Report Shows Ministers Warned Suicide Would Kill More Children Than COVID

A young girl paints a picture of herself on the school window as children of key workers take part in school activities at Oldfield Brow Primary School in Altrincham, England, on April 8, 2020. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

The government was warned that more children would die from suicide than from COVID-19 before closing schools, according to a report.

A parents group has collated key moments where the government reportedly missed to avert damage caused by school closures during COVID lockdowns.

In England, during the 2020–2021 academic year, schools were open to all pupils in the Autumn term, however during the Spring term schools were only open to key workers and vulnerable children from January for the first half term, before all pupils returned during the second half term.

A joint briefing paper by the Department for Education and the Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours warned in November 2020 that “many more children will die from suicide than COVID-19 this year” as it cited evidence of a rise in self-harm among young people during lockdown.

The document was published in a report by UsForThem, a campaigning group that advocated for children to be prioritised during the COVID-19 pandemic, and continues to lobby for children’s well-being.

The briefing was shared at a Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) attended by senior scientific advisers responsible for briefing ministers, and at least ten senior officials from the Department for Education, the Cabinet Office, the Home Office, and other government departments.

A sign asking people to stay at home stands on the seafront in Southend, England on Jan. 08, 2021. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

9 Moments

UsForThem also identified nine moments where they claimed that the government “missed” the opportunity to protect children from before COVID-19 up to January 2021.

For example, from February to March 2020, it was documented in SAGE papers during these months that the impact that school closures would have on stemming transmission was likely to be “highly limited,” and was uncertain.

It also noted that in December 2020, SAGE found that transmission taking place in educational settings appeared to be no greater than transmission taking place in other settings.

The government made a decision for schools to remain open for key workers’ children and vulnerable children during school lockdowns.

Though a Scientific Pandemic Infections group on Modelling SPI-M paper, drawing on school attendance figures provided by the DfE,  said that “94 percent of vulnerable children are not in school.”

UsForThem also noted that social work protections for vulnerable children had at the time either been suspended outright or moved to a remote footing.

Furthermore, in January 2021, Professor Russell Viner, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, told the Education Select Committee: “When we close schools we close [children’s] lives, not to benefit them but to benefit the rest of society. They reap harm when we close schools.”

The COVID-19 Inquiry, the UK’s probe into the handling of the government response to COVID-19, commenced last week, however, the probe is not specifically looking at the impact of school closures until 2025.

“The inquiry needs to be seeking answers as to how the government missed so many opportunities,” Arabella Skinner, UsForThem co-founder told The Epoch Times by email.

“Notably, how were they prepared to close schools again with the full knowledge of the damage from education to suicide which was being inflicted on children? If ministers had not seen the SAGE deliberations—why not? And if they had, did they really think it was acceptable to sacrifice children?” she added.

A five-year-old girl watches an online phonics lesson on a laptop in her bedroom on the second day of the nationwide school closures in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England, on Jan. 6, 2021. (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

Mental Health Lockdown

According to a briefing commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) on behalf of NHS England in 2020, there was a “concerning signal” that child suicide deaths may have increased during the first 56 days of the lockdown, though it said that the analysis was based on small case numbers—meaning that they “were unable to reach definitive conclusions.”

In July, researchers with the University College London, the University of York, the University of Liverpool, and the University of Bristol found in a study that five times more children and young people committed suicide than died of COVID-19 during the first year of the pandemic in the United Kingdom.

The study concluded, “The risk of removal of CYP (children and young people) from their normal activities across education and social events may prove a greater risk than that of SARS-CoV-2 itself.”

In 2021, Ellen Townsend Professor of Psychology and member of the Self-Harm Research Group gave written evidence to a government committee that said that more young people will die “from suicide and road traffic accidents than COVID-19 this year.”

A DfE spokesperson told The Epoch Times by email:

“We know children were amongst those most affected by the pandemic which is why we have invested £5 billion in ambitious education recovery initiatives to help young people catch up. We are also rolling out Mental Health Support teams in schools which comes on top of our annual £2.3 billion investment into mental health services.

“The UK COVID-19 Inquiry is currently examining the country’s response to the pandemic, and the Department is cooperating fully.”

A spokesman for UK COVID-19 Inquiry told The Epoch Times by email that it “is committed to investigating the impacts on children and young people, including health, wellbeing and social care and will do so as soon as possible, bearing in mind the number of topics we must investigate, which are set out in our terms of reference.”

It added that Rule 9 requests have been sent to the Department for Education.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.