Parents who choose to keep their children out of school once the coronavirus lockdown is over could face fines, the Health Secretary hinted this afternoon.
Although there is yet to be a definite date for when schools will return worried parents are concerned about the risk of allowing their children to mingle with others.
At this afternoon's daily coronavirus briefing Matt Hancock faced two questions from the public.
The first asked whether parents would be fined for not sending their children to school when learning centres are re-opened.
Mr Hancock vowed the Government would only allow pupils to return when it was safe to do so - and did not rule out the prospect of fines.
He said: "We are not going to re-open schools if it isn't safe.
"Of course, as and when we re-open schools, our goal is to get back to the norm and the position as it was before.
"I'm confident, because we'll only do it when it is safe, it will at that point be entirely reasonable and normal again to send your children to school."
Prof Powis added: "The science is still evolving in terms of transmission between children, so we do need to be cautious as we think of re-opening schools and we will need to think carefully and advise the Government with appropriate information about how that can happen."
Currently only the children of key workers go to schools with most children being homeschooled.
The other public question was about using Nightingale hospitals to reduce NHS waiting times.
Professor Stephen Powis said NHS Nightingale hospitals will need to be kept "as an insurance policy in the next month or two" until a sustained reduction in hospital admissions is assured.
Mr Hancock said the Government "will do what we need to do to reduce NHS waiting lists as we reopen the NHS".
Mr Hancock added: "But the Nightingales were designed very specifically for patients who are intubated and therefore who are under anaesthetic. So they are specifically designed for Covid."
Prof Powis added: "Those hospitals are designed in a particular way for a particular purpose and that doesn't necessarily mean that they would be fit for purpose for other types of NHS activity.
"Now of course we also need to keep them as an insurance policy in the next month or two because we need to be confident, as I said, in the five tests that we have a sustained reduction in hospital admissions.
"But of course we always keep things under review going forwards."
