Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what support, including financial, Integrated Care Boards have received to enact the Government’s precautionary action to bring forward COVID-19 and flu vaccinations this autumn.

The acceleration of the COVID-19 and flu programme was laid out in a system letter on 30 August 2023, which has been published on NHS.UK in an online-only format.

In addition to the financial arrangements set out in the Autumn 2023 GP and Community Pharmacies enhanced service specifications, and Standard Contract schedules, interim arrangements to support programme acceleration have been put in place to recognise additional administrative, organisation and delivery costs.

Commissioned providers are able to claim an additional acceleration payment of £10, in addition to the Item of Service (IoS) fee, for each COVID-19 vaccination administered to care home residents between Monday 11 September and Sunday 22 October 2023 inclusive; and a separate one-off additional payment of £200 for each completed care home by 11.59pm on Sunday 22 October 2023 that is confirmed to the commissioner by the submission of a live time survey no later than 11.59pm on Sunday 29 October 2023.

To support the acceleration of COVID-19 vaccinations to other eligible cohorts, an additional £5 acceleration payment, in addition to the IoS fee, is available for each COVID-19 vaccination administered to eligible people between 11 September and 31 October 2023, excluding care home residents, housebound people, and any health and care worker vaccinations commissioned under the NHS Standard Contract.

The COVID-19 vaccination primary care service specifications and NHS Standard Contract schedules have been updated to reflect the financial arrangements outlined above in line with usual processes.