COWDENBEATH’S MSP is seeking clarity on the definition of key workers when it comes to in-school education.

Annabelle Ewing said she has been contacted by people in the community who are concerned and confused about the meaning of the term.

Ms Ewing said: “Having been contacted by a number of parents in my constituency concerned at confusion around the position of Fife Council and the definition of ‘key workers’ for the purposes of receiving in-school education, I took the opportunity of this morning statement in parliament to ask the Cabinet Secretary for some clarification.

“As Mr Swinney set out, there are three categories of key workers in this context.

“The first is, essentially, health and social care workers, regarded as critically import to the Covid emergency.

“The second includes wider emergency staffing across a range of sectors, and the third includes workers regarded as critical to the functioning of the Scottish economy.

“Local authorities do have flexibility in their interpretation of the guidance to enable them to take account of local factors, but the Cabinet Secretary stressed the importance of keeping the numbers of key worker children present at school to a minimum.”

Recently a West Fife mum has called for workers at special education schools to be put to the top of the coronavirus vaccination list.

The woman – who has a daughter who attends Calaiswood School in Dunfermline as well as another daughter who is a pupil support worker at the facility – believes staff should be classed in the same bracket as care home workers.

She said she believes they have been “forgotten” and has called on the Government to give them the support she says is deserved.

“They are so dedicated – it is not just like a school,” the mum, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “They have such a caring role. A lot of them are doing nursing care and are very hand-on.

"Pupils at Calaiswood won’t and cannot wear masks and there is no social-distancing with feeding and changing. 

“Care home workers are getting immunised. What is the difference? The most vulnerable young people in society are in that school and the people who have been told, ‘You are going back to work’, have been offered no protection.”