Pupils from poorest areas of England less likely to be vaccinated against Covid, figures show

Schools with higher proportions of pupils eligible for free lunch meals also had lower vaccination coverage

Just over half of school pupils aged 12 to 15 have had the vaccine (PA Archive)

School children living in the poorest areas of England are less likely to be vaccinated against Covid-19, according to new data.

Until 9 January, the vaccination rate stood at 36.1 per cent for pupils aged 12 to 15 from the most deprived parts of the country, compared with 70.3 per cent for the least deprived parts.

The research, published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), found that this disparity also applied to pupils eligible for free school meals.

It showed that schools with higher proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals had lower vaccination rates.

Pupils with special educational needs (SEN) were less likely to have been vaccinated against Covid-19 (48.1 per cent) than those without SEN (53.5 per cent), the ONS added.

“There have been massive outbreaks in schools throughout the past year, culminating in where we are now,” said Dr Deepti Gurdasani, an epidemiologist and senior lecturer at Queen Mary University.

“That children aren’t being offered vaccines has further compounded this, as the impacts on children and families become clear.

“One in eight primary-school-age children are infected as per the ONS. As they go into schools with very few mitigations in place, sharing air with children who are contacts of cases, without the protection of vaccines, how should families deal with this?”

The ONS noted that some 52.5 per cent of pupils aged 12 to 15 had received a vaccine by 9 January.

Attitudes toward vaccination among pupils and parents was also a key point of ONS research.

For 24 per cent of pupils aged five to 11, their parents said they were unlikely to agree to their child having a vaccine. Reasons for not wanting to vaccinate their children included worrying about the side effects (54 per cent), and waiting to see how it works (49 per cent).

When asked for all the reasons why they decided to have a vaccine, “I am helping to protect other people from getting coronavirus” was a motivation for 63 per cent of pupils. Other reasons included “it will protect me from getting coronavirus” (56 per cent) and “my family have had the vaccine” (47 per cent).

As part of the Schools Infection Survey, 3,375 parents provided answers to the ONS’ questionnaire, which equated to 4,128 children. A total of 2,045 school children in Year 7 to Year 13 took part in the survey too.