Children aged 12-15 are now being offered the opportunity to have a first and second dose of the COVID-19 vaccination, following advice from the UK’s four Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) to the Government.
Very few healthy children and young people with COVID-19 go on to have severe disease, but offering vaccination to 12 to 15 year olds should help to reduce the risk of complications, reduce time out of education, and reduce the spread of COVID-19 within schools.
Children will be offered the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is the vaccine approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for children and young people over 12 years of age. This follows a thorough review of the safety, quality and effectiveness of the vaccine in this age group.
Children who are 12 years and older on the day our school vaccination team visits their school will be offered two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine 12 weeks apart.
Parents or guardians of children aged 12-15 will receive an electronic consent form via a link distributed by school or a letter with details of when the vaccination will be offered and they will be asked to provide their consent for their child to receive the vaccination, either through an online or a paper form. The electronic consent form/letter will be sent approximately one week before the school immunisation team visit the school.
School vaccination services will NOT vaccinate a child in the following circumstances:
- When parent/guardian has not provided advance written consent.
- If the school vaccination service does not have a record of parental consent.
- When children express a desire to be vaccinated but parent/guardian have not provided advance written consent.
- When parents have provided advance written consent and the child has said they do not want to be vaccinated.
- If the child has had a positive test for COVID-19 within the last 12 weeks.
- If there is less than twelve weeks between the first and second dose.
The School vaccination services team will be delivering the primary offer in all Schools, however there will be a secondary offer available within the community that all parents and school will be notified of, pending national guidance.
Alternative arrangements will be made for children who are home schooled, in secure services or specialist mental health settings. Children in this age group who are clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV), or live with someone who is immunosuppressed, will be offered two doses and will be contacted by their GP to arrange this.
Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust who are responsible for the school-based COVID-19 vaccination programme for 12-15 year olds will be working closely with schools to ensure all eligible children are offered a vaccination.
Frequently Asked Questions
The government.uk website has lots of useful FAQs, which you can find from around half way down the page.
You can also find further frequently asked questions here
Resources