Sir Gavin Williamson: ‘Many mistakes made’ with Covid school closures

Many mistakes were made in the Department for Education’s (DfE) planning for Covid school closures, former education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson has said.

Sir Gavin told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry on Tuesday: “I readily accept that there were many mistakes that were made, both pre-pandemic and in those early stages of the pandemic.”

He also said he was sorry the DfE had not been sharp enough in its response.

“The weight wasn’t put on to that emerging scientific evidence that did clearly prove to be right,” he said.

“And the whole focus and emphasis of the Government wasn’t probably sharp enough in terms of dealing with that, and that was the case in my department, which I’m sorry for, because I readily accept that I was secretary of state and it was my responsibility,” he added.

In his evidence to the inquiry Sir Gavin also criticised former prime minister Boris Johnson’s decision in May 2020 to announce a phased return to schools, as “damaging” to schools, children and families.

He also said he thought the Prime Minister chose the NHS over children when making school closure decisions in January 2021.

Dan Paskins, executive director of UK Impact at Save the Children, said: “The shocking failure to properly plan or to assess the impact of decisions made during the pandemic on children has left a generation paying a heavy price.”

He added: “Devastating mistakes were made, and we cannot accept them being repeated. Children’s rights must never again be an afterthought in a national crisis.”

Last week, academy trust leader and former DfE schools director general Sir Jon Coles told the inquiry it was an “extraordinary dereliction of duty” for the DfE not to plan for school closures earlier in March 2020.

Sir Gavin, who was education secretary from July 2019 until September 2021, said he did not agree with that assessment.

“I think we should have done it very differently,” he told the inquiry. “I think we should have, pre-2020, we should have had a clear plan with a range of scenarios.”

He went on to add that across Government the significance of the pandemic should have been understood “much better” and they should have “bitten the bullet and made those plans in a way that would have helped later on”.

Asked by Clair Dobbin KC why it was apparent to academy trust leaders like Sir Jon that schools would close, and not to the secretary of state for education, Sir Gavin said the department had been given a “clear indication that we were to keep schools open”.

Key pandemic decisions were taken at the centre within Number 10 and the cabinet office, he added, and different departments did not have the freedom to “go out and start consulting with lots of people as to what school closures will look like”.

Ms Dobbin presented several documents to the inquiry, including a Sage document from February 2020 that mentioned as an action point considering the impact of closing schools in different outbreak scenarios.

Sir Gavin said he had asked civil servants to look at potential Covid impacts on education in January.

Number 10 were asking the department to generate documents on keeping schools open rather than closing them, he said, but said the department was thinking about the implications and had started planning for individual school closures.

In a written statement to the inquiry given in 2023, Sir Gavin had said he had not asked DfE officials to prepare an assessment on the impact of school closures in early 2020, as the advice at the time “was not recommending closures” and Number 10 had not commissioned it.

Sir Gavin’s written evidence describes a “discombobulating 24-hour sea change” from keeping schools open on March 16, to talking about closing them on March 17, and an announcement to shut them made the following day.

Sir Gavin was also questioned on the exam grading used in summer 2020, preparations for reopening schools in autumn 2020, and decisions to close schools in 2021.

He had said in his previous written evidence that the then-Prime Minister’s decision in May 2020 to announce the phased reopening of schools was not possible to deliver, as it would not work with the social distancing rules at the time.

Asked by Ms Dobbin on Tuesday for whom the decision was damaging, he said: “I think it was damaging for schools, and I think it was damaging for children and parents, because actually what parents heard was the prime minister saying all your kids are going to be able to go back to primary school before summer.”

He added that he felt it was giving people “a false sense of hope and belief”.

Sir Gavin had said in his written statement he thought closing schools again in January 2021 was the wrong decision, and added at the inquiry he felt it represented a “lack of seriousness in not putting children first”.

He added he felt it was in children’s interests to keep schools open after seeing the impact of closures on children in the first lockdown.

Asked if he meant a lack of seriousness on the part of the Prime Minister, Sir Gavin said: “I think they chose to prioritise different things, which is ultimately a choice that the Prime Minister has to make.

“He has to prioritise one set of needs, and I think he chose the NHS over children.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said it is good to see acknowledgement mistakes were made, though added it is more important they do not happen again in future.

A Government spokesperson said: “We know there will be lessons to be learnt from the pandemic and we are committed to learning from the Covid Inquiry’s findings which will play a key role in informing the Government’s planning and preparations for the future.”

The inquiry continues.