Commenting on private WhatsApp messages between Matt Hancock and Gavin Williamson during the Covid pandemic, leaked to the Telegraph, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“Teachers and education staff worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic and there was never a time when they were not working. The education unions listened to the science and acted to protect the school community when the Government was doing neither. Government dragged their feet over providing laptops for children most in need, while it took the footballer Marcus Rashford to shame them into Free School Meals provision during the school holidays. Evidence that could have curbed the impact of Covid, resulting in wider lockdowns, was ignored, and they gave consistently late information to head teachers on the latest measures being imposed by Government on schools and colleges. It was nothing short of a shambles.
“The Education Secretary was clearly out of his depth and, we now hear, contemptuous of unions and teachers. Given the current dispute with the Department for Education over teacher pay, we sincerely hope Gillian Keegan does not share this attitude and gets around the table to discuss a resolution to the pay dispute.”