Stop issuing fines to parents who are clinically vulnerable and want to have their children learn at home. I have recently been faced with this very challenging dilemma, after receiving a shielding letter from the government Health Department  for a second time due to being asthmatic. I know I’m not the only person in this very stressful situation, there are others with far worse conditions, but it has to be changed to protect those that need it most. The letter states quite clearly that I must stay at home and if I can’t work from home, I shouldn’t go to work. But my children still have to go to school, which is a breeding ground for germs without having a global health pandemic to deal with, because the Department for Education say they have to. As clinically vulnerable individuals, we should have the right to protect our families and let our children learn from home with the support of the schools. We are getting no help from our GPs to issue letters stating that our children can learn from home because the Government have said children are to attend school. There have been 2 cases in my eldest child’s year at secondary school and now 1 in my youngest child’s primary school. My eldest is self-isolating because of the cases and is learning via online lessons, so if it can be done for this then why not allow it until local cases of COVID start decreasing at least. The cases continue to rise, and our hospital has more patients this time than during the first wave. It’s a very stressful situation to put people in, on top of all the other issues we have to deal with.

It seems quite clear to me that this half-hearted attempt at a “lockdown” is not protecting clinically vulnerable people at all. One department of Government is saying that we need to be protected, but another is saying not by allowing our children to be in a position to bring the virus home. 

So Mr Johnson, are you willing to protect the clinically vulnerable parents of this country and inform the Department for Education that they can allow schools to set work for children to complete at home? Or are you going to ignore us and leave us even more vulnerable in our own homes?