Care England, the largest representative body of independent
adult social care providers, has been very supportive of the
speed and manner in which COVID-19 vaccines have been rolled out
to priority group one; however it remains concerned that
individuals with a learning disability have not been given a
higher priority.
Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care
England, says:
“We hold that the Government should remove the arbitrary
distinction between prioritising those with a severe or profound
learning disability and those with a mild or moderate learning
disability, and place all those with a learning disability in
Priority Group 4. These vaccinations must be administered in the
individual’s place of residence, as opposed to in vaccination
hubs”.
People with learning disabilities fit in different cohorts of
priority depending on how their learning disability has been
classified according to the priorities set out by the JCVI in the
Green Book on vaccines. Based upon the current cohorts outlined
in the Green Book, individuals with severe and profound learning
disabilities are placed under Priority Group 6, whilst only
individuals with Down’s Syndrome are listed as clinically
extremely vulnerable and thus placed under Priority Group 4.
There are of course other health conditions that someone may have
that will change their priority grouping.
The Public Health England (PHE) report ‘
COVID 19
deaths of people identified as having learning disabilities’,
published in November 2020, outlined how deaths from Covid-19
amongst those with learning disabilities was up to six times
higher than the rate experienced by the general population in the
first wave of the pandemic. Whilst those with a learning
disability aged between 18 to 34 were up to thirty times more
likely to die. Care England called for lessons to be learned from
the from the first wave of the pandemic by prioritising
individuals with a learning disability for the Covid-19 vaccine
and other public health measures will help safeguard some of
society’s most vulnerable. Although those with a severe or
profound learning disability have been prioritised, we would have
anticipated that given the increased risk of mortality, they
would have subsumed a higher priority.
Martin Green continues:
"Unfortunately people with learning disabilities have been
disproportionately affected by this dreadful virus and we want to
do all that we can to protect care home residents and staff. We
have seen that an incredible scale of mobilisation is possible
for the vaccination and we want to harness this to protect the
1.5 million people with a learning disability”.
