Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's policy is on the covid-19 vaccination priority for carers of children with SEN who are (a) in receipt of carers allowance and (b) not in receipt of carers allowance.

Eligible unpaid carers have been invited for vaccination as a part of cohort six of phase one of the COVID-19 vaccination programme. This follows the advice the Joint Committee on Immunisation and Vaccination (JCVI).

There is no distinction in NHS England and NHS Improvement’s standard operations procedure (SOP) between eligibility of those who are and are not, in receipt of carers allowance. The SOP is available at the following link:

www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2021/03/C1182-sop-covid-19-vaccine-deployment-programme-unpaid-carers-jcvi-priority-cohort-6.pdf

The SOP sets out a number of existing sources used by the National Health Service to identify unpaid carers as follows:

- Those in receipt of or entitled to a carer’s allowance;

- Those known to general practitioners who have a ‘carer’s flag’ on their primary care record;

- Those known to local authorities who are in receipt of support following a carer’s assessment; and

- Those known to local carers organisations to be actively receiving care and support.

The JCVI’s definition of an unpaid carer has been clarified in Public Health England’s Green Book for COVID-19 as “carers who are eligible for carer’s allowance, or those who are the sole or primary carer of an elderly or disabled person who is at increased risk of COVID-19 mortality and therefore clinically vulnerable”.