public health guidance. It is the view of the HSE's departments of public health that the evidence available to date shows that schools are proving to be safe spaces for children and their staff.
The department of public health has also facilitated webinars for school leaders on this and other public health messages. Furthermore, dedicated school teams have been enhanced to provide specific and dedicated supports to schools where there is a confirmed case of Covid-19.
The Department will continue to work closely with all the education partners and the public health system in order that schools can continue to be supported during this very challenging time.
I am glad to see the Minister engage with this - other Ministers would have taken the attitude that it was nothing to do with them - but I would like to see her engage with it more. She will be very aware that one of the key trade unions in the sector has made this a point on which it is engaging with the Department and the HSE on potential industrial action, which is a very serious thing we all want to avoid, I am sure. The issue of criteria is one of the key points, so if we accept that that is static and is not being reconsidered, that potentially creates a problem. There are also some contradictions, or at least difficulties, that have been created on the ground - for example, where more than one child in a school or a household contracts the disease. What is the date on which a child returns if another child at home has the disease?
I should point out that I appreciate and understand absolutely why this is an area of huge concern. It is an area of huge concern not only within education facilities but in wider society as well. I acknowledge the very close working relationship and the excellent work undertaken by public health on care of our schools and incidents in our schools. We have enhanced the school teams. Obviously, they are still led by public health because it is public health's determination that qualifies everything within the school, but we have added to the supports of the public health teams for the benefit of schools. There are phone lines in place operating on a seven-day basis.
As for the issues the Deputy raised that the partners in education might have, again, there are weekly meetings with the partners in education and public health. That is a very positive move and, I think, one that has been very positively embraced by the partners in education also.
As for the updating or changing of guidelines, public health has the freedom to constantly review and update guidelines as needs be. When they do that, we act accordingly.
Weekly meetings are valuable but there needs to be progress as well. One of the issues is communication. Part of this is the communication at a local level between the HSE and the schools. There are schools the Minister will know that have expressed frustration about that. In some instances it has worked perfectly and in other instances it has not worked so well, and I am sure she will be aware of some of those instances. There is a balance to be struck here, but there is scope under regulation 11 of the Infectious Diseases Regulations 1981 and Article 9 of the GDPR. In light of the overarching objective of public health, I think there is discretion for better communication between the HSE and the school. I think this would help in certain cases. However, there is also to some extent on a global level, in the overall picture, not enough communication, and the Minister has a bit more to contribute here. It was welcome to see her on the After School Hub, but I wrote to her a few months ago about some of the weekly briefings. We need more communication from the centre on the overall picture because when that is not there, there is a vacuum, and in that vacuum there exists speculation. I am sure the Minister will be aware of much of this. We need to nip this in the bud.
As I said, and I will reiterate it, there has been huge engagement between public health and schools. The school teams process is working particularly well and to general acceptance all round, including partners in education and schools on the ground. The school teams are doing a very good job, and that has improved and added to communication levels between schools and public health. Equally, the provision of webinars for school leaders and information being made available have also been very positively embraced. Officials from my Department meet with the partners in education and public health on an ongoing basis to address any individual and general queries they might have.
