NPA calls for pharmacies to deliver childhood vaccinations
The National Pharmacy Association has warned that declining flu vaccination rates among eligible school children could fuel future disease outbreaks. The NPA wants the NHS to commission pharmacies to vaccinate school-age children and tackle what it describes as growing vaccine hesitancy.
What happened
The NPA went public with a call to reform childhood vaccination programmes, arguing the current setup is failing to reach enough eligible children. Flu uptake among school-age children has fallen sharply, and the association says the trend is getting worse, not better.
The proposal is straightforward: bring pharmacies into the delivery of childhood vaccination. Community pharmacies are accessible, trusted, and already deliver vaccination services to adults. The NPA argues there is no good reason to leave them out of school-age programmes.
Vaccine hesitancy sits at the centre of the NPA's concern. Parents deferring or refusing vaccines for their children — for a mix of reasons, from misinformation to inconvenience — has contributed to declining coverage. The NPA's position is that easier access through pharmacies could address some of that, by reducing barriers rather than waiting for attitudes to shift on their own.
Why it matters
Vaccination coverage is a public health number that gets political attention fast when it drops. When enough children in a population are unvaccinated, herd immunity erodes and diseases that had been brought under control begin circulating again. Flu is the immediate concern raised here, but the principle applies to other childhood vaccines too.
For community pharmacy, this is about scope and professional role as much as it is about public health. Pharmacists already hold Patient Group Directions and administer vaccines as a matter of routine for adults. Extending that to school-age children would represent a meaningful shift in what community pharmacy is commissioned to do — and would require pharmacists and their teams to be confident in consultation skills, screening for contraindications, and managing anxious parents as well as anxious children.
Vaccine hesitancy is something pharmacy staff encounter directly at the counter and during consultations. A parent asking whether the nasal flu spray is safe, whether their child really needs it, or whether it contains live virus — these are questions that require a pharmacist to give an accurate, patient, evidence-based answer under time pressure. The NPA's push to expand pharmacy's role in this space only makes those conversations more frequent and more consequential.
There is also a commissioning angle. NHS England and integrated care boards decide which services pharmacies can provide and get paid for. The NPA is, in effect, lobbying for a new commissioned service. Whether or not that happens in the near term, the direction of travel is clearly towards pharmacies taking on more preventative health work — and vaccination is one of the most established examples of that.
GPhC exam relevance
The GPhC Common Registration Assessment tests applied knowledge, not memory of current events. But vaccination sits firmly within the clinical knowledge and professional practice areas that appear in the assessment.
For clinical knowledge: you need to understand the childhood immunisation schedule, the vaccines within it, the route of administration, common adverse effects, and contraindications. The live attenuated nasal flu vaccine, for instance, has specific contraindications including immunosuppression and egg allergy in certain formulations. Being able to reason through whether a specific patient is suitable for a specific vaccine is the kind of applied question the assessment is designed to test.
For professional practice: vaccine hesitancy sits in the communication and person-centred care space. How do you respond to a parent who is uncertain or resistant? How do you present evidence without being dismissive? How do you document a conversation where a patient or their parent declines a recommended treatment? These are not abstract questions — they reflect real practice, and the assessment expects candidates to handle them appropriately.
Consent adds another layer when the patient is a child. Gillick competence, Fraser guidelines, and the role of parents or guardians in decision-making for minors are all areas where pharmacy candidates need a working understanding. A scenario involving a 15-year-old asking about their flu vaccine, or a parent refusing on behalf of a younger child, could reasonably appear in the assessment.
Patient Group Directions are the legal mechanism through which most pharmacy vaccination services operate. Knowing what a PGD is, what it allows, and what falls outside its scope is a practical requirement for anyone working in a pharmacy that offers vaccination services.
What's next
Watch for any NHS England or NHSBSA response to the NPA's proposal. If integrated care boards start piloting pharmacy-delivered childhood vaccination in specific regions, that will signal whether the idea is gaining traction beyond a position statement.
For your exam preparation: make sure your knowledge of the childhood immunisation schedule is current. Know the vaccines, the ages at which they're given, the routes, and the key contraindications. The BNF and UKHSA Green Book are the authoritative sources here — the Green Book in particular is the reference document used in practice for vaccination decisions.
If you're currently on placement in a pharmacy that offers flu or other vaccination services, pay attention to the screening questions used before administration. Those questions exist for clinical reasons, and understanding why each one is there will serve you better than memorising a checklist.
Source: Chemist+Druggist — https://www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/news/clinical/reform-childhood-vaccination-or-risk-more-outbreaks-warns-npa-FTEBFNMOJFCENITUKKDVDG2P6I/