CMO Recommend a single Covid Vaccine dose to 12-15 Year Olds – Sector Response

CMO Recommend a single Covid Vaccine dose to healthy 12-15 Year Olds – Sector Response

Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:   

“The decision by the Chief Medical Officers to encourage the take up of vaccinations by 12-15 year olds will be another tool to help pupils sustain their access to education throughout the autumn and winter.   

“While we recognise that a decision on vaccinating children needed careful evidential judgement,  it would have been better if a decision could have been made earlier during the summer holidays. It will now be well into the autumn before the impact of the vaccination programme will be felt. Schools must be given timely and clear guidance for the next steps. It is an NHS responsibility to carry out vaccinations on school sites, though schools are used to being sites for the vaccination program. And it is incumbent on the Department for Education to make clear and usable procedures for the necessary parental consent. This is not the time for yet more incoherent guidance from Government.    

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“Now that a decision has been made, it is essential that the government immediately confirms that the process surrounding vaccinations will be run and overseen entirely by the appropriate medical teams. Where parents have questions, including about important matters such as consent, these must be handled by those same medical teams. There must be no delay in confirming this otherwise school leaders will be put in an impossible position of facing questions to which they simply do not have the answers. School leaders and their teams need to be able to focus on their core task of providing education to pupils. We would expect detailed guidance to be published by government without delay.”