Updates on seasonal vacs programmes
This may be peak summer holiday season, with the sun still beating down on many parts of the country, but many pharmacy owners and their teams are also in the midst of making preparations for this year’s seasonal vaccination period.
NHS England guidance
NHS England has now published the second version of their Seasonal Vaccination Provider Programme Guide for autumn/winter 2026/27 on the Futures platform (login required).
The guide brings together the key operational information required for pharmacies to provide the adult flu, COVID-19 and children’s flu programmes. All pharmacy owners signed up to provide any of the vaccination programmes should download and read the content relevant to the services they will be providing.
Updated versions of the guide will be published at the above web address throughout the season, so pharmacy owners should always refer to the latest version.
Adding C-19 and Flu vaccination appointments to MYA
Following system updates made on 6th August to the Manage Your Appointments (MYA) website, pharmacy owners can now start to add appointments for adult flu, COVID-19 and Childhood flu vaccinations so that patients and parents / guardians / carers can book appointments on the National Booking Service (NBS) when it opens to the public on 17th August 2026.
Appointment slots can be added for dates in September to allow pregnant adults to book flu vaccinations in that month, with appointments from 1st October onwards being added for COVID-19, Adult Flu and Childhood Flu vaccinations.
Seasonal flu vaccination service specifications updated to include people experiencing homelessness
Following the recent announcement that people experiencing homelessness (as defined in the Green Book) 16 years and older will be included in the national flu programme from 1st October 2026, the Children’s Flu vaccination service specification has been updated this week to cover 16 and 17 year olds. The wording in the Adult Seasonal Vaccination Service Specification already allowed vaccination of this new eligible cohort.
Reminder – use of RAVS from September 2026
From 1st September 2026, community pharmacies must record all NHS vaccinations in the Record a Vaccination Service (RAVS) IT system, either accessing the service directly or via an approved pharmacy IT system.
NHS England is currently working with pharmacy IT suppliers in an attempt to make it easier to access RAVS from their systems. However, pharmacy owners will still need to sign up for a RAVS account if they do not already have one.
Pharmacy owners are advised to contact their current IT system provider to request an update on this integration work and to confirm if their current system will support integration with RAVS for the coming season or whether use of RAVS as a standalone system will be required.
Pharmacy owners without access to RAVS can request access through the following link.
If you have any technical difficulties with using or accessing RAVS, contact the RAVS support team.
Reminder: COVID-19 and Adult flu vaccination service registration
Pharmacy owners must use the NHS Business Services Authority’s Manage Your Service (MYS) portal to register to provide COVID-19 and adult flu vaccinations in the autumn/winter 2026/27 season.
Any pharmacy owners who registered to provide COVID-19 and adult flu vaccinations by 31st March 2026 (using the NHS England Microsoft Form, which was used before MYS was updated to include the service registration on 1st April 2026) will have their registration for the two vaccinations transferred into MYS and do not need to register again.
Pharmacy owners who did not provide COVID-19 vaccinations during the Spring 2026 campaign or who deregistered from the service during the campaign programme must register/re-register if they intend to provide COVID-19 and adult flu vaccinations in the autumn/winter 2026/27 campaign.
To provide COVID-19 vaccinations, as well as adult flu vaccinations, from 1st October 2026, pharmacy owners had to register via MYS by 31st July 2026 in order to be guaranteed to receive supplies of COVID-19 vaccines ahead of the 1st October service commencement date.
Pharmacy owners can still register to administer both vaccines now, however, it is not guaranteed they will receive COVID-19 vaccine in time for 1st October. The final deadline to register to provide COVID-19 vaccinations in 2026/27 is 11.59pm on 30th November 2026.
Adult flu vaccination service registration
Where a pharmacy owner only wishes to provide adult flu vaccinations, they need to register to provide the service on MYS.
The deadline to register to provide adult flu vaccinations for the 2026/27 campaign on MYS is 11:59pm on 30th November 2026.
If pharmacy owners do not register by this date, they will not be able to provide the service in the 2026/27 season.
In all cases, pharmacy owners must not administer vaccines until they have registered to provide the service, as they will not be eligible for payment for vaccines administered prior to service registration.
Reminder: less than a month to register for Childhood Flu Vac Service
Pharmacy owners must also use MYS to register to provide the 2026/27 Childhood Flu Vaccination.
Pharmacy owners who provided the Childhood Flu Vaccination Service in 2025/26 are required to re-register if they intend to provide the service in 2026/27.
To provide the Childhood Flu Vaccination Service from 1st October 2026, pharmacy owners must have registered via MYS to provide the service by 11.59pm on 31st August 2026 to receive supplies of childhood flu vaccines ahead of the 1st October service commencement date.
Pharmacy owners can register after 31st August 2026, however, it is not guaranteed they will receive childhood flu vaccine in time for 1st October.
The final deadline to register to provide the Childhood Flu Vaccination Service in 2026/27 is 11.59pm on 30th November 2026.
Further information and resources on the vaccination services
We are making final updates to our vaccination service webpages ahead of the start of the season. On the pages, you will find further information on the services and a range of resources to help pharmacy owners and their teams to implement the services this autumn.
Seasonal Vaccination Services – COVID-19 and Adult Flu
Childhood Flu Vaccination Service
