Flu: Vaccination of pregnant women

Community pharmacy teams can start vaccinating pregnant women from today under the 2025/26 Adult Flu Vaccination Service.

Vaccination of other eligible adult patients must not start until 1st October 2025.

The service specification is clear that the NHS will not pay for vaccinations administered outside of the announced and authorised dates for vaccination.

Read more about the Adult Flu Vaccination Service

Background to the change in timing

The Annual flu letter, published on 13th March 2025, announced a similar delayed start to the main flu vaccination programme like last year, whereas the programme had previously commenced on 1st September.

NHS England’s decision to change the start date again this year for pharmacies and general practices is based on evidence that flu vaccine’s effectiveness can wane over time in adults, so the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised moving the start of the programme for most adults to the beginning of October. This is on the understanding, that the majority of the vaccinations will be completed by the end of November, closer to the time that the flu season commonly start.

Visit our Adult flu vaccination webpage for further information and resources

Communicating with patients about the later start to the programme

Pharmacy teams may want to explain to their patients about the later start to the programme again this year. We have developed posters to communicate these messages for use in pharmacies which are available to download from our adult flu vaccination webpage.