SCHOOL Covid vaccinations are not getting started in Bradford until next week, a local teaching union has said, but are not expected to cause disruption.

Vaccinations for 12 to 15-year-olds are set to start in Bradford next week, meaning the Government will almost certainly miss its half-term target in the district as it is expected to do nationally due to its "incredibly slow" roll out which has already been slammed in a number of other areas.

However, president of the National Education Union in Bradford Ian Murch has predicted despite the delay it won’t cause issues in the district’s schools.

He has raised also concerns about high levels of Covid-19 infections in the district’s schools, which are rising daily.

It comes as the new education secretary - and former vaccines minister - Nadhim Zahawi admitted he didn’t know how many students had been vaccinated.

NHS England said the vaccines will be administered by healthcare staff working closely with the school.

Ian Murch said: “It will be next week and onwards that secondary schools will begin vaccinations, so we’ve seen no issues with that yet.

“Vaccines have been delayed everywhere because the Government has been so slow to get things going.”

He said he doesn’t suspect much disruption, adding: “There may be some individuals, we can’t say no one will make a fuss, but no one has to get this jab if they don’t want it.”

The Government had set a target of doing all 12-15 year olds vaccinations by half-term, in two week’s time, but poor preparation means the target is likely to be missed.

A spokesperson for the NHS Covid Vaccination Programme for Bradford District and Craven said: “The NHS is working with partners and school immunisation services to offer vaccinations to in schools.

“Parents will be sent details and consent forms by their child’s school before the vaccinations take place.

“Children do not need to be registered with a GP or have an NHS number to be vaccinated.”

Mr Murch said the more pressing issue is rising Covid rates in schools and action needs to be taken to address it.

“The biggest reason to be concerns at the moment are rising case numbers,” he added.

“The number of secondary school pupils with Covid is above the average for other age groups, it’s around one per cent, meaning in a school of 1,500 you have 15 confirmed infections.

“We need measures to stop the spread, it doesn’t make sense not to have masks or to keep having assemblies; cases have gone up steadily since the beginning of term and is not easing off yet.”