Community pharmacists will be given access to flu vaccines for children from national stocks, according to a recent NHS legislative amendment.

Pharmacists will be able to access centrally procured influenza vaccine stock for children following amendments to regulation 91A of the NHS Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services (PLPS).

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The change, laid before Parliament on 2 June, sets up the legal precedent for pharmacies to give flu vaccines to children in future. Provision for central supply was introduced for COVID-19 vaccines (and antivirals) and now applies to other vaccines including the MMR, RSV, and Pertussis vaccines. Flu vaccinations for children will now join this list.

Access to the national stocks will not require purchase by the pharmacy, according to the Community Pharmacy England (CPE) briefing paper.

Currently, children aged 2 or 3 years can get the flu vaccine at their GP surgery, while most school-aged children (Reception to Year 11) get their flu vaccine at school.

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CPE states that central supply of these vaccines will enable community pharmacies to play a vital role in future public health vaccination programmes, according to local patient needs, but added that a specific (or amended) service would have to be negotiated, and specifications agreed before it takes place.

NHS England (NHSE) had previously identified community pharmacies as a possible provider of childhood flu vaccines.

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Responding to questions from the Health and Social Care Committee on flu vaccine uptake in children and young people in February, Amanda Pritchard, the then chief executive of NHS England, said that for 2025/26, NHSE was ‘exploring the use of other providers to expand convenience, including community pharmacy, developing more targeted communications with a particular emphasis on the children's programme, including all those aged 2-3 years old and flu awareness raising for education leaders to enable further engagement with the programme to support their staff, pupils and parents.’

Latest government figures from winter season 2023 to 2024 show that 49.9% (4,022,141 out of 8,063,277) of all school-aged children from Reception to Year 11 were vaccinated. Of 154 local authorities (LAs) in England, 81 (52.9%) had an uptake equal or above that of the 2022 to 2023 season.