Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase uptake of the flu vaccine by social care staff.

Flu vaccination is recommended for all frontline social care workers. This should be provided by their employer as part of the organisation’s policy for the prevention of the transmission of flu to help protect both staff and those that they care for. To help increase uptake rates for social care workers, NHS England and NHS Improvement have a scheme to complement employers responsibilities so that vaccination is also available for social care and hospice staff from their general practitioner or community pharmacy.

For this coming winter, Public Heath England have developed brand new resources to encourage social care worker vaccination. These resources are available at the following link:

https://campaignresources.phe.gov.uk/resources/campaigns/92-health-and-social-care-workers-flu-immunisation-/overview