Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to accelerate the COVID-19 vaccination programme for children in order to prevent school absences.

School-aged children aged 12 years old and over are receiving COVID-19 vaccinations in schools through the School Age Immunisation Service (SAIS) and in community settings. To accelerate COVID-19 vaccinations in schools, the National Health Service has been working to increase the scale and pace of delivery, as well as targeting communications to parents, young people and the public to improve uptake and increase overall confidence in the programme.

On 13 December 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement wrote to local health systems on offering a second dose to 12 to 15 year olds. This set out preparations for the winter break offer in out of school settings and the spring term offer for readiness from 10 January 2022 in school settings. The letter set out steps to ensure that SAIS providers and NHS systems have sufficient capacity to vaccinate children in school; there are settings outside of school where children can receive their vaccinations if necessary; there are appropriate vaccination opportunities to cater for different vaccination timelines; and the vaccination workforce has received appropriate training. A copy of the letter is attached.

As of 31 January 2022, at-risk children under 12 years old who are prioritised for COVID-19 vaccination are being offered the vaccine in out of school settings.