Coronavirus daily round-up: Tuesday 3 November
Fiona Simpson
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Ofsted will move school visits online during the second coronavirus lockdown, the inspectorate has said.
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Each day, CYP Now will summarise the key issues affecting the children and families sector as it tackles the effects of the pandemic. The daily update signposts children’s services practitioners and leaders to the latest developments, expert views, advice and resources.
Ofsted to move visits online during lockdown
Ofsted has confirmed it will hold school visits “remotely” during a second Covid-19 lockdown.
The inspectorate said in a statement on Twitter: “During the national lockdown we will undertake our work remotely where we can – only going on site where it is necessary to do so, or in response to urgent concerns. That means our programme of autumn visits to schools and colleges will be done remotely from Thursday.”
Ofsted is currently carrying out ungraded visits to schools, early years and children’s social care providers. Full inspections are set to resume in January 2021.
Colleges to face funding shortfall, new report shows
Colleges and sixth forms could face a funding shortfall due to increased student numbers amid the pandemic, the Institute for Fiscal Studies finds.
In its latest annual report "Education Spending in England", funded by the Nuffield Foundation, researchers state that student numbers in further education colleges and sixth forms are likely to increase this year due to rising numbers of young people “combined with unusually high GCSE results and significant reductions in training and employment opportunities”.
“Colleges and sixth forms will benefit from an extra £400m in funding this year. However, because of the way the funding system works, exceptional rises in student numbers could still generate a real-terms fall in funding per student. This would come on the back of a decade of large real-terms falls in funding per student,” it adds.
Red Cross resources aim to tackle youth loneliness
The Red Cross has produced a new package of resources aimed at tackling loneliness among young people.
The resources, which include wellbeing activities as well as information about mental health, have been published in partnership with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as part of the Tackling Loneliness Digitally programme.
The Red Cross said: “Loneliness in young people can be caused by many factors including the rise of time we spend online, our physical or mental health, and big changes in our lives like the coronavirus pandemic.”