Teachers could be given priority Covid jabs in masterplan to get kids back to school – but not until at least March
A MASTERPLAN to vaccinate the UK's teaching staff and get kids back into classrooms looks set to be rolled out - but not until March at the earliest.
The plan could see vaccinations administered to the entire education workforce, including support staff.
Medically trained staff would inoculate school-workers for 16 hours a day and 150 independent schools and state academies will be transformed into vaccination hubs under the emergency scheme, the reports.
Health secretary Matt Hancock today hinted the plans could become a reality - but are unlikely to come until after 13.5m of the most vulnerable Brits are vaccinated by mid-February, sparking further fears kids face months out of the classroom.
He said: "It's not a matter of logistics, the logistics can be organised.
"The challenge is the supply of vaccine, supply is the rate-limiting factor.
"The question is who should have each dose as it comes in... and we've taken the decision, quite rightly, to go through in order of clinical need, starting with those who are most likely to die from this disease.
"Of course we want to break the chains of transmission but we've also got to stop people dying from the disease if they catch it.
"We're going through those who are clinically vulnerable... and after that there's a perfectly reasonable debate to be had about who should go in what order next.
"Teachers have got a good shout to be very high on the list and those discussions are going on."
Professor Anthony Harnden, deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said if vaccines are found to prevent transmission, rolling out jabs to teachers may be fast tracked.
He said: "If studies do show they prevent transmission, it could be a whole new board game in terms of who you vaccinate and in what order.
"But at the moment our clear focus is trying to prevent hospitalisations and deaths."
Proposals have been drawn up by two academy chains, a private school group, and the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference - which represents almost 300 independent schools, including the likes of Eton and Harrow.
Private schools including Shrewsbury School and Oswestry School in Shropshire, South Hampstead High School in London, Bootham
School in York, Plymouth College and Ipswich School, have volunteered as vaccination hubs.
A letter sent by the schools to Boris Johnson, Gavin Williamson and Matt Hancock on January 10, said: "The single initiative that could help families cope better with the lockdown, preserve our children’s learning and mental health and help to encourage the economy to restart would be to ensure that schools can open safely after the February half term."
They also pledged to manage the logistics of the operation, saying the sites have the refrigerators required to store the vaccine and a "large force of medically trained members of staff" to administer it.
The plans come as millions of locked-down children are again adapting to remote learning, as schools across the UK remain closed.
"Most or even all" of the country's one million school and nursery teachers, teaching assistants and support staff, including dinner ladies and caretakers, could be vaccinated within the week, according to the brains behind the ambitious proposals.
Education Secretary Mr Williamson "hoped" children would be back in classrooms by Easter, dismissing the government's original February target.
He told BBC's Radio 4: "I would certainly hope that that would be certainly before Easter.
"Any decision to reopen schools to all children – as all decisions in terms of schools – will be based on the best health advice and the best scientific advice."
Yet fears continue to rise regarding the damage inflicted on underprivileged children, as pupils continue to learn from home.
Anne Longfield, England's children's commissioner, told of her concern that children in deprived areas "will fall even further behind" their peers, if schools do not re-open after half-term.
Some officials have warned parents to "prepare to wait until May", as the government have become increasingly discouraging the idea infection rates will fall quickly enough for schools to open.
The official lockdown review is on February 15 - the date half-term officially begins this year.
But education experts have urged the PM to back plans to speed up teachers vaccinations, encouraging him to intervene.
A leading historian and former master at Wellington College, Sir Anthony Seldon, said: "It is desperately important to get all schools back fully open for the sake of parents, guardians and their children.
"This is a really magnificent plan. No10 needs to start listening to and
welcoming ideas like this."
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Former education policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher and chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, Chris McGovern, said the proposal was a "no brainer."
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"The Government needs to wake up, get a move on, get a grip and get this done," he said.
There were no current plans to change the priority order for vaccines, a Downing Street source confirmed.
