Getting child vaccination rates up to the 95% target will require ‘sustained effort’, UK public health officials warned after annual figures showed decline across all measures.

Vaccine coverage fell across all 14 uptake measures last year, a report on childhood immunisation for 2023/24 said.

And no vaccine met the 95% target set by the World Health Organisation. The last vaccine to hit that measure was the 5-in-1 jab by the age of five in 2020/21, the NHS report noted.

Uptake of MMR – both first and second doses – has dropped to its lowest level for more than a decade, the figures show.

For 2023/24, 91.9% of five-year-olds had received one dose of MMR and 83.9% had received two doses.

Only 88.9% of two-year-olds had received their first dose of the vaccine – the lowest level since 2009/10, the report said.

But the largest year on year drop in uptake was seen in Hib/Men C which now stands at 89.4% by the age of five, the lowest level since 2011/12.

The figures reflect an ongoing downward decline in vaccine uptake that started before the pandemic.

There is also wide regional variation. For the 6-in-1 vaccine, London is nine percentage points lower at 86.2% than the highest coverage in the North East which had 95.2%.

For the first dose of MMR, London is 12 percentage points below the North East at 81.8% compared with 93.9%.

Scotland and Wales have slightly better coverage, hitting the 95% target in some cases including for the 6-in-1 jab given at two, three and four months.

Later this year the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will take over reporting of vaccine uptake figures from NHS England and work is also happening to improve how data is collected.

Strategies employed in the past two years by the NHS immunisation teams include calling parents directly when children are not fully vaccination and local initiatives to make it easier for parents to get appointments or catch up on missed doses.

In February, NHS England (NHSE) announced it was launching 12 ‘demonstrator sites’ to test ‘new and innovative’ models of vaccination delivery.

And community pharmacy leaders have called for an expansion of pharmacy-based vaccination services, including in delivering childhood vaccinations.

This month, NHS England approved a plan for ICBs to become responsible for commissioning all vaccination services, and most screening services, from next year.

It builds on the national vaccination strategy, which set out proposals for ICBs to take over population-level management.

Dr Mary Ramsay, director for public health programmes at UKHSA, said: ‘The NHS England Vaccination Strategy published in December 2023 aims to improve the “front door” to vaccination, ensuring more flexible appointment booking systems and different vaccines being more widely available across locations, providing ease of access and responding to the specific needs within each community.

‘Getting our vaccination rates up to the 95% WHO target to eliminate these diseases will take sustained effort and a long-term commitment across the public health system.

‘We appreciate work by GPs, practice nurses and other providers to raise uptake during a very busy period, every extra child vaccinated gets additional protection against potentially life-threatening diseases.’

Calls have recently been made for community pharmacy to take on more NHS vaccinations.

A version of this article first appeared on our sister publication Pulse.