Community pharmacy-led sites are preferred over primary care networks (PCNs) to vaccinate this cohort due to the “ongoing workload for general practice”, capacity within the vaccination programme and the need to make sites “age appropriate”, NHSE&I wrote in a letter to vaccination sites last week (February 18).

Read more: Pharmacy best place for Javid’s proposed vaccination service, say sector leaders

Children in this age group who are not in a clinical risk group should be given a “non-urgent offer” of two 10mcg doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, with at least a 12-week interval between jabs, according to the latest advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

These vaccinations should start to be administered from the beginning of April, but sites should continue to prioritise at-risk children aged between five and 11, NHSE&I said.

The commissioning body will reveal the contractual arrangements for these vaccinations “shortly”, it added.

Pharmacy-led sites will need to be “appropriately assured” to vaccinate children in this age group and can use the Children’s Self-Assessment Check List to do so, NHSE&I added.

Bookings

Vaccination sites should provide bookings on the national booking system from March 31, with the majority of appointments offered in this manner, the letter advised.

Information about the vaccinations will be issued to parents and guardians in line with this date, NHSE&I said.

Read more: Pharmacy-led COVID-19 jab sites can use some Pfizer vaccines after expiry date

Longer appointment times will be given to this cohort so that teams will have time to have conversations about vaccine safety and any other immunisations that children may need.

This afternoon (February 21), the government announced plans to roll out a spring COVID-19 booster jab for those aged 75 years and over, older adult residents of care homes, and immunosupressed people aged 12 years and older, following advice from the JCVI.

Last month, pharmacy bodies told C+D that the sector should be the “preferred provider” of a comprehensive UK-wide public health vaccination programme put forward by the health secretary Sajid Javid.