Parents will be nervous about letting their youngsters return to school in the island, health and social care minister David Ashford has admitted.

He said: ’As with any decisions we take there will be a nervousness. I fully accept that.

’There will be people nervous out there, that’s precisely why we have gone down the route to recognise the fact that people don’t have to send their children into school if they don’t want to. There will not be any enforcement around that.’

Mr Ashford was speaking to a special question and answer session with members of the public, recorded yesterday (Friday) and released online this lunchtime.

He said education minister Dr Alex Allinson MHK would be outlining more information at Monday’s news briefing about the phased approach to reopening schools.

Caroline Smith in Sulby asked how long it was acceptable for children to practise social distancing at school or nursery without it affecting their future mental health and relationships.

Mr Ashford admitted it was ’incredibly complex to enforce’ social distancing in schools ’to be perfectly frank’.

He said: ’So what we need to do is bring schools back in a phased approach. We are in a very lucky situation in the island with the low number of (coronavirus) cases that we can look at various things but you are not going to be able to stop children playing together.

’While you can limit the interaction in the classroom you are not going to be able to limit all the other interactions, it’s just not feasible with young children. So there is a recognition around that.

’And in fact that is what has led in the UK to a lot of the debate around schools coming back.

’But obviously they (the UK) are in a very different situation in terms of the spread of the virus.

’We do at some point have to get the schools back to completely normal. It’s about a phased approach to reopening schools.’

Mr Ashford was asked what he thought the take-up would be when schools do reopen.

He said: ’In terms of take up we won’t know till we get there.’

Mr Ashford answered a string of questions on other subjects including the fact that a number of outdoor sports are being allowed again as long as people follow government’s guidelines.

Activities such as athletics, football, netball and tennis are among those to return, after the coronavirus lockdown stopped them in March.