Children aged 12 to 15 will begin getting Covid-19 vaccines at Derbyshire schools from Wednesday in a bid to jab 50,000 students over the next seven weeks.

Jayne Needham, a public health consultant for Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust, said the same team which vaccinates children with their flu jabs every year will be administering the Covid-19 vaccines.

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the opportunity for 12-to-15-year-olds to get a Covid-19 vaccine is one parents and responsible guardians should seriously consider.

This is due to the individual benefit, which outweighs the risk of the jab itself, alongside the potential avoidance of less disruption to their education caused by missing school should they contract the virus.

She said the children receiving their jabs should gain confidence from the fact that the same team they see each year for flu vaccines, and for HPV vaccines, will be rolling out the Covid-19 jabs.

Ms Needham said: "The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation made a recommendation that the vaccines would provide a benefit but that it was marginal benefit and to pull on the advice of the chief medical officers.

"Their decision was that on balance the benefits of the vaccination do mean that because it has the potential to prevent children missing out on education and maximise the educational opportunities that are available for children that we should proceed with the roll-out.

"I would reitater the point made by the chief medical officers that is is highly likely that vaccination helps to reduce the transmission of Covid in schools, which are attended by children aged 12-15.

"As the schools have returned there has been an uptick in infections in secondary schools and because the Delta variant is extremely infectious and is extremely transmissible in schools then the benefit to education and the health of those children, I would really encourage parents to look at the information that will be coming out, to make a decision and seek further advice if they need it.

"I want them to feel really confident that the vaccine will be beneficial in terms of their own individual health but also in reducing the transmission in schools and maximising the educational opportunity for children.

"In general, children aged 12-15, when they get Covid, it is a mild disease, but occasionally it does lead to serious illness and hospitalisation. And as with all of the infections, if you are unvaccinated, your risk of becoming more unwell and ending up being hospitalised is higher than if you are vaccinated."

She said the staff in the immunisation service learned a lot from their roll-out of HPV vaccines to the school population last year by operating pop-up sites in school car parks around Derby and Derbyshire.

Ms Needham said children who happen to not be in school on the day the team comes to their school can get their vaccine at a follow-up session at each school, should they be required.

Vaccines are also being offered to children who are home-schooled.

The roll-out of Covid-19 jabs in 78 secondary schools and a number of special schools across the county and city starts on Wednesday, September 22 and is due to take seven weeks. A total of 50,000 students aged 12-15 are eligible for the vaccines.

Each student, as long as consent is granted, will receive a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Students aged 12-15 who are extremely clinically vulnerable or share a home with someone who is immune compromised can have two doses, but will be catered for separately.

Parents and students will receive letters outlining the vaccination process and parents, carers, guardians or the children can raise questions and concerns through details provided on those letters.

Joined Up Care Derbyshire outlines on its website: "The Covid-19 vaccines have undergone rigorous trials on children aged 12-15, and it has been determined that children face a greater risk of serious illness from infection that they do from vaccination.

"However, if you are responsible for providing consent you may decide not to do so, and that decision will be respected.

"In some circumstances, children under the age of 16 can consent to medical treatment such as vaccination even if this conflicts with their parents' view. This is covered by a concept called Gillick competency."

Gillick competency is often used to help assess whether a child has the maturity to make their own decisions and to understand the implications of those decisions.

The Government gave formal permission for Covid-19 jabs to be given to all healthy 12-to-15-year-olds a week ago, after unanimous approval from the four UK chief medical officers, with consent required before vaccination.