21 August 2020

COVID-19 study – children and young people

Are you a young person returning to secondary school or sixth form in September?  We would like to hear your thoughts and concerns about returning to school following the COVID-19 pandemic, and your thoughts on a proposed research study to understand whether COVID-19 spreads in schools and the impact this may have outside of school.

Background information:

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN) is helping to develop a possible study looking at the transmission of COVID-19 in school children. It is proposed that a study involving regular testing of school children for the presence of the virus would be necessary to provide information on how transmission occurs in children within the school environment.

As such a study would require the participation of children, families and schools, we wish to consult with all of these groups to see how feasible such a study would be to undertake, to explore whether children, families and schools would find the requirements of the study acceptable, and to find out if they would be likely to participate in such a study should it go ahead. It is also important to explore the logistics of involving schools and families in a study that would require collection and storage of saliva samples, so views on the practicalities of the proposed study would also need to be gathered.

Focus group:

A one-hour focus group will take place on Thursday 27th August at 11.00-12.00pm via zoom. The discussions will be recorded to allow all comments to be captured. A summary of the views expressed will be collated into a report but no names or identifying details will be included and comments will not be attributed to individuals.

Participants will be provided with a short summary of the proposed study in advance by way of background information.  Each participant will receive a £20 Amazon voucher for participating in the meeting.

If you are interested please contact Jennifer.preston@liverpool.ac.uk as soon as possible.