Management Information Sheet

We are grateful for all the support you have previously provided to the immunisation team in protecting children against vaccine preventable disease. As we progress through the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic we are relying on your support more than ever before.

Whilst preventing the spread of COVID-19 and caring for those infected is a public health priority, it is also critical that we maintain our national immunisation programmes. This is especially relevant for the childhood flu vaccination programme. Alongside protecting individual children against flu and its complications, the childhood flu vaccination programme has a profound effect on reducing the transmission of influenza within schools and communities. Within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is more important than ever that every possible action is taken to reduce the impact of flu. This will also protect the NHS from being overwhelmed by the challenges that even a moderate flu season can present.

We appreciate that schools are currently facing unprecedented challenges and recognise that the traditional delivery models for the flu programme will have to adapt to fit in with your school's operational plans. It is crucial that the flu immunisation programme continues in schools to ensure good levels of population protection; we expect the programme is likely to continue into the new year. The programme has operated effectively in many schools already and the service will work flexibly and innovatively to ensure that the needs of your individual school are met.

May we also ask that schools are giving the correct messages to parents and advising that it is only children with underlying medical conditions, and in a clinically at-risk category that can be vaccinated for flu by their GP. All other children need to access flu vaccination via the Community and School Age Immunisation Service (CSAIS) providers.

The CSAIS providers also run community clinics to offer vaccinations to those who miss school sessions or are otherwise not at school, e.g. home-schooled. All CSAIS providers follow full Infection Prevention Control procedures.

If you have any concerns, questions or ideas or would like to discuss the programme delivery more fully, your local CSAIS provider is Hertfordshire and East Anglia Community and School Age Immunisation Service and you can contact them at vaccinationhertfordshire@evguk.co.uk.

Thank you for your continued support.

Yours faithfully

Louise Smith
Director of Public Health
Norfolk County Council