Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry 7 Nov 2024

Harrowing testimony by Tina Woolnough from Connect.

Introduction

Tina Woolnough is the communications manager at Connect. The organisation covers primary, secondary, special needs schools and local authority nurseries. The membership in 2023-2024 consisted of 1503 primary schools; 254 secondary schools; 17 schools that are both primary and secondary; 62 special needs schools; and 57 nurseries.

Testimony highlights

Lockdown impacts

Once again we hear how the most vulnerable children with special needs were completely ‘abandoned’ and suffered during lockdown.

‘‘There were families that nobody saw and nobody knew how they were doing because of the lockdown.’’

‘‘We had comments from families saying they felt ABANDONED.’’

‘‘We had one parent with a son with autism who would not get out of bed because he felt his daily structure had been taken away from him and he couldn’t cope.’’

Additional impacts on children with support needs

Protecting the vulnerbale shouldn’t sound like this.

• Concentration spans

• Motivation

• Focus

• Backlogs

‘‘When they did go back to school the speclialists were’nt allowed in and in some circumstances there hasn’t been a specialist in school for 18 months.’’

‘‘The mental health services for young people are MASSIVELY stretched and over subscribed so that wasn’t helped at all by COVID.’’

‘‘Support was taken away with the LOCKDOWNS and it was not put back again…so i think THE MOST VULNERABLE WERE HARDEST HIT.’’

Absence rates ‘‘Ghost Children’’

The legacy of lockdowns, public ‘health’ hysteria, media and political fear mongering.

‘‘Some children never went back to school.’’

‘‘There is still a lower attendance rate now in the post COVID years than before COVID…something has gone awry…in some edcuation circles they are called GHOST CHILDREN.’

‘‘The legacy of COVID is ENORMOUS for children and young people.’’

Responses to How are You? Connect survey

• ‘My teen is refusing to leave the house as they are scared they will die’.

• ‘Can’t motivate my child to do school work at home’.

• ‘My son isn't getting enough time outside or any contact at all with other children’.

Statement highlights

The comments on mask wearing harms were not spoken about at the inquiry.

‘‘Our survey responses highlighted that families with children with complex or specific needs felt abandoned. This was particularly the case in families with children who were on the autistic spectrum.’’

-Paragraph 40 of statement

‘‘Specialists, including speech and language therapists and other forms of support were not allowed to come into schools for more than a year after the start of the pandemic.’’

-Paragraph 42 of statement

‘‘There was also a massive backlog in ASN (additional support needs) diagnoses which is still impacting children today. Due to this backlog, the children who were unable to get a diagnosis could not access specialist additional support.’’

-Paragraph 43 of statement

‘‘Children and young people with ASN were more impacted than anybody else. The education system was not tailored to their needs, and they really felt the pain of lockdowns and closures. It has been life changing for these children to have all the care and assistance they got at school disappear.’’

_Paragraph 44 of statement

‘‘There was also a cohort of parents and carers who thought mask wearing was unnecessary and detrimental to learning.’’

-Paragraph 60 of statement

‘‘Some of the concerns that we heard about this came from parents and carers of younger children. The requirement for staff to wear masks when working with this age group ceased earlier than for older age groups. Seeing someone's face is a fundamental part of building a trusting relationship and if you are a young child, or a learner with particular disabilities (hearing or sight impaired, emotional difficulties etc), you would not know what is going on if the person you are interacting with is wearing a mask.’’

-Paragraph 61 of statement

Thoughts

It’s impossible for anyone critically minded to believe these harms were a result of incompetence. The sheer lack of media and political concern tells you everything!

Thanks for reading.

End

Links:

Video-Youtube-Scottish COVID-19 inquiry Impact hearing | Education and certification | 7 November 2024 (morning session)

Full statement: https://www.covid19inquiry.scot/sites/default/files/ev-documents/sci-wt0111-000001.pdf

https://connect.scot/

https://connect.scot/application/files/9515/8641/7207/How_are_you_doing_survey_comments_INTERIM_FINAL.pdf