PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Mental Health Services: Coronavirus (27 January 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of prioritising for covid-19 vaccination frontline psychotherapists and counsellors who continue to support people psychologically affected by covid-19.

Asked by:
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour)

Counsellors and psychotherapists working in frontline health or social care settings and at COVID-19 vaccination sites are eligible for vaccination in the first phase as frontline healthcare workers. Counsellors and psychotherapists working across all other settings who are eligible for a vaccine, because of their age or other clinical factors, such as underlying health conditions, will also have access to a vaccine in the first phase.

Phase two of the COVID-19 vaccine programme will cover all adults under 50 years old not already included in phase one. Prioritisation for phase two has not yet been decided, but interim advice has been published by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommending an age-based approach, which the Government has accepted in principle.

Answered by:
Nadhim Zahawi (Conservative)
15 March 2021