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Update on covid daily contact testing trial

The Department for Education (DfE) and Public Health England (PHE)  have recently launched a trial in some secondary schools to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of daily contact testing as an alternative to self-isolation. Essentially, this involves the use of daily lateral flow testing to enable ‘close contacts’ who get ongoing negative covid test results to remain in school. 

NAHT played an important role in challenging the use of daily lateral flow tests (LFTs) as an alternative to self-isolation at the start of the year. That resulted in PHE reversing its decision and pausing the use of LFTs in a similar way.

NAHT has already raised significant concerns with both the DfE and PHE about this new study. We believe there remain important questions to be answered about the ethics of such a trial, particularly in terms of the ability of all involved to give informed consent. We are also concerned about the potential liability schools could face by taking part in such a study.

We are currently seeking urgent answers to the questions we have from both DfE and PHE. Given the serious nature of these concerns, we do not recommend schools sign up to be involved in the study until we at least have clear answers to these questions. We suggest that NAHT members who might be considering doing so or who have already signed up contact NAHT’s advice team to discuss some of these issues further.

First published 28 April 2021

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NAHT Life gives you the opportunity to continue your membership of the biggest union for school leaders both in post and in retirement.    

NAHT Life focuses on helping retired members receive excellent trade union services and allows you to continue to play an active volunteer role within NAHT Regions and Branches, if that’s what you choose to do!

 

Please ensure NAHT has your correct post-retirement contact details.

Please note to qualify for the benefits of NAHT Life Membership you must join NAHT Life within six months of retiring

NAHT is currently reviewing, renewing and refreshing its services to support NAHT Life Member.

The NAHT National Life Members Committee (NLMC)

The interests of NAHT Life Members are represented by the National Life Member Committee which meets 4/5 times a year. The NLMC is made up of two elected regional Life Member representatives (one of whom attends each meeting) from each of the NAHT regions, and countries in the case of Wales and Northern Ireland. The elected members of the NLMC serve a term of three years and are led by a team of four officers who are elected annually.

The NLMC officer roles and current post holders are as follows:

Chair - Steve Iredale   steve.iredale@naht.org.uk 

Vice Chair - John Killeen   john.killeen@nahtofficials.org.uk

Committee Servicing Officer

Wasim Yunus, NAHT Head of Retention, has responsibility for working closely with the NLMC as servicing officer. He can be contacted via email wasim.yunus@naht.org.uk   telephone 01444 472 466 or 07976 920 094

For further details and contact information about all current NLMC members please check out our ‘Who’s Who’ and the ‘List of Life Members Committee’ .
 

See also

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