Robert Buckland advised that children returning to school from June 1st may not be “uniform” for the whole country stressing how “paramount” the safety of children was.
Speaking on the BBC Breakfast show, Mr Buckland said: “I don’t think any of us want to put either children or our dedicated teaching staff in any danger at all, and the question of being safe is clearly paramount.
“So we’re all working towards June 1 and planning for that return, but I accept the point that there may well be issues from employers that need to be addressed which might not mean we’ll see a uniform approach on June 1.”
He added: “It really depends on the views of employers. A lot of councils are direct employers of teaching staff, their views are clearly very important.
“I’m not going to sit here and pretend that suddenly on June 1 everything will be uniform, I don’t know, it’s my hope.
“But these conversations need to continue and we need to listen very carefully to the concerns of employers and staff.”
