'Extended household groups' could help provide childcare as blended learning row continues

Phase two of the Scottish Government’s plans include the ability for those that live alone to combine with others into a single household from Friday where they “will be able to act, and will be treated, as if they live in one household." 

The First Minister acknowledged the “increasing pressures that parents face in juggling childcare and work”, adding that she “will work with employers to encourage maximum flexibility in working arrangements” when schools do return. 

Earlier, a former top adviser to the Scottish Government claimed John Swinney is a "weak" and “hapless” Education Secretary who urgently needs replaced. 

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon told to stop 'dithering' on schools plan as blended learning could be scrapped

Alex Bell said Mr Swinney, who has been in post six years, should have gone a long time ago and had only stayed because of the “politburo-like endurance of SNP ministers”. 

An SNP spokesman said: “There will always be people who snipe from the side lines. The Deputy First Minister is busy getting on with his job." 

Under the Scottish Government’s plans to re-open schools, pupils will return from August 11 under a blended learning model – spending part of their time at home. 

While outlining phase two of the Scottish Government’s routemap to easing the lockdown, Ms Sturgeon said that “the prize for going a bit more carefully now” is allowing “children getting back to normal, full-time schooling as quickly as possible”. 

READ MORE: Nurseries to keep children in 'cohorts' of eight amid social distancing re-opening plans

She added: “We will be working to ensure that contingency plans for blended learning—if and for as long as that is necessary—maximise the time that children spend in school. 

“We will also be working to create the conditions and put in place the protections that can get children back to school on both a full-time and a normal basis as soon as possible. Indeed, part of the reason I am taking a cautious approach to easing lockdown now is to help us do precisely that, by suppressing the virus as much we can.” 

Nicola Sturgeon with John Swinney after making her announcement in Holyrood

"Also, although it is not the principal motivation for them, extended household groups may now—and in future, as we expand them, hopefully—help with informal childcare." 

But Scottish Conservative leader, Jackson Carlaw, said the First Minister “doesn’t understand the depth of the economic and education crisis facing the population”. 

He added: “There’s a difference between adopting a cautious approach and ignoring businesses, parents, experts and teachers across the country. 

“Parents will have tuned in hoping to hear some resolution on schooling. Instead, they’ve been fobbed off with contingency plans – none of which are going to help them return to work if they have children who don’t have a school to go to." 

“If the SNP government does not get this right, hundreds of thousands of people across Scotland are going to suffer badly.” 

READ MORE: Former Scottish Government adviser says 'hapless' Swinney must go

Labour leader Richard Leonard said that “parents across Scotland have shared their anger” in recent days over “a lack of leadership in setting out a plan for getting pupils back to school full time”. 

He added: “The First Minister described the blended learning models that councils are working towards as a contingency plan, but it must be the ambition to go beyond that contingency plan to return children to school for their whole class time in a safe way.” 

But Ms Sturgeon stressed that “we need to have contingency in case the virus runs out of control again”. 

She added: “If we end up with an outbreak of the virus in schools in October or November, Jackson Carlaw and Richard Leonard will be the first to stand up—as they have been to speak on the issues with care homes—and ask why we did not take greater care. 

“I will not compromise the safety of children. We will act in a way that keeps them safe and gets them back to school as quickly as possible.”