Council slams government for failing to track how many children have returned to school in Milton Keynes

They say the database used by the Department for Education to record attendance numbers has not been available for a week - depite the need to control Covid-19.

A number of schools across the city re-opened to Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils last week and schools were asked to input the numbers on the government's centralised system.

But the system was not operational for a number of days last week and local authorities have not been able to access the system to review data since it went live.

And this could cause serious problems in managing coronavirus infections, say MK's ruling Labour councillors.

"As the Government seek a more local approach to managing future outbreaks, this information is vital to help the council understand how many children are attending school, ensuring vulnerable children are being cared for, and to help control a potential second wave of the disease," said Cllr Zoe Nolan, Cabinet member for children’s services in MK.

.The Prime Minister has said the steps to ease lockdown are only possible due to new systems such as Track & Trace being in place to control a possible second wave of Covid-19.

But currently the council is hav ing to rely upon individual schools to report information directly to them - and a number of schools are not doing so

Cllr Nolan said: “We are currently unable to access data which will tell us formally which schools are open and how many pupils are attending. The failure of the Government to be able to provide us with this information undermines our requirement to keep children safe and be able to control Covid-19 locally.”

She added: “Our main concern is protecting vulnerable children, and this is made more difficult with a lack of proper data. The Government are very clear that in order to be able to manage Covid-19 they want to take a more local approach, but how can we do that if we don’t even know how many children are attending, and if a school is even open?

"We have a situation where a local school seems to have closed but neither Milton Keynes Council nor Public Health England have been made aware. It is very concerning.

“If the Government are serious about controlling Covid-19 they need to get a grip and start to provide local authorities with the information and data we need to keep people safe.”