Children in England to be offered vaccines in their own homes | Vaccines and immunisation
Health visitors will be sent door-to-door to deliver vaccines to children in England amid alarm that one in five people start primary school vulnerable to deadly diseases, the Guardian has revealed.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that at least 95% of children receive vaccine doses for each disease to achieve herd immunity. But not a single one of the UK’s main childhood vaccines will hit the target in 2024-25. There were also sharp differences in purchases across the country.
In a bid to tackle the crisis, health visitors will begin offering a range of life-saving jabs to children in their own homes as part of a £2 million pilot program from January.
Health visitors are nurses or midwives who specialize in working with families with children under five to identify their health needs as early as possible. Under the programme, they will target families who are not registered with a GP or are struggling with travel costs, childcare, language barriers or other issues that prevent them from seeing a doctor.
Sources said the children would be identified by the NHS using GP records, health visitor notes and local databases. Health visitors will be trained to administer vaccines safely and have difficult conversations with parents, including those who have doubts about vaccine safety.
In January, 12 pilot sites will be launched in five regions of England (London, Midlands, north-east and Yorkshire, north-west and south-west), aiming to increase disease intake and protect children against diseases. If successful, the program will be implemented everywhere in 2027.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Every parent deserves the chance to protect their child from preventable diseases, but some families have a lot going on which could mean they miss out.
“Health visitors are already trusted faces in communities across the country. By enabling them to offer vaccines, we are using already existing relationships and expertise to reach families who need support most.
“Fixing the NHS means tackling health inequalities head-on. By meeting families where they are, we’re not only increasing vaccination rates, we’re building a health service that works for everyone.”
The vaccination campaign for children comes as the NHS remains under “extraordinary pressure” due to high rates of flu and other winter illnesses. Health leaders are bracing for a rise in cases as temperatures drop over the next few days.
Half a million more people in the UK have had a flu vaccine compared to the previous year. But health officials said Wednesday it’s not too late for unvaccinated people to protect themselves for the rest of the winter.
The move to send health visitors directly to children’s homes with vaccinations comes at a time of serious concerns about vaccine uptake in England.
Only 91.9% of five-year-olds have received a dose of MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine in 2024-25, according to UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data reviewed by the Guardian; this is the lowest level since 2010-11.
Only 83.7% of five-year-olds had received both doses of MMR; This was the lowest level since 2009-10, down from 83.9% the previous year. Uptake of the first MMR dose at 24 months was 88.9% in 2024-25, also the lowest figure since 2009-10.
In July, a child died in Liverpool after contracting measles; this was the first such death in the UK in a decade. Only 73% of children in Liverpool have received the two vaccinations required to protect against measles.
According to the World Health Organisation, the UK is worst off among the G7 countries for MMR vaccine uptake: by 2024, only 89% of children had received their first MMR vaccine. Millions of children worldwide are at risk of fatal diseases due to halts or reversals in vaccine coverage, according to the largest study of its kind.
Coverage of the Hib/MenC vaccine, which protects against Haemophilus influenzae type b and meningitis C, was 88.9% for five-year-olds in England, the lowest level since 2011-12.
Meanwhile, uptake of the four-in-one preschool booster vaccine, which protects against polio, whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria, was just 81.4% among five-year-olds in 2024-25.
This means nearly one in five people are unprotected when they start primary school and represents the worst uptake since current records began in 2009-10.
The chickenpox vaccine will be available on the NHS across England from Friday.
The vaccine, which costs around £150 in private clinics and pharmacies, will form part of the new combined vaccination in the childhood immunization programme.
Ministers hope this will not only protect some young people from serious complications of the virus, but also prevent parents from taking time off work to care for their children if they become infected.
The varicella vaccine, also known as the varicella vaccine, will form part of a new combined MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox) vaccine.
It will be available in GP surgeries from Friday and is expected to provide protection to around 500,000 children each year. MMRV will eventually replace MMR, which is offered to babies between 12 and 18 months of age.
