Expanded Children’s Flu Vac Advanced service to be launched in October
Following discussions with NHS England, we have agreed to an extension of the pilot flu vaccination service for children aged 2-3 years, with an increase in the fee. In addition, after successful lobbying, the service is being expanded to include opportunistic vaccination of two additional groups:
- Clinically at-risk children aged 2 years to less than 18 years; and
- Catch up vaccinations of school aged children (Reception to Year 11).
The service, which has been announced via an amendment to the national flu letter by the Department of Health and Social Care, the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England, will continue to be commissioned as an Advanced service.
Timings
The service will commence from 1st October 2026. Pharmacy owners who choose to provide the service can commence provision in line with the following timings:
| Start date | Eligible cohort |
| From 1st October 2026 |
|
| From 1st December 2026 |
|
The commissioning of the service is seeking to increase uptake of the vaccine in children and further builds on the provision of the service to 2- and 3-year-olds by over 4,000 community pharmacies in the 2025/26 flu season.
Funding
Pharmacy owners will be paid an increased fee of £10.06 for each vaccination administered (last year the fee was £9.58). 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.
The service is funded from NHS vaccination budgets, not from the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework contractual sum.
Eligible cohorts
The expansion of the service to include the vaccination of clinically at-risk children seeks to supplement provision ordinarily offered via general practice.
Vaccination of primary school and secondary school aged children (from Reception to Year 11) supplements vaccination provision by the School Aged Immunisation Service. It aims to provide increased access to opportunities to receive a vaccination for children who missed being vaccinated in school.
Most eligible children will be vaccinated with Live attenuated influenza vaccine nasal spray suspension (LAIV) which will be supplied to pharmacies from centrally procured stock.
Further information on the new service will be available in the service specification when that is published by NHS England in due course and from our service page on the Community Pharmacy England website.
Commenting on the news, our Director of NHS Services, Alastair Buxton, said:
“We are pleased to be able to agree this expansion of the Advanced service. While it remains a trial, we are confident that it will further demonstrate how community pharmacy teams will be able to support vaccination rates through the provision of a convenient and accessible service offer to parents and their eligible children.
“The expanded cohorts come after lobbying by Community Pharmacy England and other pharmacy bodies to expand the scope of vaccination services that the sector can offer.
“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.”
Additional eligible cohort added to adult flu vac service
The amendment to the national flu letter also announces the inclusion of a new eligible cohort of patients for the adult flu vaccination service later this year – people aged 16 years and over experiencing homelessness. This is defined as “rough sleepers and those using homeless hostels or night-shelters, rather than the broader definitions of homelessness”.
This addition to the eligible cohorts follows JCVI advice to the Government in June 2024.
NHS England will issue further guidance on the addition of this cohort in due course.
