An expanded pharmacy service for children’s flu vaccinations will launch later this year, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has announced.
CPE said today that “following discussions with NHS England” (NHSE), the 2025/26 pilot flu vaccination service for toddlers will be extended “with an increase in the fee” from October 1.
It added that “after successful lobbying”, the service will also be expanded to include the opportunistic vaccination of clinically at-risk children aged from two to under 18 years, as well as catch-up vaccinations for school-aged children.
Read more: Reform childhood vaccination or risk more outbreaks, warns NPA
The service will continue to be commissioned as an Advanced service.
CPE said pharmacy owners will receive “an increased fee of £10.06” for each vaccination delivered, up from £9.58 last year.
“This aligns the fee with that paid for vaccination of adults and with the fee offered to general practice for the flu vaccination of children,” it added.
Read more: No improvement on coverage, says RSV vaccine pharmacy pilot review
And the service will be funded by NHS vaccination budgets, not the 2026/27 pharmacy funding settlement, the negotiator said.
The amendment to NHSE’s national flu letter for 2026/27 also announced the inclusion of “people aged 16 years and over experiencing homelessness” to the adult flu vaccination service.
This is defined as “rough sleepers and those using homeless hostels or night-shelters, rather than the broader definitions of homelessness”, NHSE noted.
“Strategically important”
CPE’s director of NHS Services Alastair Buxton said that while the expanded Advanced service “remains a trial”, the negotiator is “confident that it will further demonstrate how community pharmacy teams will be able to support vaccination rates”.
“It represents yet another strategically important step forwards for community pharmacies to support the delivery of NHS vaccination programmes, in line with our calls for the sector to become a hub for the provision of all NHS vaccinations,” he added.
Read more: ‘Wider range’ of vaccines greenlit for community pharmacy, says DH
It comes after the National Pharmacy Association warned that there will be more “outbreaks of preventable diseases” in the UK without reforms to “outdated” vaccination programmes for school-age children.
The body last month called on the NHS to “commission pharmacies to provide vaccines to school-age children” to combat “a dangerous and growing wave of vaccine hesitancy”.
