UK Health and Security Agency working with schools on Strep A

Education Minister Nick Gibb has sought to reassure the public over the outbreak of Strep A infections in schools, saying that further advice would be issued to parents later today.

He was speaking after an eighth child has died of Strep A as the circulation of infection continues to remain high.

Mr Gibb told GB News: “This is very tragic for the families of the eight children that have died. The UK Health and Security Agency are working very closely with those schools and with the parents of those schools to give them the advice that they need.

“And what the UK HSA are also saying to parents is to monitor the symptoms . So to look out for a sore throat, fever, and any red or raise d rash on the skin . A nd , if they are concerned about their child's health , to dial 111 or to get in contact with their GP so they can supply the diagnosis and the appropriate antibiotics.”

He told Isabel Webster and Martin Daubney: “Lord Markham said in the House of Lords yesterday that the UK health and security agency are monitoring the position, and they're considering those kinds of issues in those schools where there isn't an infection. So this is an ongoing situation.

“The UK HSA are involved very closely with those schools and they will be providing further advice later on, but there might well be an option for those particular schools whether it's an infection, but we'll have to wait and see what the specific advice is from the UK Health and Security Agency.”

Asked about teaching staff being laid off due to high energy costs, he told Isabel Webster and Martin Daubney: “Well, what we saw in the Autumn Statement was a n extra £2 billion pounds for next next year and another £2 billion pounds for the year after that.

“It’s a very good settlement, the Government regards schools as a key priority to help boost the economy in the long term and the best outcome for yet for young people.The government is committed to proper funding of schools and what we're announcing today is how that £2 billion pounds will be allocated to schools.

“It's something like £28,000 for a typical primary school, and £70,000 pounds for a typical secondary school and we're also announcing a £500 million pound energy efficiency package so that schools will have capital to be able to put in place measures to reduce their energy consumption.”

Mr Gibb denied that he was refusing to provide a guarantee on jobs: “We have record numbers of teachers in our schools today . For over 460,000 teachers and teaching assistants in our schools , we've had a very, very good settlement .

“This is a government committed to properly funding schools over the last two years. We've had a 15% increase in school funding, £4 billion extra for this year and now with this extra money, it's a £3.5 billion increase in school funding for next year.

“We are giving priority to school funding at a time when we do have to take very difficult decisions in balancing the economy making sure that our debt is coming down as a proportion of GDP over the period and making sure that we can get through the difficult circumstances that have been caused following the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Putin and also the aftermath of Covid.”