Unfortunately, time and again, our needs have not been considered.
Clinically Vulnerable people have a 5.4x increased risk of Long Covid and an 8.5x increased risk of death (data from the final ONS Covid survey).
Withdrawing protections from schools has hit us hardest.
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Our increased risks, without any protections in place, make our lives more difficult and impact our children - even if they are attending school. It is a barrier to attendance and a barrier to learning.
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Many Clinically Vulnerable Families no longer feature in official attendance data, as they have been off-rolled, because schools and local authorities do not want their own data blighted.
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Clinically Vulnerable Families reject the incredibly distasteful title "Ghost Children".
Minimum estimates for Covid Orphans continue to grow.
Because by not protecting our children were are not protecting their households, families and communities.
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We have been collecting data,
We hope to share it with the Education Committee Inquiry into attendance, but we have yet to be invited to share our oral evidence.
Even winter pressures on healthcare affected our school attendance.
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All children are now frequently getting sick with Covid itself, as it remains in high prevalence year-round. This also has a direct impact on attendance figures.
Whilst some people may be asymptomatic, others can take a long time to recover - if they ever do...
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Children are developing post-viral conditions such as T1 diabetes which make them Clinically Vulnerable.
And highly vulnerable children are now locked out of high demand special schools due to a shortfall in provision.
However, there is something they could do...
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And it isn't recycling the old "Schools Bill" to crack down harder on struggling parents.
Because fines, prosecutions, social services referrals, and school attendance orders are blunt instruments, which only make matters worse and won't fix our problem.
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All we are asking for is a safe learning environment. It is a very simple and basic request.
Because even those who are in school are struggling. How can children learn or perform when 'personal responsibility' means that they are constantly managing risk?
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💙 We want to *live* with Covid
💜 #educationANDlives are essentials
💗 Everyone needs safe schools
Let's invest in health. Air filtration can reduce the risks for everyone.
By reducing Covid, 'flu, Strep A. & RSV we improve pupil & staff attendance and community health.
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Join us in the unmentionable place to find the most supportive community and to contribute to our attendance survey:
Search for : Clinically Vulnerable Families
Additionally, please complete the DfE survey requesting evidence on children missing from education.
Professor Steve Turner, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (@RCPCHtweets) @SteveTurnerABDN.
"children, mercifully, were spared from the harm of that came from Covid. Even my most sick patients .... it was their parents who were unwell...."
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Advice on shielded children.
"The College was pleased that the UK government adopted the College's advice on shielding for babies, children and young people. Recommending that most but not all C&YP did not need to shield."
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"We knew very early on..."
"Children who've had kidney transplants, whose immune systems were suppressed [...] but the virus bounced off them."
NB/ This is the *only* group of children still prioritised 2x a year for vaccines.
The first hearing started with "Impact videos," including Seren (18) from CVF.
Please do take a moment to listen to her experiences.
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The Children's Rights Organisations, @SteveBroach KC, opened with concerns around the systemic deprioritisation of children's rights, which affected children and young people (C&YP) in a non uniform way.
Please help to BOOST this thread to your followers!
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Clinically Vulerable households were pressured by teachers and headteachers, who were following poor government guidance, to return to unsafe schools without appropriate safty measures in place.
Families faced:
Fines
Prosecutions
Inappropriate referals to Children's Services. 3/
👪 As the UK Covid Inquiry began to focus on Children and Young people yesterday, CVF's barrister @AdamWagner1 KC stood to address the chair, Baroness Hallett, and shared our powerful opening submissions.
He started by sharing "David's" story (13). 1/
Then, Lana's story and the pressure she faced.
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It is a myth, of course, that children remained relatively unaffected by Covid-19. Thousands of them were and remain Clinically Vulnerable.
88 died
6000 Covid admissions
250 needed PICU care
"Something as simple as breathing in shared indoor spaces has become a barrier to accessibility and inclusion for millions of people, and it's time to change that!"
"Millions of people with chronic conditions are being put at risk or quietly excluded because clean indoor air has not been treated as a fundamental human right."
"If the act of breathing in a space puts someone at risk, access isn't equitable."
"We all breathe the same air, but not with the same consequences. For people with chronic conditions and other risk factors, unsafe air means unsafe spaces."
Leading the way since 2020. They invested in IAQ sensors in every classroom across the district.
Their data was made publicly available, and they connected implemented demand controlled ventilation by linking sensors to the building management system.
They were able to:
REPAIR - broken ventilation systems
EDUCATE - communities about air quality
UPGRADE - they prioritised ventilation in major renovations to balance indoor air quality with energy efficiency