Ministers were given a stark warning that more children would die from suicide than from contracting Covid-19 if they shut schools, a damning new report from parent campaigners has revealed.
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on March 18, 2020, that England's schools were to close until further notice - and they would remain shut for longer than any other country in Europe.
Many children returned to their classrooms in September 2020, only for schools to be shut again in January 2021. Even when they reopened that March, Covid outbreaks and isolation rules caused chaos.
It has now emerged that the Government was warned in November 2020 that 'many more children will die from suicide than Covid-19 this year',' The Telegraph reports.
That message was given in a joint briefing paper by the Department for Education and the Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours - in which they cited a rise in self-harm among young people during lockdown.
Those concerns were shared at a Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) meeting that same month - which senior scientific advisers responsible for briefing Westminster's key players were in attendance for.
