Dear Young Person and Parent / Carer,
COVID-19 vaccination programme
The UK’s Chief Medical Officers have recommended that the first dose of the COVID-19
vaccination should be offered to all healthy children aged 12-15 years. Leicestershire
Partnership NHS Trust’s Community Immunisation Service would like to offer the COVID-19
(Comirnaty (Pfizer)) vaccination in school. We would like to ask if you wish to give your
consent for your child to receive a first dose of the vaccine.
This vaccination will be free of charge and our highest priority is making it easy for children
to access one dose of the vaccine before the winter.
The main purpose of the COVID-19 school age vaccination programme is to provide
protection to the children who receive the vaccine and may help to reduce transmission of
COVID-19 in the wider population.
During the vaccination delivery we will maintain the range of measures we have in place to
keep you safe from COVID-19.
You will be invited to a session at your school. Your school will inform you of the date. COVID19 is a very infectious respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Very few
children and young people with COVID-19 infection go on to have severe disease. There is
no cure for COVID-19 although some newly tested treatments do help to reduce the risk of
complications.
The COVID-19 vaccination will reduce the chance of you suffering from COVID-19 disease.
It may take a few weeks for your body to build up some protection from the vaccine.
Like all medicines, no vaccine is completely effective – some people may still get COVID19 despite having a vaccination, but this should be less severe. Further information is
available on www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/symptoms
Consent for the vaccination will be required prior to the service visiting the school. At all times
a joint decision between parent and child is strongly encouraged. However, parental consent
will not be needed if your child is considered competent to give consent themselves. Children
under 16 can consent if they are believed to have enough intelligence, competency and
understanding to full appreciate what’s involved in their treatment – this is known as being
“Gillick competent”.
TO BE GIVEN THE VACCINATION IN SCHOOL
Complete a consent form ONLINE by visiting:
www.leicsandrutlandimms.co.uk
Select COVID-19
You will need the code for your school.
For Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School) the school code is LE134640
You will receive a confirmation email when the form is submitted.
Top tip: Ensure that the email addresses match and that there are no spaces or punctuation
before or after the email address and the school code.
You will need to fully complete the consent form prior to the vaccination session.
You will be informed of the vaccination date by your school. These dates are also available on
our website, visit: www.leicspart.nhs.uk/communityimms
We will temporarily close the system 1 working day before the session to allow us to prepare.
The system will be reopened soon after the session so you can complete a consent form and
further details of an alternative opportunity for vaccination will be shared with you.
To inform us of any medical changes or to change your mind about the vaccination, please
contact the team.
If you are unable to complete this online, please ring us on 0300 300 0007 to request support.
One of our team may need to call you back in order to complete the form.
The Comirnaty (Pfizer) vaccination is currently being offered as a one dose course and will
be given as an injection in the upper arm. To read the patient information leaflet about the
vaccination please visit: http://tiny.cc/covid19forCYP
For information about the national COVID-19 vaccination programme, visit:
www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations
The team will be offering the vaccination in schools. If the young person is absent on the day,
an additional opportunity will be made available for the vaccination. The service will ensure
that you are kept fully informed of these venues.
We are working closely with your child’s school to ensure that all appropriate COVID safety
measures are in place to ensure the safe delivery of the vaccine.
If a family member you live with is self-isolating or if you are experiencing any of the
symptoms listed below on the day of the session, then please do not attend the vaccine
appointment.
High temperature – you feel hot to the touch on your chest or back
A new continuous cough – this means you have started coughing repeatedly.
A loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you’ve noticed
you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal.
More information
Additional information about the COVID-19 vaccination can be found by visiting:
www.healthforteens.co.uk/health/immunisation The website is also a wonderful resource for
young people aged between 11-16 years and offers health advice through interesting articles,
films and interactive content.
We are also planning to host online question and answer sessions for parents and for teens.
We will let you know the dates and links for these soon and share the details on our
healthforteens website.
If you are clinically at risk* (see examples of medical conditions below) please contact our
clinics booking team on 0116 4975700 so that we can discuss specialist support or clinics for
you. Should you have any other questions you can contact the team or wish to discuss any
additional support that may be required during the vaccination you can contact the team, by
telephone: 0300 300 0007, or by e-mail: communityimmunisations.service@nhs.net
Yours faithfully,
Dr Tim Davies Suzanne Leatherland
Consultant Lead for Screening and
Immunisation
Clinical Lead for Children’s COVID-19
Programme
NHS England and NHS Improvement –
Midlands
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust
NOTES ON COMPLETING THE ONLINE CONSENT FORM
http://www.leicsandrutlandimms.co.uk/
Select COVID-19 by clicking the “Click here” button next to it.
Enter and confirm your email address
Enter your school code: LE134640 and click find school. Your school name should appear.
We will temporarily close the system the 1 working day before the session to allow us to prepare. A message
will appear asking you to try again after the session and offer you an alternative opportunity for vaccination.
Top tip:
To find our homepage you can also search online for “Leicester imms”
Ensure that the email addresses match and that there are no spaces or punctuation before or after
the email address and school code.
PART 1: Patient Information and Contact Details
PART 2: Medical History
Complete the questions regarding medical and vaccination history.
PART 3: Consent Declaration
Complete this to give consent to the full course of COVID-19 vaccination.
Mature young person may be able to consent for themselves to have this vaccination without
your agreement and health professionals will assess their ability to make an informed decision.
Sharing information: After the vaccination at school, a notification will be provided and the information
will be added to the young person’s NHS health records.
To translate the information on the NHS website into a different language visit:
www.nhs.uk/accessibility/health-information-in-other-languages
*clinically at risk is classified as having any of the following medical conditions:
severe neurodisabilities
immunosuppression – those whose immune systems don’t work as well and also
those who live with someone who is immunosuppressed
profound and multiple or severe learning disabilities
being on the learning disability register
those living with Down’s syndrome
those living with long term serious conditions affecting your bod