The Covid vaccination roll-out is being accelerated for education staff working with special needs children and whose tasks are deemed equivalent to those in health and social care settings.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney told MSPs on Wednesday that directors of education had been asked to identify and provide information about employees undertaking such responsibilities so they can receive the jab.
It follows pressure from teaching union leaders for the change.
Larry Flanagan, General Secretary at the EIS, Scotland's largest teaching union, stressed previously that pupils in ASN settings could had complex needs which necessitate close contact with teachers and support staff.
He said this aspect of their job made such employees similar to those in social care or clinical environments.
It also comes after worried staff at a school in West Lothian were threatened with disciplinary action for obtaining the Covid jab.
The vaccine is currently limited to priority groups as determined by advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel