Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of covid-19 infection rates at schools for children with special educational needs and disabilities; what discussions he has had with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation on the prioritisation of teaching staff working with children with special educational needs and disabilities for vaccination against covid-19; and if he will make a statement.

The current national restrictions limiting attendance are about reducing the number of contacts that people have with other households, given the rapidly rising numbers of cases across the country and the intense pressure on the NHS. For those pupils and staff still attending school, the system of protective measures that we have asked schools to implement continues to mean that any risks are well managed and controlled. We are not seeing significant pressure from COVID-19 in paediatrics across the UK.

Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) endorsed system of controls sets out the measures that school leaders and all staff should follow. Where schools implement the system of controls, in line with their own workplace risk assessment, PHE and DHSC confirm that these measures create an inherently safer environment for children and staff where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced.

The department collects daily data from schools and colleges via the educational setting status form, which was set-up to help the government monitor the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on schools and colleges. This data is as reported directly by schools via the department’s daily education settings survey. It is not the primary source of data on infection, incidence and COVID-19 cases overall.

The department has published the number and proportion of pupils absent due to a confirmed case of COVID-19, a suspected case of COVID-19 or self-isolation in state-funded schools in England on each Thursday between 15 October and 17 December 2020, excluding the October half term period. The department has published the number and proportion of i) teachers and school leaders and ii) teaching assistants and other staff absent due to a confirmed case of COVID-19, a suspected case of COVID-19 or self-isolation in state-funded schools in England on each day between 12 October and 17 December 2020, excluding the October half term period.

The department has also published this data for all local authorities in England, broken down by school type. This is available in Table 1C of the ‘Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak’ statistical publication, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/2021-week-4.

On prioritisation of vaccines, frontline social care workers directly working with people clinically vulnerable to COVID-19 who need care and support, irrespective of where they work and whether they care for adults or children, will be prioritised as part of Phase 1 of vaccine rollout. This includes some staff who work in special schools.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and the government, including the Department for Education, are considering essential workers, such as the education, childcare and the wider children’s social care workforce in the next phase of vaccine rollout.