Ofsted has today published the first report in a new series of briefings looking at how schools are managing pupils’ return to education under the current COVID-19 restrictions.

The report is based on 121 pilot visits to schools across England carried out last month. It finds that school leaders are working hard to make sure pupils are catching up with their education in difficult circumstances.

Inspectors found that some schools have returned to teaching all subjects straight away, while others are taking a gradual approach to reintroducing foundation subjects such as modern foreign languages and geography. In primary schools, there has been a focus on reading, as the foundation for wider learning.

Misinformation and myths, often from social media, about the different approaches taken to prevent transmission of the virus are causing confusion and parental anxiety, despite school leaders’ efforts to meet government guidelines. Over a third of the schools visited reported an increase in the number of children being removed from the school and home educated.

Schools are planning how to remotely educate pupils who cannot attend in person. As well as logistical challenges, the research highlighted the need to align remote learning with the classroom curriculum to maintain progression, when pupils are isolating away from school.

In the 70 children’s homes visited for the social care research, staff have worked hard to maintain an environment that is COVID secure, while keeping children’s spirits up. Where restrictions allowed for it, staff continued to facilitate children’s visits to friends, and contact with families, often making use of technology to do so.

In a commentary highlighting the findings from the two reports, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman said:

We have been hearing directly from the leaders of schools and children’s homes, so we can help others understand what’s being achieved in extraordinary circumstances – whether that’s parents, other professionals working in these fields, or the government.

Strong leadership and committed staff are key to making the best of this challenging time. The member of staff at a children’s home who isolated with a child who was displaying COVID-19 symptoms so they did not feel alone, stands out. But so does the determination, expressed by many of the school leaders we spoke to, that the pupils currently under their care and guidance must not come to be defined as ‘the COVID generation’. They deserve much more than that.

1. The schools findings are based on 121 pilot visits made between 14 and 18 September. The schools volunteered to take part in the pilot visits. This is the first briefing note about COVID-19, and Ofsted will publish more through the term. The evidence in it is based on one-day pilot interim visits with no graded judgement.
2. The social care findings are based on assurance visits to children’s homes under the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF) made between 1 and 11 September. This analysis covers visits to 70 homes, which were selected according to risk (this is 56% of the total number of visits we did in this period). In future briefings, Ofsted will also include findings based on assurance visits to different types of children’s social care providers.
3. In November, Ofsted will broaden its reports to cover visits made in October to all the sectors it inspects and/or regulates: schools, further education, early years providers and social care. The reports will also include consideration of services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Funded through Sellafield Ltd’s social impact multiplied programme, Transforming West Cumbria has been developed by Cumbria Community Foundation, and focuses on promoting thriving communities by supporting sustainable activities that create self-reliance and independence.

Part of that programme is the Family Wellbeing scheme, which brought together representatives from the public, voluntary and health sector to ensure families are offered a package of support to improve their health, wellbeing, and happiness.

The scheme awarded cash grants of up to £50,000 a year for 3 years to projects that work collaboratively and focus on improving outcomes for some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children and families in West Cumbria.

Last week, a panel considered applications submitted under the Family Wellbeing programme and awarded £600,000 in grants that will help deliver six projects over the next three years. The difference made by these projects will be measured and evaluated . The projects are:

Groundwork North East and Cumbria / iCan be HAPPY

The project will work in partnership with iCan Health & Fitness CIC and will engage with the most difficult to reach families in the community by designing a programme that is fun, positive, interactive and based on the types of support and activities that parents say they want. The programme will help parents to find ways of feeling happier and to learn more positive ways of doing things, which in turn will have a positive impact on their children.

Safety Net (UK) / Whole Family Approach to Tackling Domestic and Sexual Abuse

Safety Net (UK) will use their grant to employ a specialist Children and Young People’s Practitioner to work with families who have experienced domestic or sexual abuse. The practitioner will provide training to parents and carers in play therapy techniques to offer therapeutic intervention and then provide supervision and guidance as families begin to navigate and resolve challenges.

Howgill Family Centre / Early Years Parental engagement

The ambition of this project is to develop a Centre of Excellence for Speech and Language Development in the earliest years, from 0 – 4 for disadvantaged children who are not reaching the standard level of development.

Time to Change West Cumbria / Family Court Support Officer & McKenzie Friend

Time to Change West Cumbria will use their grant to employ a Family Court Support Officer, based at the Women Out West Centre, who will also train as a McKenzie Friend, ensuring that vulnerable women and their children get the moral and administrative support they need when involved in the Court system.

Cumbria Alcohol and Drug Advisory Service/Targeted, in depth substance use support for affected families

Cumbria Alcohol and Drug Advisory Service will attach a trained drug/alcohol coach to targeted families where substance use is known in the parents for a substantial period of time. Support given to the families will vary dependent on their specific needs.

Together We CIC / Together We Improve Family Wellbeing and Emotional Resilience

The project will deliver 6 weeks of group emotional resilience and physical activity sessions in Whitehaven area schools for children aged 4-11 years old. The sessions are designed to help children to further develop emotional literacy whilst developing knowledge of coping skills such as using physical activity for mental health

Barnardo’s / Barnardo’s Think Family project

The Barnardo’s Think Family project will support children 0-5 years old in Copeland identified through the Child Centred Policing Hub as needing intense support around emotional resilience, child development, childhood obesity and financial hardship. For 12 weeks, the family will take part in 2 direct work sessions per week that have been tailored to their needs and issues.

Head of community and development at Sellafield Ltd, Gary McKeating said:

Transforming West Cumbria is the perfect demonstration of our social impact multiplied programme. It was co-created with the Cumbria Community Foundation and is designed to help make a real and sustainable difference in tackling some of the issues that we know people in our local communities are living with.

I am delighted that the foundation team have been able to organise the grant application process and award grants so quickly and look forward to seeing the progress made by the successful projects.

Andy Beeforth, Chief Executive at Cumbria Community Foundation, said:

COVID-19 has brought existing inequalities to the fore and exacerbated issues within our communities. It poses a huge challenge for many families and for those on low income or grappling with multiple disadvantages, the pressure can lead to increased stress and tension within the family home.

We are incredibly proud to be working with Sellafield and these multi-year awards will make a significant impact across the region. This level of strategic support will allow these groups to work together to deliver early intervention and essential support to help hundreds of our most vulnerable families reach their potential.

For more information about Family Wellbeing and Transforming West Cumbria, visit the Cumbria Community Foundation website.

Sgt Mike Ellis and PC Craig Clemence received a Chief Constable’s Commendation for their actions in trying to save a man’s life.

On the night Saturday 18 July 2020, the two officers were on external patrol, when they were flagged down by a member of the public who reported a collision further down the road they were traveling on.

They arrived on scene to find a vehicle in the carriage way with an unresponsive man locked inside, the engine was running and the vehicle still moving. Quickly evaluating the situation as unsafe, Sgt Ellis forced entry to the vehicle by smashing a window, put the vehicle in park, switched off the engine and unlocked the driver’s door. It was quickly established that the man was not breathing so CPR was commenced immediately by PC Clemence, and then the member of the public ( who was a local GP) while Sgt Ellis used his first aid training to set up the defibrillator from the CNC medic equipment bag. While the defibrillator was assessing the patient, PC Clemence continued to administer initial lifesaving first aid while Sgt Ellis prepared further equipment to assist in the treatment of the patient.

Sgt Ellis and PC Clemence continued to administer lifesaving first aid by either chest compressions or rescue breaths via the bag valve mask until Suffolk Fire Service arrived and were able to take over the care of the patient, who was eventually air lifted to hospital.

There is no doubt that the decisive decisions and professional actions of both officers gave the patient the best chance of surviving the cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, despite their efforts the gentleman involved in the incident passed away in hospital in the days afterwards.

Chief Constable Chesterman also presented Sgt Stephen Featherstone with a long service and good conduct certificate.

Sgt Featherstone joined UKAEAC on 24 July 2000, leaving his career as a carpenter. After completing his initial training at Summergrove, he was deployed to Sellafield where he spent four years on B-section, in which time he was chosen to represent the UKAEAC at a shooting competition in Albuquerque, America. He didn’t win anything, apparently due to a dodgy rifle!

Steve then transferred to the then newly formed Tactical Response Group (TRG) and spent a year travelling around the sites now protected by the CNC, building a rapport with security and getting to know the sites.
After a year on TRG Steve transferred permanently to Sizewell on 16 September 2005 and as one of the more senior officers Steve had an important role in setting up what we now know as Sizewell OPU.

Promoted to sergeant on 1 April 2007, Steve has served the unit and its officers tirelessly over the past 15 years and has seen many people come and go, as well as a lot of ups and downs. Known as ‘Mr Sizewell’ Steve has undertaken many roles at the unit including Temporary Inspector and Support Sergeant, been involved in numerous projects and witnessed many changes.

Chief Constable Simon Chesterman said: “It was an honour to recognise the professionalism of these three officers and to thank them for their dedication and hard work. Sgt Ellis and PC Clemence did their absolute best to try and save a man’s life and their actions meant he was able to get to hospital and receive treatment, and his family was able to see him before he sadly passed away.

“Sgt Featherstone has clearly made a real impact on those he has worked with over the last two decades and was described by his OUC as always being a pleasure to work with and have around the station. I wish Steve well and thank him for his professionalism and dedicated public service.”

Mr President, let me say that I believe that today showed contempt for members of this Council.

You, Mr President, put a briefer to the vote. You received two votes in favour alongside your own. Members of this Council did not support your briefer, but you chose to ignore the decision of this Council.

I’m reminded of the time when Russia demanded a meeting on Ukraine, which Russia insisted must be timed to coincide with the inauguration of the President of Ukraine. When you failed to get the votes in favour of that meeting taking place, you also read out your intervention as if the meeting were happening. Again you showed contempt for the decision of the members of this Council. But it is perhaps not a surprise that Russia chooses to ignore the rules that it wants others to abide by.

Mr President, Security Council resolution 2118 is clear on the purpose of our monthly meetings. It is for the Security Council to review implementation of resolution 2118 and the OPCW Executive Council decision of the 27th of September 2013. Our discussion should focus on these issues. Any briefers should be relevant to these issues and be able to brief us on them.

And I would say to you, Mr President, that when you proposed briefers that we were not particularly enthusiastic about in your presidency last year, we accepted them. It was a discrete event, a counter-terrorism event on an issue not usually discussed in the Council. But this meeting is a monthly meeting on a particularly sensitive issue on which Russia is directly engaged on the ground. So please do not pretend that this is some sort of presidency right to propose briefers. Russia is a party to the issue of chemical weapons use in Syria, as we all know. We should be particularly cautious about agreeing to briefers whose only purpose can be to undermine and call into question the integrity of the OPCW. Such briefers will only serve to politicise our discussion and distract us from the real issues.

And with regards to Mr Bustani, as I said before, he’s had a distinguished diplomatic career and we have full respect for him, but he left his role as Director General of the OPCW in 2002. And it was clear from your words today, Mr President, that this casts a long shadow over him and his views. It was long before resolution 2118 was adopted, long before Syria even acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention, and long before the OPCW had carried out any investigations in Syria. I’m afraid, with respect to him, he is irrelevant to our discussion of implementation of resolution 2118. So I call on all those who continually seek to undermine the OPCW in order to protect the Syrian regime – and perhaps to protect themselves – from accountability to stop doing so.

I want to just express my full agreement with what my US colleague has said about the Arria format meeting on the 20th of September. And I would say that if the Russian Federation was at all interested in a genuine discussion of evidence, they would have attended the meeting during the Estonian presidency with the Director General of the OPCW and the head of the IIT, Mr Santiago Oñate. But the Russian delegation refused to permit the head of the IIT to brief in a formal Council meeting. It then left empty chairs in an informal meeting attended by all other Council members. So, given the Russian delegation has spoken so passionately in favour of transparency today, and given it is willing to propose briefers last involved with the OPCW 18 years ago, I have no doubt that the Russian delegation will be supporting an invitation to Mr Oñate to brief this Council so we may debate the evidence.

Now, Mr President, let me turn to the real purpose of this meeting. I want to thank the Director General of the OPCW for his 84th monthly report. Regarding the work of the Declaration Assessment Team, we note that the Syrian regime has provided some further information to the DAT, including two amendments to its initial declaration. That is why, by the way, colleagues, we do need the answers to the questions that have been raised continuously by the DAT. Syria’s declaration is not a complete declaration. These further amendments are, as I say, further evidence that the initial declaration was inaccurate. And I hope very much that this further information assists with clarifying some of the many outstanding issues. And I urge Syria to cooperate fully with the OPCW to make progress on all of the outstanding issues.

As we said last month, the outstanding issues in Syria’s declaration are significant, and they go to the heart of Syria’s compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention. Until all outstanding issues are resolved, we cannot be sure of the complete elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons programme. These concerns are not hypothetical, particularly in light of the findings by the OPCW-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism, and now the OPCW Investigation Identification Team, that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on seven occasions – at least seven occasions – since 2013.

Mr President, after six years of outstanding compliance issues and further confirmation of the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons by the IIT in April this year, we welcomed the robust, proportionate and reasonable action taken by the OPCW Executive Council in its decision of the 9th of July. In that decision, the Executive Council gave Syria 90 days to come into compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention. The deadline for this action is tomorrow, and we call on Syria to make a final effort to respect the decision, to address the issues in its declaration and to come into compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention. Should the DG find that Syria has not completed the stipulated measures in full, it will be for the Conference of States Parties to decide on appropriate action to take.

The confirmed use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime represents a breach of resolution 2118, as does its ongoing failure to comply with the Convention and to cooperate fully with the OPCW. The Council should address non-compliance of its resolutions and the clear threat to international peace and security they represent.

Finally, Mr President, we note that last Friday, the 2nd of October, the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission published its reports on the alleged chemical weapons attacks in Saraqib in 2016 and Aleppo in 2018. We continue to consider the detail of the reports and, in the case of the alleged Aleppo attack in 2018, the findings of the FFM appear consistent with our assessment at the time that it was highly unlikely that chlorine was used as alleged or that the opposition was responsible for the incident. And I think it would have been helpful if Russia or Syria had provided evidence with the FFM, had they had it of any attack.

In the case of the Saraqib report, there is evidence suggesting the possibility of a Syrian regime chlorine attack. There is evidence of the presence of a helicopter, a barrel bomb, which was not filled with conventional explosive, and exposure of victims to an irritant consistent with chlorine. These are all familiar characteristics of regime chlorine attacks, such as those on Qmenas and Sarmin in 2015, for which the JIM identified the regime as responsible. In this case, however, the result of the FFM’s analysis of all available data did not allow the FFM to establish whether or not chemicals were used as a weapon. We are content to accept the FFM’s conclusion in the absence of further evidence, which would clearly show whether or not a chemical attack took place.

We welcome the fact that the Fact-Finding Mission, as it did in its investigation of the chemical weapons attack in Douma, did not jump to any conclusions, but took its time to carry out a thorough investigation and reach conclusions on the basis of all available evidence. We would encourage all parties to continue to do their utmost and in good faith to assist the Fact-Finding Mission with its investigations.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

Honduras officially stated its adherence to the Alliance on 31 August 2020, through a letter sent by its Secretary of Environment, Mr. Elvis Rodas.

The Alliance was originally launched by the UK at the UN General Assembly in 2019 to help drive urgent action to safeguard the global ocean and protect its precious wildlife. It strives for the ‘30by30 initiative’, which is pushing for at least 30 per cent of the global ocean to be protected in Marine Protected Areas by 2030.

Honduras has had a clear commitment to protecting the marine environment, by spurring various initiatives, from the development of shark sanctuaries and sea turtle conservation actions, to playing an active role at international negotiations on biodiversity.

UK International Marine Minister at the Department for Environment, Zac Goldsmith, said:

I congratulate and thank Honduras for joining the Global Ocean Alliance. Our shared ocean is facing unprecedented pressures, and together we are making a powerful case for increased protection.

The United Kingdom also reaffirms its commitment to working with Honduras to increase protect of its precious marine environment and wildlife.

Honduras now joins 29 other countries in this initiative, they are: Belize, Belgium, Cabo Verde, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ecuador, Finland, Fiji, Gabon, Germany, Guatemala, Italy, Kenya, Luxembourg, Maldives, Monaco, Nigeria, Palau, Portugal, Seychelles, Senegal, St Kitts, Sweden, Spain, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Vanuatu.

The Global Ocean Alliance will push for the trebling of existing globally agreed targets so at least a third of the ocean is safeguarded in Marine Protected Areas over the next decade.