Research and analysis

SPI-M-O: Consensus view on the impact of mass school closures, 19 February 2020

Consensus statement from the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational sub-group (SPI-M-O) for the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).

Documents

SPI-M-O: Consensus view on the impact of mass school closures, 19 February 2020

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email [email protected]. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

Consensus statement from SPI-M-O advising on the impact of closing schools across the UK. It includes an explanation of the models used to show the effect school closures might have on the spread of COVID-19, provides advice on how to time school closures, and highlights uncertainties in the evidence base.

The paper was discussed at SAGE meeting 9 on 20 February 2020.

This evidence was often compiled very rapidly during a fast-moving response and should be viewed in this context. The paper presented here is the best assessment of the evidence at the time of writing, and the conclusions were formed on this basis. As new evidence or data emerges, SAGE updates its advice accordingly. Therefore, some of the information in this paper may have been superseded at a later date.

Updates to this page

Published 20 March 2020
Last updated 13 May 2022 + show all updates
  1. Added HTML for accessibility purposes.

  2. First published.

Sign up for emails or print this page