The following communication was sent to members from NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman on 6 July 2021 in response to the government’s ‘step 4’ roadmap announcement.

Following the Prime Minister’s briefing last night, this afternoon, we have seen the Secretary of State outline what the government’s ‘step 4’ roadmap proposals will mean for schools.

I think it’s fair to say that while no school leader wants to see a continuation of the disruption we have seen in recent weeks, there will be a significant concern that the worsening situation many of you have seen developing in your schools appears to be at complete odds with the government’s narrative of relaxation and return to normality.

We have seen first-hand the impact the delta variant is having on many school communities. Over the last few weeks, we have supported many members experiencing a rising number of cases and suspected cases in their schools. Only today, we have seen new data showing that more than 623,000 pupils are currently self-isolating and 28,000 are absent due to confirmed cases of covid-19 – this is another significant rise compared with the previous week.

In our public reaction to today’s announcement, we have urged the government to do far more to protect school communities going forward. Our view is that removing current measures and not putting alternative strategies in place stores more problems for the next term and risks creating further disruption as we go into the new academic year. The plan announced by the Prime Minister yesterday to remove bubbles in September and change the rules around self-isolation make this more important than ever. We will continue to call on the government to do more on vital issues, such as classroom ventilation and support for pupils and staff who remain medically vulnerable.

While we are pleased to see that the bulk of track and trace responsibilities will no longer be the responsibility of school leaders, we do have some particular concerns around the proposed changes to self-isolation requirements. We will now be looking closely at the detail of the guidance and speaking with our members about this so that we can challenge the government if needs be to ensure that the guidance protects members of school communities and is also workable in practice.

We know that many members are also rightly concerned about the timing of this announcement. For a large number of you, 19 July is only a matter of days away from the end of term. With that in mind, we expect that most schools will continue their current operational model until at least the end of term. We would not expect local or national governments to interfere with that. While there may be the freedom to relax measures (such as the use of bubbles), there is no obligation to do so at such a late stage. Some members have already told us that they intend to continue to use a form of bubbles until at least the start of the new term. As the school leader, we would argue that it is your right to determine how best to organise your school, particularly if this is in line with your risk assessments.

We will make it clear to the government that we will not allow them to shift responsibility or blame for further disruption to education onto school leaders’ shoulders as we move into the next term. It is the government, not school leaders, that must remain accountable for the public health decisions it takes.

We are acutely aware that this latest government announcement will almost certainly create a new range of issues for school leaders at the end of what has been an incredibly challenging term and indeed year. As we have done throughout, we intend to provide you with the clear information and advice you will need to answer the questions that will inevitably arise, and we will continue to take your concerns directly to the government.

So that we can make sure we continue to represent the views of our members as accurately as possible, today we are inviting you to tell us what you think of the government’s announcement. By completing our short poll, you will help us get a clearer picture of our members' stand on this vital issue.