School staff vaccination uptake: February 2022

This analysis links the School Workforce Annual Census (SWAC) and the Research Ready Data Asset for COVID-19 Vaccination Data (RRDA_CVVD) in the SAIL Databank. It was undertaken by the Administrative Data Research Unit within Welsh Government.

Since 7 December 2020 Wales has led a rapid vaccination programme to reduce illness and death related to COVID-19. The following analysis covers vaccinations recorded between 7 December 2020 and 1 February 2022. Whilst the majority of the population aged 12 and above were offered two primary doses plus a booster, a third primary dose was recommended for severely immunosuppressed individuals. In this analysis, individuals are counted only once against their highest received dose.

For all school staff members in Wales as at 1 February 2022:

• an estimated 37,990 had received a first booster vaccination (B1), this represented 82.3% of all staff, including 84.3% of all teachers (18,395) and 80.4% of all support staff (19,950)
• the percentage with only the first dose of the vaccination was at 1.0% (445), 11.7% (5,390) had received only two doses, 1.6% (755) had received a third primary dose (but no booster); there were no recorded vaccinations for 3.4% (1,570) of school staff
• the overall percentage with either a third dose or booster combined was 83.9% (38,740); this varied across local authorities, with the highest percentage with this dosage in Blaenau Gwent at 88.2% (870) and the lowest in Neath Port Talbot at 78.1%, (1,580)
• vaccination uptake also varied by staff role, with the highest percentage of those in the ‘leadership’ category recorded to have received a third dose or first booster at 92.1% (2,585), compared to 80.3% (645) of those in the ‘other teachers’ category

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• Overall, vaccination uptake was fairly consistent between school sectors.
• As of 1 February 2022, an estimated 21,800 nursery and primary school staff members had received either their third dose or first booster vaccination. This represents around 83.1% of all school staff in this sector.
• For all staff in middle schools, 83.9% (1,585) had received either a third dose or first booster and for secondary school staff this was 85.2% (12,500).
• Similarly, for school staff in special schools and Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) 84.3% (2,860) had received either their third dose or first booster vaccination.
• A more detailed breakdown of vaccination number by sector is shown in Chart 3.

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• As of the 1 February 2022, an estimated 32,555 female school staff members had received either a third dose or first booster. This represented 83.5% of all female school staff.
• For male school staff, 6,185 had received either their third or booster dose, representing 85.8% of all male school staff.
• Age-specific uptake rates show increased proportions having received the third and booster dose with increasing age. For those in the under 25 age category this was lowest at 68.0%, (1,020) compared to 94.1% (3,440) of those in the 60 and over age bracket.
• However, those in the under 25 age category had the highest percentage with only two doses at 25.1% (375), followed by those age 25 to 29 at 22.1% (940).
• Of those school staff who declared yes to having a physical or mental health condition or illness lasting or expected to last 12 months or more, 91.7% (400) had either the third dose or booster compared to 83.8% (36,075) of those who answered no to this question.
• The data on uptake by ethnicity is based on small numbers, so should be interpreted with caution. The highest percentage of those who had received their third dose or booster was in the ‘information refused’ and ‘information not obtained’ categories.
• Where ethnicity was recorded, the highest percentage who had received either their third dose or booster was in the ‘White’ category at 84.1% (37,435). The lowest was in the ‘African/Caribbean/Black British’ category at 55.8% (55), followed by ‘Mixed/Multiple Ethnic Groups’ at 70.7% (230).

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This analysis is based on anonymised data held in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) system, which is part of the national e-health records research infrastructure for Wales. All data were anonymised before acquisition and use within the secure environment provided by the SAIL Databank.

Research Ready Data Assets (RRDA) are prepared and maintained by the Population Data Science, Health Data Research UK team at Swansea University. The Research Ready Data Asset for COVID-19 Vaccination Data (RRDA_CVVD) covers all patients and vaccinations administered or planned for COVID-19, in or funded by the NHS in Wales.

The School Workforce Annual Census (SWAC) is comprised of two data collections and covers the 2018/2019 and 2020/21 academic years. The first is data on contracts and pay from local authorities and the second is data on the workforce directly from schools. The two data collections contain overlapping but not identical staff records. Therefore, some staff members may appear on one data collection but not the other. For this analysis we used the data directly from schools for the 2020/21 academic year, this is consistent with the methodology for producing School Staff headcount figures (See the  ‘School Workforce Annual Census: background information’  report for further details on the SWAC dataset.

The Administrative Data Research Unit (ADRU) in Welsh Government undertakes research projects for the public good using established administrative datasets. During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, ADRU has undertaken a number of data linking projects. For this analysis, the School Workforce Annual Census (SWAC) for 2020/21 was linked to the Research Ready Data Asset for COVID-19 Vaccination Data (RRDA_CVVD) within the SAIL Databank.

The RRDA_CVVD is a cleaned source of daily COVID-19 vaccination data created specifically for analysis and research. Vaccination figures used for this analysis are as extracted on 01/02/2022. Vaccines received after this date were not included. Uptake figures are subject to regular change due to frequent updates to the RRDA_CVVD dataset.

Within the RRDA_CVVD dataset a small percentage of records are excluded for not meeting one of the following validation rules:

• Vaccinated within the UK i.e. never overseas
• Vaccinated as part of the vaccination programme i.e. never part of a trial
• Vaccination name is: Pfizer Biotech from 7 Dec 2021, AstraZeneca from 4 Jan 2021, Moderna (or Moderna half) from 4 Jan 2021, Janssen from 1 Mar 2021, Novavax from 1 Jan 2023
• Date of vaccination is before *current date*
• For a record with multiple vaccinations: Each dose must be at least 20 days after the previous
• The dose sequence must be sequential e.g. no second dose before first dose, no multiple second doses recorded

The SWAC is an individual level collection, therefore there are some instances where a workforce member is recorded against multiple roles within the same school or in multiple schools. For this analysis as part of the linking and aggregation process, where possible those teachers with more than one role (e.g. working part-time in two schools) have their information combined into one record recorded against the highest grade for that individual.

Similarly, with conflicting records of age relating to the same individual, to avoid over counting, the highest reported age has been selected for that individual. This affected a very small number of records so was unlikely to create a significant bias. For other characteristics including ethnicity and disability, where multiple categories were identified only one has been included. 

Linking between data sets is achieved through the use of anonymised linking fields (ALFs), these are only available for staff members who are resident in Wales, non-residents have been excluded. Where workforce members have received vaccines administered outside of Wales these may appear as having received zero recorded doses. As a result, it is likely that figures shown will over-estimate the number of individuals with zero doses in Local Authorities near the Wales-England border.

Staff headcount estimations will be lower than published SWAC headcount figures elsewhere as approximately 84 per cent of SWAC records were successfully matched to the RRDA_CVVD dataset (see school workforce census results for the latest headcount figures)

Headcount figures are shown rounded to the nearest 5. Rounding is intended to prevent the disclosure of personal information. However, percentages have been calculated using precise raw numbers.

The data manipulation was done in SQL DB2 and MS Excel in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. 

This research has been carried out as part of the ADR Wales programme of work. The ADR Wales programme of work is aligned to the priority themes as identified in the Welsh Government’s Programme for Government. ADR Wales brings together data science experts at Swansea University Medical School, staff from the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) at Cardiff University and specialist teams within the Welsh Government to develop new evidence by using the SAIL Databank at Swansea University, to link and analyse anonymised data. ADR Wales is part of the Economic and Social Research Council (part of UK Research and Innovation) funded ADR UK (grant ES/S007393/1).

This work uses data provided by patients and collected by the NHS as part of their care and support. We would also like to acknowledge all data providers who make anonymised data available for research.

We wish to acknowledge the collaborative partnership that enabled acquisition and access to the de-identified data, which led to this output. The collaboration was led by the Swansea University Health Data Research UK team under the direction of the Welsh Government Technical Advisory Cell (TAC) and includes the following groups and organisations:  the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank, Administrative Data Research (ADR) Wales, Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW formerly NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS)), Public Health Wales, NHS Shared Services and the Welsh Ambulance Service Trust (WAST). All research conducted has been completed under the permission and approval of the SAIL independent Information Governance Review Panel (IGRP) project number 0911.

Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFG)

The Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015 is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of Wales. The Act puts in place seven wellbeing goals for Wales. These are for a more equal, prosperous, resilient, healthier and globally responsible Wales, with cohesive communities and a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language. Under section (10)(1) of the Act, the Welsh Ministers must (a) publish indicators (“national indicators”) that must be applied for the purpose of measuring progress towards the achievement of the wellbeing goals, and (b) lay a copy of the national indicators before Senedd Cymru. Under section 10(8) of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, where the Welsh Ministers revise the national indicators, they must as soon as reasonably practicable (a) publish the indicators as revised and (b) lay a copy of them before the Senedd. These national indicators were laid before the Senedd in 2021. The indicators laid on 14 December 2021 replace the set laid on 16 March 2016.

Information on the indicators, along with narratives for each of the wellbeing goals and associated technical information is available in the Wellbeing of Wales report.

Further information on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

The statistics included in this release could also provide supporting narrative to the national indicators and be used by public services boards in relation to their local wellbeing assessments and local wellbeing plans.

Statistician: Kathryn Helliwell
Telephone: 0300 025 0058
Email: ADRUWales@gov.wales

Media: 0300 025 8099

SFR 97/2022