‘Around 4,000’ pharmacies sign up to offer children’s flu jabs

Around 4,000 community pharmacies have signed up to deliver flu vaccines to two- and three-year-olds from next week (1 October 2025), according to NHS England.

With just under 11,000 community pharmacies in England, this works out at around a third of pharmacies offering the service across the country.

Some 1.2 million toddlers are eligible to receive the nasal spray vaccine, and NHS England said the move to provide it in pharmacies made it ‘easier than ever for busy parents’ to access for their children.

The one-season pharmacy pilot will run from 1 October 2025 to 31 March 2026, followed by a national evaluation to consider the impact of the new service on overall vaccine uptake and reducing inequalities.

The move comes as part of a wider drive to ‘winter-proof’ NHS services and improve access to vaccinations, NHS England said, and also comes alongside some areas providing vaccines in nurseries or via mobile vaccination buses.

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Henry Gregg, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), said it was ‘excellent news’ that the NHS was utilising pharmacies to provide vaccinations to young children for the first time.

It is something the NPA has ‘long called for’, he added.

‘There is growing evidence that using pharmacies to deliver vaccinations helps to increase take up, particularly among patients that have historically not taken up the offer of vaccination,’ said Mr Gregg.

‘Pharmacies are quick and convenient to access for patients, and the government should use them for more NHS vaccination campaigns, if they are to maximise take up and prevent more serious illness.’

Chief executive of the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA), Malcom Harrison, said that pharmacies in more deprived areas were especially well placed to ‘drive vaccine coverage amongst underserved communities’ and tackle health inequalities.

Last winter, there were more than 300,000 hospital bed days taken up by patients with flu – almost double the previous winter and close to 50% higher than the year before, according to NHS England.

This is despite the NHS delivering more than 18.5 million flu vaccination to adults and children.

Chief executive of Community Pharmacy England (CPE), Janet Morrison, said community pharmacies were pleased to be able to offer the NHS flu vaccine to infants and ‘with a network of pharmacies in key locations where people live, work, and shop, this new service should make it easier for parents to get their children protected’.

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Health minister Ashley Dalton said the change was a ‘crucial step forward’ in protecting the youngest children and delivering the kind of preventative care laid out in the 10-year health plan.

England’s chief nursing officer, Duncan Burton, urged parents to come forward as soon as possible to prevent their children from contracting flu and reduce hospital admissions this winter.

‘For busy families, it can be hard to fit everything in, but parents will now be able to pop into a pharmacy on their local high street or supermarket to get their little ones protected ahead of winter, when bugs tend to circulate,’ Mr Burton said.

‘We’re making it easier than ever before to get the vaccine closer to home so please check your local pharmacy, book an appointment online, or speak to your GP practice.’

CPE has published a suite of resources to help pharmacy owners and teams implement and promote the new Community Pharmacy NHS Childhood Flu Vaccination Service.

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Resources are available to download via CPE’s dedicated Childhood Flu Vaccination Service webpage and shared folder.

Last month, The Pharmacist reported that almost a fifth of children in England who turned five in the 12 months prior to April 2025 did not receive their pre-school booster jab.

The figures, published by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), show 18.6% of children turning five between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 were not given the jab.