A new national vaccine strategy for England promises to ‘take vaccines into the heart of communities’ and overcome vaccine hesitancy.

The plan, published today by NHS England (NHSE), designates community pharmacy as a ‘core’ setting for adult seasonal vaccinations.

And local systems are expected to ‘enable community pharmacy to play a greater role in seasonal vaccination delivery where appropriate’ as responsibility for commissioning vaccination services is proposed to be delegated from NHSE to integrated care boards (ICBs).

The strategy also suggests increased collaboration between community pharmacy and other parts of the vaccine delivery network.

IT systems will also be updated in 2024/25 to increase visibility of vaccinations delivered in community pharmacy and other settings within a patients’ record, to ‘help ensure a consistent view of an individual’s vaccination status’.

Other improvements include expanding the NHS app to make booking a jab ‘as easy as booking a cab’, in the words of NHSE chief executive Amanda Pritchard.

The new plan also promises to make it easier to book and receive more than one vaccine in a single visit.

And NHSE said that it would be working with community pharmacy to see how the existing online booking capability used for Covid-19 vaccination could be further extended.

Next year, the National Booking Service (NBS) will be extended to enable online booking of adult life course vaccinations, and to allow people to book on behalf of someone else or for a family group.

And from 2025/26, the NHS App could be used to invite, book, notify and view records for a wider group of vaccinations for adults, children and young people.

The NBS website will also host information about the availability of walk-in services.

Steve Russell, NHSE national director for vaccinations and screening, said that the strategy ‘takes vital lessons’ from the NHS Covid-19 vaccine programme ‘and the extraordinary efforts of local teams who found innovative ways to reach people during the pandemic and saved thousands of lives’.

‘This includes taking vaccines into the heart of communities where we see lower uptake rates, so offering vaccines at pop-up clinics and health hubs in shopping centres, and local schools teams going into parents’ evenings to address barriers to people consenting to their child’s vaccinations,’ he added.

And health minister Maria Caulfield commented: ‘To ensure as many people get vaccinated as possible, we need to make sure the programme fits around people’s lives.’

She said that the new strategy would ‘build on the brilliant work already underway to make it easier than ever to get vaccinated and to reach people who would not typically come forward for their jabs’.

Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp) welcomed the 'comprehensive' vaccine strategy.

'We have for a long time advocated that vaccination should be the domain of community pharmacy because community pharmacies are accessible and convenient for patients,' she said, adding that if supported appropriately, 'the community pharmacy network has demonstrated consistently that it can mobilise and deliver vaccination services effectively'.

'We look forward to continuing feeding into these important discussions on the vaccination services and the role that our sector can play in this,' she added.

And Alastair Buxton, director of NHS services at Community Pharmacy England (CPE), highlighted the 'suite of templates and resources' proposed by the strategy to support local commissioning, which he said CPE believes 'is a welcome development', following proposals outlined in its consultation response for 'the development of a range of National Enhanced Services to make commissioning of vaccination programmes easier for local commissioners to enhance access and improve services to underserved parts of the population.'

'Overall, the strategy provides new opportunities for community pharmacy to be able to seek to expand its role in a wider range of vaccination programmes and we will be working with the network of LPCs [Local Pharmaceutical Committees] to ensure those opportunities can be seized at a local level,' Mr Buxton added.

Also commenting on the strategy published today, Professor Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) highlighted the ‘critical’ impact of vaccination on public health and health inequalities.

‘The link between uptake rates and vaccine confidence and accessibility is critical and I welcome this renewed focus by NHS England on innovative delivery approaches responding to local need.  Infectious diseases hit hardest on the most vulnerable and vaccination is a critical tool in reversing health inequalities,’ she said.

She added that UKHSA would ‘continue to work closely with the NHS to evaluate coverage and effectiveness of immunisation programmes, which will help inform future policy on the control of vaccine preventable disease’.

The national vaccination strategy was due to be published by the end of this year, with community pharmacies expected to take on more responsibility for vaccinations.

Its publication follows calls from pharmacy bodies for 2024/25 winter vaccination planning to include key parties such as community pharmacy ‘at an appropriately early stage’.