Our recent survey, Parent concerns about vaccines and children returning to school in 2022, revealed a wide spectrum of views, unsurprisingly when Covid measures have stirred up such strong feelings in our communities.

We'd like to thank everyone who took the time to complete it.

Many parents and carers want to be able to choose whether to send their kids to school and opt for remote learning to suit their individual situation.

Parents and carers told us:

• "Flexible learning options are required as we head into this crisis. There are numerous problems. Childhood vax program...is fraught with supply issues...Ventilation status is unclear. There are many secondary school students yet to be eligible for boosters, the same for teachers...The clinically vulnerable population is being disregarded...those with vulnerable family members are marginalised...Teachers will fall ill and have caring responsibilities. This push to go back to school is negligent...Omicron is new and there is not enough known about its severity or long-term effects. Parents need to be assured that they can make their own decisions based on their unique family contexts. Schools should not resume until majority of 5-11 year olds are vaccinated."
• "We just need good leadership - people need to be informed of contingency plans especial for rural schools if there are teacher shortages."

The vast majority are planning to vaccinate their kids or have already done so. 46% said they were worried about not being able to get my child fully vaccinated before school starts A minority, under 20% of those surveyed, are worried about vaccine mandates. Some were at pains to point out "We're not anti-vax, just anti this vax". Of the 20%, many said the risks of the vaccine outweighed the risks of Omicron 'given children rarely got seriously ill'. Others described being nervous about a vaccine that had 'no long-term safety data' or what they described as ‘experimental'. 57% were concerned about the unknown long-term impact of Covid on children.

The responses - listed below in descending order - illustrate parent priorities and the areas of disagreement.

1.  My child getting sick (and possibly infecting other family members) 67.17%
2. Unknown long-term impact of Covid on children
   57.00%
3. Teachers getting sick
   52.02%
4. Managing work and family exposure and rolling extensions of quarantine time
   51.52%
5. Not knowing how school closures will work after an outbreak - and possible return to remote learning
   48.99%
6. Further disruption to my child's education
   46.86%
7. Not being able to get my child fully vaccinated before school starts
   46.86%
8. My child's mental well-being
   40.10%
9. In school safety measures like ventilation in classrooms
   36.71%
10. Vaccine mandates
    19.81%

The most frequently used words in the comments in the survey shown as a word cloud tell their own story. The darker the colour and larger the print the more frequently they popped up in the comments.

Despite a diversity of comments, there were common themes that emerged.

1. Parents and carers worry most about their child physical and mental health, teacher's health and other family members being put at risk

Comments from parents:

• "I have frail parents and my child had asthma, so we have been in self imposed isolation during Omicron outbreak, until my child is double vaccinated in another 8 weeks time"..."I have cancer, a disabled child and a vulnerable parent in my household"..."Whist the economy is important...the welfare of our children is more important. They can only return to school when a safe environment is provided i.e. staff fully vaccinated & students also fully vaxxed."
  
  
• "I don't know why this is even a problem. Just send your kids to school!"..."Just let kids live normally."
  
  
• "Teachers are...as worried about catching Covid, the impact on their family, their teaching and mental health as much as parents are worried for their children and effects on family. Schools need the government and education authorities to make swift decisions...children need to be at school for best learning and educational/social/mental health generally. Back and forth onsite - offsite has taken its toll on everyone".

2. Anxious about managing work, isolation, caring responsibilities, school closures, and further disruption to children's education.

Comments from parents/carers:

• Concerned about "managing my caring role for disabled child and elderly parent if Covid infected our household"
  
  
• "Children spread to others including teachers. With excess staff away it will gave major impact on the day to day running of the school. Inconsistency in delivering an educational program will be a huge concern...2 years of in and out of school has taken its toll. Parents, children and school staff need consistency - not back and forth with being at school one week and at home the next. Working this way is not viable."
  
  
• "I think we need to all play our part in...accepting that Covid is part and parcel of our lives. Yes, it carries risks but we can't keep putting the whole world on hold. Vulnerable people may need to take extra precautions but the rest of us need to get on with it. Just let our kids live normally."

3. The majority are opting for their child to be vaccinated

• Two and a half times as many parents/carers are worried about not being able to get kids fully vaccinated before the start of term than are worried about vaccine mandates.
  
  
• 14.63% respondents said they were not planning to send their children to school until they are fully vaccinated.
  
  
• We also received comments from parents who said they'd pull their kids of school if vaccines were mandated.
  
  
• 74% of parents and carers of 5-11 year-olds said they were planning to get them vaccinated. 22% said they weren't. The rest were already vaccinated.
  
  
• Parents and carers of 12-18 year-olds 61% said they were fully vaccinated, 39% said they weren't.
  
  
• A significant minority, in direct responses and comments throughout the survey were opposed to vaccines and/or vaccine mandates.

Comments from parents/carers:

• "Comfortable to get my children vaccinated because they are of good health, but the stress living regionally trying to get them vaccinated before school starts is a huge stress. Feel that we are disadvantaged living regionally."
  
  
• "We would like to see an improvement to the child vaccination program so that parents have a clear path to follow if they wish to…Our children are ready and willing to be vaccinated because we are all responsible citizens and we care for our friends, family and education providers."
  
• Not vaccinating a healthy child with experimental injection with no long term safety data and not effective.

On access to vaccines and mandates

• 58% said they were able to book an appointment easily
• 23.58% reported having difficulty booking an appointment
• 19.5% said they were unable to book an appointment before the start of the school year

Comments from parents/carers on access to vaccines

• Vaccinated today!!!
• Although I have been able to book vaccination there isn’t time for it to be effective before school returns and the risk is higher than it has ever been
• I know people who are really struggling to find 2nd 5-12 vaccine appointments. I believe all children should be fully vaccinated before returning to school 

Comments from parents/carers on mandates

• "Hope the government will NOT impose a vaccine mandate on children. The current vaccine is only optimised for the Wuhan strain. Its efficacy for Omicron is very low. So, current vaccines ...cannot prevent infection anyway. The long-term impacts of vaccine for kids... are yet to be seen. The risk of heart inflammation on boys is higher. Since kids are largely not affected by Covid and ...Omicron is milder, the risk vs benefits of vaccines is heavily tilted towards not having vaccination for young kids. Having said that, vaccination is probably much more crucial for kids in high-risk group."
  
  
• "Why is vaccination mandatory for teachers but not for students? Where is the duty of care for staff - especially ageing, immune compromised high school teachers who will be in classrooms with 18 year-olds."
  
  
• "If vaccination mandates come in for 5-11 year-olds, I will be pulling my children out of school"