NHS pushes pharmacy deeper into children's flu vaccination
NHS England is expanding pharmacy's role in flu vaccination delivery, with a particular focus on school-aged children. The move signals a shift in how community pharmacy fits into seasonal immunisation programmes going forward.
What happened
NHS leadership has shared updates on plans to use community pharmacy more actively in driving up flu vaccination uptake among children. While school-based vaccination programmes remain the primary route for this age group, pharmacy is being positioned to support coverage in areas or populations where the school programme falls short. The details are still emerging, and further guidance is expected ahead of the 2025–26 flu season.
Why it matters
Children's flu vaccination has historically sat outside the core community pharmacy offer. The school-aged immunisation programme is run by NHS-commissioned providers, typically community or school nursing teams, not pharmacists. So any expansion of pharmacy's role here represents a genuine shift in scope.
For community pharmacies, this means potential new patient groups and new service requirements. It also means navigating consent, safeguarding considerations, and age-specific clinical checks that don't apply when vaccinating adults. Pharmacy teams would need to be confident handling those elements before the service scales.
There's a wider context here too. NHS England has been pushing hard to get vaccination rates up across several programmes, and flu has been a particular concern following the dip in uptake seen in recent seasons. Community pharmacy's accessibility — long opening hours, no appointment needed in many cases — makes it an obvious lever to pull when coverage gaps appear.
GPhC exam relevance
Vaccination sits across several areas the GPhC Common Registration Assessment tests. Candidates should be familiar with the legal and professional framework around patient group directions (PGDs), which is how most pharmacy vaccination services are authorised. You should know what a PGD is, who can use one, and what the pharmacist's responsibilities are under one.
For paediatric patients specifically, consent adds another layer. Children under 16 can consent to their own treatment if they're assessed as Gillick competent — that's a real clinical judgement, not a checkbox. Knowing when a child can consent, when parental consent is needed, and what to do if there's disagreement are all testable areas.
Safeguarding is also fair game. Any service involving children requires pharmacy professionals to know their safeguarding obligations, including when to raise concerns and who to contact. The GPhC standards on professionalism and patient safety apply regardless of age, but with children the thresholds for acting on concerns are different.
The BNF and the Green Book (the UK immunisation reference) are the key clinical references for vaccination content. The Green Book is freely available on the GOV.UK website and covers vaccine schedules, contraindications, and storage requirements — all areas that could appear in exam scenarios.
What's next
Watch for formal service specifications from NHS England as the 2025–26 flu season approaches. If a pharmacy vaccination service for children is commissioned more broadly, it will come with defined eligibility criteria, training requirements, and PGD documentation. NHS England and the National Pharmacy Association are likely to publish guidance for contractors.
For exam preparation, review the current NHS flu vaccination programme, the PGD legal framework under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, and the Gillick competence standard. Those three areas cover most of what an exam question on this topic would draw from.
Source: Chemist+Druggist — https://www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/news/jim-mackey-updates-on-pharmacy-and-childrens-flu-vaccinations-P57GLQFSX5GWFFKS7YZDAUWPTA/