Prioritise teachers, school and childcare staff for Covid-19 vaccination
Advice from the JCVI on the priority groups for a Covid-19 vaccine does not include school/childcare workers. This petition calls for these workers, who cannot distance or use PPE, to be kept safe at work by being put on the vaccine priority list when such a list is adopted into government policy.
506,180 Signatures
Daily Rank: #52 • Weekly Rank: #13 • Total Rank: #3
1. Social Care Sector COVID-19 Support Taskforce: report on first phase of COVID-19 pandemic
18/09/2020 - Department of Health and Social Care
- View source
Found: Social Care Sector
: Covid
-19 Support Taskforce
Full recommendations
Πincluding all Advisory
2. guidance
12/01/2021 - Department for Education
- View source
Found: Minimising cor
onavirus (COVID
-19) risks
6 Coronavirus (COVID
-19) asymptomatic testing in colleges
3. Social Care Sector COVID-19 Support Taskforce: report on first phase of COVID-19 pandemic
18/09/2020 - Department of Health and Social Care
- View source
Found: Advisory Group submission to the ASC Sector COVID
-
19 Taskforce: How can we prepare and support carers
4. Priority groups for coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination: advice from the JCVI, 2 December 2020
02/12/2020 - Department of Health and Social Care
- View source
Found: Committee on Vaccination and
Immunisation: advice on priority groups for
COVID
-19 vaccination
2 December
5. COVID-19 Winter Plan
23/11/2020 - Cabinet Office
- View source
Found: COVID
-
19
WINTER PLAN
November 2020
CP
324
COVID
-
19
WINTER
1. Covid-19 Vaccination Roll-out
11/01/2021 - Westminster Hall
1: this House has considered e-petition 554316 relating to roll-out of covid-19 vaccinations.It is - Speech Link
2. Early Years Settings: Covid-19
12/01/2021 - Westminster Hall
1: That this House has considered the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on early years settings.It is - Speech Link
3. Educational Settings: Reopening
26/01/2021 - Commons Chamber
1: Government have been clear that education is a national priority. We had worked hard to keep all schools, colleges - Speech Link
4. Covid-19 Update
04/02/2021 - Lords Chamber
1: Across the country, our vaccine roll-out continues at pace. With each vaccine we administer, we are one - Speech Link
2: this House are playing our part in the national vaccination effort. Today, we published a new resource for - Speech Link
3: meet our target to offer the vaccine to the four most vulnerable groups by 15 February. We now have over - Speech Link
4: Staffordshire and Wrexham, the Novavax vaccine made in Teesside and the Valneva vaccine manufactured in Livingston - Speech Link
5: home—to go to a workplace, for instance, because they cannot work from home—should get tested. All local employers - Speech Link
5. Covid-19
12/01/2021 - Commons Chamber
1: to move,That this House has considered covid-19.Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for your - Speech Link
2: hon. Friend for his introductory remarks. The vaccine is being rolled out across the country, and in - Speech Link
3: Stratford-on-Avon (Nadhim Zahawi), who is leading the vaccine deployment effort, will continue to look at ensuring - Speech Link
4: be the time for Royal Mail to take on some extra staff to cover those who are off sick? It is crucial that - Speech Link
5: progress. One group is further away from receiving a vaccine: undergraduates who would otherwise be returning - Speech Link
6: context are guided by the clinical advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which, as - Speech Link
6. Covid-19
06/01/2021 - Commons Chamber
1: I share your gratitude to the House of Commons staff for all their efforts and hard work to allow us - Speech Link
7. Public Health
06/01/2021 - Commons Chamber
1: has been to suppress the virus until a vaccine can make us safe, and while our collective efforts were - Speech Link
2: just under 50% of all the sequenced genomes of covid-19 that are deposited with the World Health Organisation - Speech Link
3: the middle of February, vaccinated the top four groups, who are the ones likely to overwhelm the NHS, - Speech Link
4: tribute to all the incredible scientists and NHS staff who are preparing to deliver it. However, one of - Speech Link
5: and finish vials only at the speed at which the vaccine material, which is a biological material, not a - Speech Link
6: in Parliament. The restrictions will therefore be kept under continuous review; there is a statutory requirement - Speech Link
8. Covid-19: Road Map
23/02/2021 - Lords Chamber
1: doing all we can to protect our people against Covid. Today’s measures will apply in England, but we - Speech Link
2: strains of Covid. Public Health England has found that one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduces hospitalisations - Speech Link
3: Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies shows, we cannot escape the fact that lifting lockdown will result - Speech Link
4: pace of the vaccination programme. In England, everyone in the top four priority groups was successfully - Speech Link
5: and subjected to four tests: first, that the vaccine deployment programme continues successfully; second - Speech Link
9. Covid-19
28/01/2021 - Lords Chamber
1: our United Kingdom against the new variants of Covid until we have administered enough vaccinations to - Speech Link
2: That is why we have launched the biggest vaccination programme in British history. Three weeks ago - Speech Link
3: sequencing. The UK has now sequenced over half of all Covid-19 viral genomes that have been submitted to the - Speech Link
4: coming to this country to have proof of a negative Covid test taken in the 72 hours before leaving. They - Speech Link
5: announce that we will require all such arrivals who cannot be refused entry to isolate in government-provided - Speech Link
6: enough data to know exactly how soon it will be safe to reopen our society and economy. At this point - Speech Link
7: more than 37,000 patients now in hospital with Covid, almost double the peak of the first wave, but the - Speech Link
8: vulnerable had been offered the first dose of the vaccine, so I can tell the House that when Parliament returns - Speech Link
10. Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out
08/12/2020 - Commons Chamber
1: authorised vaccine for covid-19. This marks the start of the NHS’s Herculean task to deploy vaccine right - Speech Link
asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick
26/11/2020
... they have to include teachers and school staff in priority groups for any potential COVID-19 vaccine. 2. Coronavirus: Vaccination
asked by: Barbara Keeley
04/02/2021
... what estimate he has made of the number of unpaid carers who may be eligible for a vaccine in priority group six. 3. Coronavirus: Vaccination
asked by: Lord Mendelsohn
10/11/2020
... how the JCVI will define which underlying health conditions present the greatest risk of morbidity and mortality from COVID-19; and what evidence it will take into account. 4. Coronavirus: Vaccination
asked by: Olivia Blake
26/11/2020
... if he will reassess the groups of people on the covid-19 vaccine priority list to give higher priority to people who are shielding but for whom the vaccine would not put them at a higher additional risk as determined by a consultant. 5. Coronavirus: Vaccination
asked by: Olivia Blake
08/02/2021
... what the priority for children's and adults' social workers is for receipt of the covid-19 vaccine; whether those social workers will be deemed to be under the category of social care workers in respect of the priority accorded to them for that vaccine; and what the timetable is for the receipt of that vaccine by (a) mental health professionals and (b) other such workers with higher-risks of covid-19 infection undertaking house calls to households with covid-19 positive cases.
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Inclusion of school and childcare staff on the priority list should also:
* provide more protection for children and their families
* reduce the chance of settings being closed for 2 weeks and working parents having to take time off work
* ensure continuity of education for children
* allow schools to return to normality faster, having a positive impact on children’s mental health
* reduce the chance of NHS workers having to stay at home with children who are isolating due to closures
Top 50 Constituencies by Number of Signatures
86,551 signatures - 17.0% of total
Government Response
The government is working hard to ensure everyone who is prioritised based on clinical risk, as set out by the JCVI receives a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as reasonably possible.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is the independent medical and scientific expert body who advise the UK Government on prioritisation for all vaccines. The committee’s membership is made up of practising clinicians and scientists, as well as individuals from academia who consider the impact of COVID-19 and provide advice on prioritisation of a COVID-19 vaccine in the population.
For phase one of the vaccine roll-out, the underlying principles at the forefront of the JCVI advice are to reduce mortality and morbidity, and to protect the NHS and social care systems, including the frontline staff working in these areas. Given the current epidemiological situation in the UK, all evidence indicates that the best option for preventing mortality in the initial phase of the programme is to directly protect persons most at risk.
Having identified age as being the biggest determining risk factor to increased mortality, COVID-19 vaccinations have been prioritised to care home residents and staff and those over 80, followed by health and social care workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and clinical risk factors. Further information on prioritisation can be found via the following link: www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-the-green-book-chapter-14a. If a teacher, school or childcare worker is identified as being in one of the at-risk cohorts, they will be contacted by the NHS at the appropriate time based on JCVI advice. It is estimated that when phase one concludes by the end of Spring 2021, twenty-five million people will have been offered the COVID-19 vaccine.
To enable this to happen, the National Health Service (NHS) has been working alongside its health and social care partners to ensure vaccinations can be administered safely and effectively as part of the largest vaccination programme undertaken in its history. Following months of comprehensive planning, more than 250 hospital hubs, 1,028 GP-led local vaccination services, 130 high street pharmacies and 50 large-scale vaccination centres are currently in operation across England. This has been a monumental effort by all those involved which has allowed over 9 million of the highest priority individuals to receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to date.
As the COVID-19 vaccine programme continues to grow, the government continues to follow the scientific and expert advice. As such, there are currently no plans to deviate from the advice set out by the JCVI and prioritise teachers, school or childcare staff during the first phase of deployment unless these individuals are over 50 or have an underlying health condition which place them in priority cohorts 1-9.
Looking ahead, the JCVI continues to collect and analyse data in order to best inform the advice it provides the government. Further data and advice from the JCVI will inform the next steps going forward in preparation for Phase Two of the roll-out of the COVID Vaccination programme. The Department of Health and Social Care will work with the NHS, independent experts and other partners to best implement this.
Ensuring the safety of children, the education and childcare workforce and families is our overriding priority. We continue to update our guidance to help the childcare sector provide a safe and secure environment for children and staff. To deliver on these aims and to support full re-opening we are rolling out our asymptomatic testing programme to staff in primary and nursery schools, whilst over 90% of secondary schools have now registered for rapid testing. As a result of the brilliant efforts schools and colleges are making to deliver testing it is hoped this will help break the chains of transmission of the COVID-19 virus and support a return to face-to-face education.
Department of Health and Social Care
This is a revised response. The Petitions Committee requested a response which more directly addressed the request of the petition. You can find the original response towards the bottom of the petition page (https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/554316)