Matt Hancock: Teachers have ‘strong case’ to be next in line for jab

Matt Hancock today insisted teachers have a ‘very strong case’ to be next in line to receive the coronavirus vaccine. 

The Health Secretary told MPs that ministers are currently ‘considering’ who will get the jab once the top four priority groups of the most vulnerable people have been vaccinated. 

Ministers are facing growing pressure to bump teachers up the vaccine priority list so that schools can reopen as soon as possible. 

Senior MPs and industry figures have stressed that a speedy return to lessons is paramount to prevent the latest national lockdown causing further damage to children’s education.  

Immunisation of teachers and staff is heralded as the key to getting pupils back in classrooms, as children themselves are at very little risk from the disease. 

The Government is currently steaming ahead with the biggest vaccination programme in British history. 

Boris Johnson’s aim is to have vaccinated the 13 million most vulnerable people in the UK by the middle of February.

Four groups of people have been identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation as being most in need of the vaccine. 

They are care home residents and staff, all over-80s and frontline health and social care workers, all over-75s, and all over-70s and the clinically extremely vulnerable. 

Mr Hancock told the House of the Commons that teachers have a ‘very strong case’ to be next in line once those four groups have been covered. 

He said: ‘Of course we are considering, once we have vaccinated those who are clinically vulnerable, of course we are considering who then should be the next priority for vaccination and teachers of course have got a very strong case, as have those who work in nurseries and many colleagues across the House have made that point.

‘We will consider that.’   

Mr Johnson announced the closure of all schools and colleges across England on Monday night as he plunged the nation back into lockdown.  

He has marked out education as a ‘national priority’ and has insisted that schools will be the first thing to reopen when lockdown rules can be eased. 

The Government is also stepping up its efforts to provide laptops for pupils from the poorest families as schools are forced to make the switch to online learning.

But the Prime Minister is being urged by his own backbenches to step up efforts to resume physical teaching, with online learning deemed inadequate, with growing calls from across the political divide for teachers to be installed at the top of the vaccine priority list.  

Robert Halfon, the Conservative chairman of the Education Select Committee, said this morning: ‘Surely teachers and support staff must be made a priority alongside NHS workers for vaccination.’ 

Warning of the impact of school closures on children, Mr Halfon told Times Radio: ‘We are damaging their life chances every day that they are not in school, we’re increasing mental health worries, we know there are safeguarding hazards for children being at home, so the priority must be to get our kids back into school.’

Making the case for teachers to get the jab, he added: ‘The Government want to prioritise the elderly and the vulnerable and I’m absolutely in sympathy with that.

‘I think there is an argument about supporting one group of workers over another, but my view is that children – educating our children – is the most important thing we can do.’

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson this afternoon did not make reference to vaccines for schools staff, but instead said mass testing would be at the heart of the Government’s plan to resume lessons. 

The issue may soon be debated by MPs as a petition on Parliament’s website to prioritise teachers for vaccines has already surpassed 307,000 signatures.

Margaret Thatcher’s education secretary Lord Baker has added his voice to the campaign. 

He told the Telegraph: ‘Teachers should be inoculated and vaccinated as priority cases and people like dinner ladies, anyone who goes into school carries the risk of carrying Covid. If we can do two million vaccinations a week, we can certainly fit teachers in.’

Education union leaders have also been pushing for teachers to receive the jab and said it would pave the way for the reopening of schools.

Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT union, said: ‘It is extremely disappointing that the Government has not yet signalled rolling out the vaccine to prioritise schools and education staff. 

‘Keeping teachers free from Covid is the best way to ensure that children’s education does not continue to be disrupted going forwards.’

Although the Government has not yet made any promises, there were signs teachers could be earmarked for vaccination following the initial rollout for the vulnerable.

England’s deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries suggested to MPs that teachers and other frontline workers could be next in line, HuffPost reported.

‘When the first four groups are completed, then frontline key workers would be vaccinated and this would include consideration of teachers,’ she said, according to one MP on the call.  

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said there should have been a contingency plan in place in case schools needed to close again.

He told the Commons this afternoon: ‘On schools, we all recognise the huge damage that closing schools will cause for many children and families.

‘But the Prime Minister knew that closures might be necessary so there should always have been a contingency plan. 

‘Up to 1.8 million children don’t have access to a home computer and 900,000 children live in households that rely on mobile internet connections.

‘So can the Prime Minister tell us when is the Government going to get the laptops to those that need them?

‘He spoke about the 50,000 delivered and the 100,000 more, but 1.8 million children don’t have access to a home computer so there’s real urgency needed now.’

Responding, Mr Johnson said: ‘He asked about laptops and devices and he quoted a figure of 50,000. In fact, the number is 560,000 that have gone to schools.’