Childhood Flu Vaccination Service

The Childhood Flu Vaccination Service was initially commissioned as an Advanced Service for a one-season trial of administering flu vaccinations to children aged 2-3 years from 1st October 2025, with an extension of the pilot in 2026/27. The extended pilot for 2–3-year olds will also be expanded to include opportunistic vaccination of two additional groups:

• Clinically at-risk children aged 2 years to less than 18 years.
• Catch up vaccinations of school aged children (Reception to Year 11).

The re-commissioned service was announced via an amendment to the national flu letter.

NHS England has published the 2026/27 service specification.  NHS England has also published an operational letter for the seasonal flu vaccination programme. The letter sets out NHS England’s initial 3-year ambitions for the programme in relation to the percentage vaccination rates of the various eligible groups of the population.

The letter confirms the opening of the National Booking Service (NBS) earlier than before, on 17th August 2026, following feedback on this from pharmacy owners. The NBS will remain open until 31st March 2027.

• Two- & Three-Year Olds – service delivery to begin from 1st October 2026.
• Children in Clinical Risk Groups (2 years to less than 18 years) – service delivery to begin from 1st October 2026
• School-aged Children – service delivery from 1st December 2026 (for school-aged children who missed the opportunity to be vaccinated by school-aged immunisation services).

For all the latest and most up-to-date information on the Childhood Flu Vaccination Service, refer to the CPE webpage here.

Eligible Patients

The Annual Flu Letter 2026/27 and Amendment confirm the eligible cohorts for the 2026/27 season.

If a vaccine is administered to patients in other groups, the pharmacy owner will not be paid for that vaccination, and the administration will have been undertaken outside the legal authority of the PGD.

PGD & VGD for 2026/27

The Patient Group Direction (PGD) and Vaccine Group Direction (VGD) for the Autumn/Winter 2026/27 Vaccination Campaign are available via the links below.

VGDs are a new legal route which can be used to authorise administration of vaccines. In summary, they operate in a similar way to a PGD, with pharmacists and pharmacy technicians operating as the clinician, but with the opportunity for some tasks within the process (preparation, administration and record-keeping) to be delegated to other suitably trained staff.

Download the NHS Flu vaccination PGD

Download the NHS Flu vaccination VGD

The choice of whether to operate under a PGD or a VGD is the decision of the pharmacy owner.

Vaccines

First Line

Most eligible children will be vaccinated with Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine (LAIV) nasal spray suspension which is the first line vaccine. If a pharmacy does not have stock of LAIV when a patient presents, the parent/guardian should be directed to an alternative provider who has stock of LAIV or they should be asked to rebook when further stock will be available at the pharmacy.

This vaccine will be supplied by NHSE from centrally procured stock through the NHSE Federated Data Platform (FDP). Pharmacy owners must register for FDP to be able to order vaccines.

Guidance on how to register to access the FDP can be found here.

Second Line

When LAIV is contraindicated or otherwise unsuitable (for example, where parents object to LAIV on the grounds of its porcine gelatine content), Cell-Cultured Inactivated Influenza Vaccine (IIVc) should be used. This will not be centrally supplied and should be obtained by placing an order via manufacturers or wholesalers, in line with the normal approach to purchasing flu vaccine.

The reasons for use of the second line vaccine should be documented in the clinical record – evidence of this may be requested by NHS England before reimbursement is agreed. The annual flu letter does include a third line vaccine, but this cannot be administered as part of this service.

Resources

For Patients

• Leaflet – Protect your child against flu; information for parents and carers of children in primary school or pre-school

Paper copies of this leaflet are available to order for free or download on the Health Publications website using the product code 2025FCEN.

This leaflet is available to order and download in the following languages: Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Dari, Estonian, Farsi, French, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Nepali, Panjabi, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Romany, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrinya, Turkish, Twi, Ukrainian, Urdu, Yiddish, and Yoruba.

• This link can be shared with parents/carers of children eligible for the flu vaccine to support promotion of the service: see UKHSA – protect your child against flu

• Leaflet- Vaccines & Porcine Gelatine. Translations of this leaflets are available to download in: Arabic, Bengali, Gujarati, Panjabi and Urdu.

• Stickers – are available to order (free) using product code SCHFLSTK to give to children who have received a flu vaccine.

Training Resources

• e-Learning for Healthcare Flu Immunisation online course – This interactive flu immunisation e-Learning programme, written by UKHSA and NHS England, is available for anyone involved in providing the flu vaccination programme.
• The manufacturer of the LAIV vaccine used in the NHS vaccination programme has a website for healthcare professionals, providing information on the product, including a video on how to administer the vaccine: AstraZeneca Fluenz website for healthcare professionals.
• Immunisation – this page, designed by CPPE, provides access to a variety of e-learning programmes and resources.
• NHS Education for Scotland has made a video for healthcare professionals on how to administer the Fluenz nasal spray including to children aged 2-5 years.

Last Updated: 6th July 2026