Vaccination Mandates Update
Members were updated Monday 2nd May as to our approach to schools wishing to install some form of COVID vaccination requirement into school policy in place of the now-rescinded health directives.
The fundamental position was that we would not be challenging the basic health directions, but if schools wanted to have a more restrictive policy, the requirements would need to be scientifically justifiable, reasonable and acceptable to the staff being subjected to the policy.
Even the Department for Education’s policy is in excess of the basic health directives.
The basic health advice being that mandated vaccinations and blanket mask rules are no longer necessary in schools (although they may still be a very good thing to do).
There is a requirement for schools to consult with the IEU and staff around these matters. Most schools have done the right thing and the IEU has engaged in the terms as previously notified to members.
A copy of the template response to schools may be accessed here. Schools are firstly developing a framework for a policy with the resulting actual drafts then open to more detailed consideration.
