An extension of the flu vaccination programme to all secondary school pupils (years 7 to 11) has been announced by the Government. This means that:
- Over 3 million secondary school pupils will be offered a nasal spray vaccine from September.
- This extension of flu vaccination provides direct protection to pupils and indirect protection to the wider community, including vulnerable groups.
- Users of SchoolScreener® Imms will be able to scale up their operations safely, quickly and with minimal extra cost.
- The extension of flu vaccination helps reduce pressure on the NHS during the winter months.
- School attendance levels drop over the winter months owing to illness, which is why the extension of flu vaccination will not only protect children’s health but also their education.
Provider Assistance for Extension of Flu Vaccination
NHS school-age immunisation services (SAIS) providers will be undertaking the vaccinations from September during the autumn term. All primary school children and infants aged 2 and 3 will also be offered the flu vaccine. So, it’s going to be a busy autumn for our clients!
SchoolScreener® Imms provides end-to-end automation and efficiency gains for schools’ immunisations campaigns. This makes the organisation and management of these campaigns easier. It starts with electronic consent, avoiding the need for paper forms.
After eConsent, SchoolScreener® Imms continues to automate process, even if you’re offline. There’s assisted triage, to ensure that it’s safe to vaccinate a given child, based on responses from parents. And automated flags for responses that give cause for concern.
Then there’s vaccine administration, including a bar code reader to simplify the adding of batch details to a record.
Additionally, data checking, reporting and audit are all automated. Governance done. Cohort, school and area-wide analysis are all automatic and instant.
And the cohort view in all SchoolScreener® apps ensures that nobody misses out.
For more information and a technical download, see the product information page.
Quotes About the Extension of Flu Vaccination
Health Minister, Maria Caulfield, said:
‘Extension of flu vaccination to all secondary school pupils this winter will provide millions of young people with extra protection.
Importantly, this will also reduce the risk of transmission to more vulnerable groups, including the elderly, reducing hospitalisations, and freeing up bed capacity across the NHS.
Last winter we saw the devastating impact this illness can have, so it is important all pupils take up the offer of the flu vaccine to protect themselves and their loved ones from falling unwell.’
NHS Director of Vaccinations and Screening, Steve Russell, said:
‘Last winter we saw how quickly flu can spread within communities, so I’m pleased to see the extension of the flu vaccination to secondary school children in the autumn term.
The vaccine offers vital protection against flu which can cause nasty symptoms, and I would urge all young people and parents to make sure they join millions of others who get vaccinated each year to take up the offer when they can – it’s quick, easy, and offered in schools, so there’s really no reason to delay when you receive the offer.’
See the full Government announcement of July 4th at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/all-secondary-school-pupils-eligible-for-free-flu-vaccine
