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Vaccine access must be ‘urgent priority’ as official
figures show 33,000 support staff workers absent due to covid
in December
GMB, the union for school support staff, has called
for urgent occupational priority for vaccination for school
workers as new figures show that more support staff workers were
more likely to be absent from work due to covid-19 than
teachers.
The figures, which cover schools in England only,
were published by the Department for Education (DfE) this week.
[1]
A total of 33,267 school support staff workers were
absent on 17 December 17, 2020 for covid-19 related reasons,
including confirmed and suspected infections and those who were
required to isolate due to exposure inside or outside school.
GMB said that support staff workers were at the highest
occupational exposure to cCovid-19 in schools, as common tasks
include administration of medicine, supporting children one to
one, food and, personal care together with close pupil contact
whilst supporting learning.
An estimated 6.1 per cent of school support staff
were absent on December 17 due to Covid-19. This compared to 4.4
per cent of teachers and school leaders. Covid-19 absences have
been higher for support staff than teachers on every day recorded
by the DfE (since 12 October 2020).
The disparity was even greater in Special Schools,
where 16.2 per cent of support staff were absent on December 17
for reasons linked to covid-19 (compared to 5.4 per cent of
teachers and school leaders).
The DfE has said that it believes that teachers and
support staff should receive occupational priority for phase two
of the vaccination programme. However, no official decision has
been made, and Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation
advice on occupational prioritisation only mentions teachers. [3]
GMB is campaigning for all school workers to have access to
vaccination.
Rehana Azam, GMB National Secretary,
said:
“Schools cannot function without support staff, and
these figures confirm that these critical workers are not getting
the support they deserve.
“It is not a coincidence that whilst many teachers
are teaching remotely from home, lots of GMB members remain in
schools, supervising classes, preparing food and maintaining
school buildings.
“Many of our members are performing tasks that
involve a high risk of transmission, without adequate PPE, and
often in poorly ventilated buildings.
“Support staff are the highly skilled professionals
of the education system but too often they are ignored in public
debate.
“The comments from Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jenny
Harries to Parliament yesterday did not reflect at all the
reality on the ground.
“The DFE’s own statistics prove this. Ministers
across Government need to wake up and recognise the reality that
hundreds of thousands of low-paid school workers are at high risk
of infection, with devastating consequence for workers, pupils
and the wider community.”
“The reality is that without urgent priority access to
vaccinations for school support staff, the cycle of community
transmission in schools will not be broken.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
[1] Department for Education, Attendance in education
and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19)
outbreak, 19 January 2021 https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/2021-week-3
[2] Support staff workers include (and are not
limited to) those in administration, business management,
cleaning, catering, cover and lunchtime supervisory, site staff,
teaching assistant and technician roles.
[3] https://twitter.com/SchoolsWeek/status/1349299105277771777
Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation,
Advice on priority groups for COVID-19 vaccination, 30 December
2020 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/priority-groups-for-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-advice-from-the-jcvi-30-december-2020/joint-committee-on-vaccination-and-immunisation-advice-on-priority-groups-for-covid-19-vaccination-30-december-2020
