Flu Season 2025 2026
1st September 2025 to 31st March 2026
Patients eligible for flu vaccination this year 2025 / 2026 are based on the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The programme aims to provide direct protection to those who are at higher risk of flu associated morbidity and mortality and to reduce transmission to all age groups through the vaccination of children.
The following cohorts are announced and authorised to be eligible to receive a flu vaccination:
From 1 September 2025 at GP Surgery:
- pregnant women
- all children aged 2 or 3 years on 31 August 2025
- all children in clinical risk groups aged from 6 months to less than 18 years
From 1st September 2025 at school / education provider:
- primary school aged children (from Reception to Year 6)
- secondary school aged children (from Year 7 to Year 11)
From October 2025 at GP Surgery:
- those aged 65 years and over
- those aged 18 years to under 65 years in clinical risk groups (as defined by the Green Book, Influenza chapter 19 )
- those in long-stay residential care homes – arranged by ARRS PCN & RDaSH staff to visit the care institute
- carers in receipt of carer’s allowance, or those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person
- close contacts of immunocompromised individuals
- frontline workers in a social care setting without an employer led occupational health scheme including those working for a registered residential care or nursing home, registered domiciliary care providers, voluntary managed hospice providers and those that are employed by those who receive direct payments (personal budgets) or Personal Health budgets, such as Personal Assistants
All frontline health care workers, including both clinical and non-clinical staff who have contact with patients, should be offered flu vaccine from the start of October (exact date to be confirmed) as a vital part of the organisation’s policy for the prevention of the transmission of flu. Employers should make the vaccine accessible for all frontline staff, encourage staff to get vaccinated, and monitor the delivery of their programmes. Further communications from NHS England will describe operational considerations.
Social care workers directly working with people clinically vulnerable to flu should also have the flu vaccine provided by their employer. There are circumstances where frontline staff, employed by specific social care providers without access to employer led occupational health schemes (see cohort eligibility above), can access the vaccine through the NHS free of charge.
Pregnant women and all eligible children will start from 1st September 2025. For school aged cohorts, vaccination in schools should be completed by 12 December 2025 with further catch-up opportunities as appropriate.
All other adult flu cohorts will start from 1 October 2025 and will run until the 31 March 2026. Although, we anticipate that the majority of vaccinations should be completed by the end of November 2025 to provide the best possible protection going into winter.
Covid 19 Autumn winter 2025/2026 Booster Programme
1st October 2025 to 31st January 2026
In June the Government accepted final Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice and announced the cohort eligibility regarding a COVID-19 Autumn/Winter 2025/26 vaccination programme.
Eligibility
The announced and authorised cohorts eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine in Autumn / Winter 2025/26 are:
- residents in a care home for older adults – arranged by ARRS PCN staff to visit the care institute
- all adults aged 75 years and over (turning 75 years before or on 31st January 2026)
- persons aged 6 months and over who are immunosuppressed, as defined in tables 3 and 4 of the COVID-19 chapter of the Green Book.
The COVID-19 programme will run from 1 October 2025 to 31 Jan 2026. However, the majority of COVID-19 vaccinations should be completed by 19 December 2025.