The education select committee’s inquiry will look at how the coronavirus outbreak is affecting all aspects of the education sector, the children’s social care system and also scrutinise how the Department for Education is dealing with the situation.

Steve Thomas, Prospect national secretary said: “It is critical that the voice of non-teaching professionals is heard given the importance of the role in responding to the pandemic. Prospect’s Education and Children’s Services Group operates to do just that and we want to bring the experiences of you, and your colleagues, to that inquiry.”

Thomas also wrote to Robert Halfon MP, the Chair of the Select Committee to welcome the inquiry and to remind the Committee of the role that ECSG members undertake.

Mr Halfon welcomed Prospect's engagement and reiterated: “The coronavirus outbreak is going to have a deep and long-lasting impact right across the education sector. While it is so important that all the right steps are taken to keep people safe, actions such as school closures and delays to exams add up to an unsettling time for everyone.

“We must make sure everything is in place to support our dedicated teachers and school staff who are looking after the children of key workers and also the hardworking pupils and students who are now facing such an uncertain future.”

ECSG COVID-19 Survey

Prospect, led by the Group Executive Council (GEC), have prepared some questions for members in the online survey that will be used as the basis for ECSG’s submission to the inquiry.

You can access the survey here.

You will find that not all questions are relevant to your area of work, so we don’t expect you to answer all the questions. The intention was for our submission to reflect the range of work that our education professionals undertake.

The survey will be open until close of play Friday 8 May 2020.