From September 2021 all school aged children in Leeds will be invited to get a flu vaccination. I spoke to Jan Elsworth, Immunisation Locality Lead Nurse (Leeds) from IntraHealth to get all the details.
Flu vaccination has been offered to children since 2013 in a phased rollout starting with the early year groups. This year, due to the uncertainties around the impact of Covid-19 this winter, Public Health England recently agreed that the schools’ flu vaccination programme will be offered to all school aged children from reception to Year 11.
The vaccination programme will run from September 2021 to January 2022. At the start of term parents and carers will receive a flu consent form from school. The consent will be provided on paper or electronically and schools will let you know which they are using.
If your child/ren is bringing home a paper consent please make sure you check with them during September so that it doesn’t get missed. For any children who miss the vaccine due to school absence there will be further school sessions and there will also be weekend, after school and holiday clinics so every child can benefit from getting this important vaccine. Almost all children will be able to have the vaccine as a nasal spray (up the nose), which is quick and painless. The nasal spray is offered to children as it is generally more effective than the injected vaccines. It is also easier to administer and considered better at reducing the spread of flu to others.
There are some children who cannot have the nasal spray because of pre-existing medical conditions or treatments and children whose parents or carers object to the nasal spray on the ground of its porcine gelatine content. For those children an injection will be available. Serious side effects are uncommon but many children can develop a runny or blocked nose, headache, some tiredness or loss of appetite that last for a short period.
The key message from Locality Lead Nurse Jan Elsworth is that:
“Flu is an unpredictable but recurring pressure that the NHS faces every winter. Vaccination offers the best protection. The flu vaccine is the best defence we have against the virus. The main purpose of the childhood vaccination programme is to provide protection to the children and reduce transmission of flu to the wider population. Children play a key role in the transmission of flu including to those who may be at higher risk from the complications from flu, such as the elderly.
“As vaccination provides individual protection to the children who receive the vaccine, it is especially important that any child with an underlying health condition, that puts them more at risk from the flu, has the vaccine. It also helps protect teachers who are less likely to catch flu from their pupils and reduces school absenteeism”.
IntraHealth, who will be working with Leeds schools to administer the vaccines have 20 years’ experience of providing high quality NHS Primary Care Services and are one of the UK’s largest providers of school’s immunisation and vaccination services.
This post was written by Becky Townesend
Photo: Hilary Benn MP chatting to Jan Elsworth at Holbeck Gala
