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Dear  F Thomas 

Thank you for your recent enquiry which was received on 09 February.

A reply will be sent to you as soon as possible. For information; the
departmental standard for correspondence received is that responses should
be sent within 20 working days as you are requesting information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your correspondence has been allocated
reference number 2022-0005252.

Department for Education

Ministerial and Public Communications Division

Tel: 0370 000 2288

Web: [1]https://www.education.gov.uk
Twitter: [2]https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
Facebook: [3]https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

References

Visible links
1. https://www.education.gov.uk/
2. https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
3. https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

Dear F Thomas,

Freedom of Information Request Reference FOI-2022-0005252

I refer to your request for information, which was received on 09^th
February 2022. You requested:
 

 1. An up-to-date assessment on the effect of the under-16 Covid
vaccination rollout in England on reducing disruption in education

 2. the evidence on which the original decision to roll out Covid
vaccinations to this age group was based.

When overriding the advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and
Immunisation (JCVI ) not to recommend Covid vaccines to under 16s, the
government and Chief Medical Officers claimed that rolling out Covid
vaccines to this age group would reduce educational disruption.

Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA).

Following a search of the Department for Education’s (DfE) paper and
electronic records, I have established that the information in the first
part of your request is not held. The DfE does not hold an up-to-date
assessment on the effect of the under 16 Covid-19 vaccination rollout on
reducing the disruption in education. However, the primary metrics
relating to disruption in education are on-site attendance and closures,
the data for which is published at the following link:
[1]Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic, Week 8 2022 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK
(explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)

Evidence continues to reinforce how important vaccines are at saving lives
and preventing serious illness from COVID-19, including from the Omicron
variant: vaccination offers good protection against hospitalisation and
severe disease from Omicron. Further information on this can be found at
the following link: [2]How well do vaccines protect against Omicron? What
the data shows - UK Health Security Agency (blog.gov.uk)

National data shows confirmed cases of COVID-19 and number of COVID-19
patients admitted to hospital to be on a downward trajectory. This
information can be found at the following link:
[3]UK Summary | Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the UK (data.gov.uk)

In addition, Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI)  are
always looking at the most up to date evidence on Covid vaccinations.
Information on JCVI and copies of their meeting minutes can be found at
the following site:
Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

In relation to the second part of your request, the JCVI is the
independent expert advisory committee that advises United Kingdom health
departments on immunisation, making recommendations concerning vaccination
schedules and vaccine safety.

On the 3^rd September 2021 the JCVI announced that they had looked at the
direct health benefits of vaccines, and in the case of 12- to
15-year-olds, they said that there was only a small advantage for young
people in getting a dose of the vaccine. They suggested the Government may
wish to seek advice on the wider societal and educational impacts from the
Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) of the four nations, with representation
from JCVI in these subsequent discussions.
[4]JCVI statement, September 2021: COVID-19 vaccination of children aged
12 to 15 years - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The CMOs took into account the extra health benefits from avoiding
children missing education and concluded that there were public health
grounds to recommend vaccinating 12- to 15-year-olds. The CMOs then looked
at these wider public health benefits and risks of universal vaccination
in this age group. Of these, the most important was impact on education.
The UK CMOs also considered impact on mental health and operational issues
such as any possible negative impact on other vaccine programmes. Overall
they concluded that there were public health grounds to recommend
vaccinating 12- to 15-year-olds. The UK CMOs advice sets out their
reasoning here:
[5]https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio....
This included modelling done by the DHSC on the impact on school absence
from COVID-19 vaccination of healthy 12 to 15 year old children, which is
available here: [6]Impact on school absence from COVID-19 vaccination of
healthy 12 to 15 year old children - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The DfE is not responsible for decisions relating to accepting JCVI or CMO
advice on vaccination, nor does it hold the evidence on which the decision
is based. The DfE has provided information to JCVI and the UK CMOs to
support decision making, and a copy of this data which is not already
published is below.

Absence of 5-11 year olds compared to pre-pandemic

Initial data from a sample (17%) of primary schools suggests that the
overall absence rate (including symptomatic pupils isolating without a
positive test) in autumn 2021 was 7.4%, with an illness absence rate of
4.1%.

As of November 2021, the vast majority of illness absence above autumn
2019 levels was explained by confirmed COVID-19 cases.

After accounting for confirmed COVID-19 cases, illness absence remained
slightly higher than autumn 2019 (<0.5pp), but within range of illness
levels over the last 10 years.
 

Primary Schools 2018/19 Autumn 2019 Autumn 2021*
Overall absence rate 4.0% 4.3% 7.4%**
Illness absence rate 2.2% 2.2% 4.1%***

*Autumn 2021 figures are not directly comparable to Autumn 2019 figures.
The data is from a sample of schools and has not yet been cleansed by
schools.
**This includes “non-attendance in COVID-related circumstances”, which is
used for pupils who are isolating without having a positive test or
quarantining after an overseas trip
***Illness absence includes confirmed cases of COVID-19

Illness absence due to confirmed COVID-19 cases and other illness in a
sample of primary schools, up to 15 Nov 2021****
[7]Chart, histogram Description automatically generated

****Analysis based on schools with both i) illness absence rates in autumn
2021 from live register data, ii) confirmed COVID-19 cases from EdSet data
and iii) illness absence rate from autumn 2019 from census data. Sample
consists of ~1,5k primary schools. Analysis assumes accurate recording and
reporting of absence in line with guidance by schools via daily EdSet
returns and live register data.

However, the rest of information you requested is being withheld because
the following exemption applies:

Section 21 of the FOI Act – Information accessible to applicant by other
means

Under section 21 of the Act, the Department is not required to provide
information in response to a request if it is already reasonably
accessible to you.

The information that you have requested is available at the following
sites:
Attendance and Absence:
DfE, [8]Pupil absence in schools in England: autumn term, Autumn Term
2020/21 – Explore education statistics
DfE, [9]Attendance in education and early years settings during the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Week 8 2022
ONS, [10]Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, UK
Fischer Family Trust, [11]Exploring persistent absence
Attainment and Lost Learning:
Centre for Education Policy & Equalising Opportunities[12], Briefing Note:
School Absences and Pupil Achievement
DfE, [13]Pupils' progress in the 2020 to 2021 academic year
Curriculum Provision:
Ofsted, [14]COVID-19 series: briefing on schools, November 2020
Impact on Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing:
[15]COVID-19 School Snapshot Panel Findings from the May Survey
(publishing.service.gov.uk)
ONS, [16]Mental Health of Children and Young People in the Pandemic (2020)
PHE, [17]Education, schooling and health summary - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
(2021)
EEF, [18]Impact of Covid19on School Starters (2021)
DfE, Characteristics of children in need (2021)
Longer-Term Economic Impact of Missed School:
von dem Knesebeck O, Verde PE, Dragano N[19]., Education and health in 22
European countries, Social Science and Medicine (2006)
Psacharopoulos, G and Patrinos H.A., [20]Returns to investment in
education: a decennial review of the global literature: Education
Economics: Vol 26, No 5 (2018)
The information supplied to you continues to be protected by copyright.
You are free to use it for your own purposes, including for private study
and non-commercial research, and for any other purpose authorised by an
exception in current copyright law. Documents (except photographs) can be
also used in the UK without requiring permission for the purposes of news
reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would
require the permission of the copyright holder.

Most documents produced by a government department or agency will be
protected by Crown Copyright. Most Crown copyright information can be
re-used under the Open Government Licence
([21]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...). For
information about the OGL and about re-using Crown Copyright information
please see The National Archives website
-[22]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/infor...
.

Copyright in other documents may rest with a third party. For information
about obtaining permission from a third party see the Intellectual
Property Office’s website at [23]www.ipo.gov.uk.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact us. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to us within two calendar
months of the date of this letter.  Your complaint will be considered by
an independent review panel, who were not involved in the original
consideration of your request. 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the
Department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. 

Yours,

Covid Response Measures Team

Web: [24]https://www.education.gov.uk
Twitter: [25]https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
Facebook: [26]https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

References

Visible links
1. https://explore-education-statistics.ser...
2. https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2022/02/10/how...
3. https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
4. https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
5. https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
6. https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
8. https://explore-education-statistics.ser...
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9. https://explore-education-statistics.ser...
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10. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationa...
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationa...
11. https://ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2021/...
https://ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2021/...
12. https://repec-cepeo.ucl.ac.uk/cepeob/old...
https://repec-cepeo.ucl.ac.uk/cepeob/old...
13. https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
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14. https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
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15. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...
16. https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2020/10/22/menta...
https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2020/10/22/menta...
17. https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
18. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org...
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org...
19. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16698158/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16698158/
20. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
21. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o... blocked::http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...
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23. http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ blocked::http://www.ipo.gov.uk/
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/
24. https://www.education.gov.uk/
25. https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
26. https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk