Insider paints picture of chaos at the Department for Education around coronavirus strategy, adding that civil servants “want Gavin to go”

Government civil servants were left in the dark on ministers’ intention to close all schools to most pupils earlier this month until the move was announced on television by Boris Johnson, a Department for Education insider has told Education Uncovered.

The decision by the Prime Minister, which came hours after most primary schools had returned after the Christmas holidays, capped a chaotic few hours even within the DfE, in which civil servants were told in the morning with “great certainty” that many primaries were staying open and exams were going ahead, only for the message to change that evening.

Susan Acland-Hood, the department’s Permanent Secretary, faced a backlash from staff after she had to call a second all-staff meeting in two days about the u-turn, a day after taking civil servants through ministers’ decision not to close all schools for most pupils.

Our source suggested Acland-Hood’s changed stance between the two briefings suggested that even the Permanent Secretary had been in the dark about what was about to be announced in the hours leading up to Johnson’s announcement.

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