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Background

In September 2022, NHS England ran a public consultation to hear ideas for how NHS vaccination services can be improved to build on the NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme’s success and learning. 

NHS’s suggested services should: 

Be convenient to access, make it easy for people to understand the benefits of vaccination, offered to everyone who is eligible, help to address inequalities in uptake, embrace new innovations, respond quickly to new diseases or outbreaks, help people understand how to access other healthcare services, be provided by an efficient, responsive, well-trained and representative workforce and have technology and data infrastructure that continually improves the experience for all. 

Our Response

What should services look like? 

• Vaccination programmes should be part of broader health programmes. 
• The UK Government should focus spending and attention on ensuring equity of access to vaccinations. 
• Young people have asked for child and youth friendly vaccination centres/provision (RCPCH &Us COVID-19 Book Club). 
• NHS should consider the . 

How could local services do more to increase the number of people who accept the offer of vaccination? 

• Services should offer vaccination in a variety of settings and at suitable times to meet the needs of CYP and their families. 
• Young people have asked for child and youth focused vaccination campaigns on social media (RCPCH &Us COVID-19 Book Club). 
• Health professionals should act and target efforts at groups at risk of low vaccine uptake. They include children in large families, children in lone parent families, looked after children, children in mobile families including the travelling community, children in some ethnic minority groups, children with chronic conditions or disability. 

How could experience of vaccination be improved? 

• An effective immunisation programme needs to consider the important role of services, such as health visiting, school nursing, youth services, schools and primary care. 
• Staff need to be competent, confident, empathetic and receive high quality training. 
• NHS should develop a long-term and fully funded child health workforce strategy to support optimum health outcomes for children and young people. 

Are there other services or checks that could be offered or promoted at the same time as receiving a vaccination? 

• Healthcare professionals need to use opportunities when providing other services to think about vaccination status and take every opportunity to speak with CYP about their vaccination history. 
• Ideally vaccination should be properly integrated into  

Is there anything else important to consider when designing vaccination services in the future?  

• National funding bodies should commission research into strategies to address vaccine hesitancy. 
• Children and young people need to be involved in the design of future vaccination services – see RCPCH &Us COVID-19 Book Club for their advice following the COVID-19 vaccination programme. &²Ô²ú²õ±è;

We respond to a wide range of consultations to ensure that the College’s position, and ultimately children’s health, is represented. Members can get involved in current consultations by contacting the Health Policy team: health.policy@rcpch.ac.uk. &²Ô²ú²õ±è;