Planning for a Human Influenza Pandemic
Introduction
This document summarises the key points of the DfES guidance ‘Planning for a Human Influenza Pandemic’ – Guidance to Schools and Children’s Services’. The NUT was consulted on this guidance during 2006. Questions about the guidance, which is available at may be emailed to . The DfES public enquiry unit can be contacted on 0870 000 2288.
Background
Influenza pandemics are not new. Three flu pandemics caused public health emergencies during the last century and experts are predicting that another is inevitable and will almost certainly reach the UK.
No-one knows exactly when a pandemic will occur. Once a pandemic arrives, it is likely to spread throughout the country in a matter of weeks. It may come in two or more waves several months apart. Each wave may last two to three months across the UK as a whole.
The UK Health Departments have published a plan for how the Government overall will respond. The Government recommends that organisations, including those in the public sector at local level, should be as prepared as possible now so that plans can be activated when a pandemic arrives.
Planning for a flu pandemic presents great challenges because it is impossible to predict its characteristics in advance, for example whether it will be mild or severe, whether it will have minimal impact upon children, be severe across all age ranges or have its highest impact on children.
If, for example, the next flu pandemic were similar to those in the 1950s and 1960s, the elderly would be most affected. The 1918-19 ‘Spanish’ flu pandemic, however, had a different profile, with young adults most affected.
Current Government advice is that generally, people should try to continue their everyday essential activities as normally as possible, whilst taking personal responsibility for reducing their own risk of exposure and taking measures to lessen the spread of the virus.
Schools – A Separate Case
Schools cannot be treated in the same way as other organisations, because of the presence of children. There is evidence from seasonal flu that children secrete larger quantities of the virus, and for longer, than adults. Their hygiene precautions may also leave much to be desired.
Should schools remain open, or close, during a flu pandemic?
There is evidence that other infections, for example seasonal flu, spread less among children during school holidays than during term time.
It may, therefore, be the case, depending on the circumstances at the time, that schools are advised to close for pupils for some, or all, of a pandemic. Advice is, however, that staff should still be asked to work if they are not ill, caring for dependants or authorised to work at home. This is consistent with Government advice to employers across all employment sectors.
Local authorities and schools need to plan both to remain open up until the pandemic reaches their area and to close, once advice to that effect is received from central Government via the local authority.
Once advice to close has been given, the final decision on whether to close remains with the school. Normally the governing body would delegate that power to the head teacher. Head teachers could, of course, use this power to close their school before this advice is given, for example because of high levels of staff absence. The Government believes that where schools are advised to close, head teachers will share the desire to safeguard children’s health and will want to comply with such advice. There are no plans, therefore, to use emergency powers under the Civil Contingency Act 2004 to oblige schools to close.
The NUT would not expect its members to continue working in schools which have been advised to close.
During the period of a pandemic when some schools will be open, it is important that those schools:
- take hygiene measures to reduce the risk of infection spreading. These include covering the nose and mouth when sneezing, disposing of dirty tissues carefully, washing hands frequently with warm water and soap and cleaning hard surfaces, eg work tops and door handles frequently with a normal cleaning product;
- ensure that staff showing any signs of infection go home; and
- ensure that children showing signs of infection are collected by parents.
SixthFormColleges and School 6th Forms
The Government expects FE colleges and sixth form colleges to remain open as far as possible. This expectation also applies to school sixth forms.
The NUT is concerned at this advice and considers that in many cases, there will be practical problems associated with closing schools to only certain categories of pupils. Parents may choose to keep their older children at home, together with their younger siblings. This advice may, in any case, be revised in the event of a flu pandemic to which young adults are particularly vulnerable. In the meantime, the Union is raising this issue with the Secretary of the NJC for sixth form colleges.
SpecialSchools / Residential SpecialSchools
The DfES advises that some children in special schools, particularly residential special schools, have complex needs that can be met better in those schools than anywhere else. Such schools are advised to take the advice of social care and health professionals and then decide whether the disruption of keeping children out of school outweighs the increased risk of infection within school.
When will schools that have closed re-open following a flu pandemic?
If schools close on Government advice, the advice to re-open and any conditions attached to this advice would follow the same communications channels.
The Government is currently considering the criteria for determining when schools should re-open. This is likely to be when infection rates reach a sufficiently low level. It is possible that partial re-opening would be advised in the first instance, for example for children who have been infected and who have recovered.
Continuity of Education for Pupils
The Government expects local authorities to provide a reasonable level of education for children in their area if pupils are unable to attend schools due to school premises being closed. It is advised that on-line materials, such as BBC JAM should be used, where pupils have internet access. For pupils without internet access, it is suggested that hard copy work be sent by post to the pupil’s home. Schools are also invited to consider how best to support exam-year students.
There are many practical obstacles to such an approach. Many teachers will be either sick or caring for sick relatives and the NUT would not accept that those who are not, should face an excessive workload caused by the advice to communicate remotely with pupils.
Action Points for Divisions
The DfES guidance emphasises the importance of consulting with staff unions on contingency plans for a flu pandemic.
Divisions are advised, therefore, to seek the following assurances from local authority:
- that the local authority is working with local schools to put in place plans on how to deal with a flu pandemic;
- that such plans include the question of school closures and how these will be communicated;
- that schools will be given advice on additional hygiene precautions which will be necessary and that additional resources will be made available so that schools can implement fully this advice;
- that staff will be advised to stay at home if they develop flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle pains, sore throats, cough or difficulty breathing;
- that staff who need time off work to care for sick relatives should receive paid leave;
- that schools which close to pupils permit staff who remain healthy to work from home. This will allow staff to combine a limited amount work with caring commitments; and
- that support structures will be put in place to support staff and pupils who suffer bereavements.
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