Details of the autumn 2025/26 flu and Covid vaccination programmes have been confirmed by NHS England, including dates and eligibility criteria.
Frontline health and social care workers, including staff working in care homes for older adults, will not be eligible for a Covid vaccination under the national programme launching this September.
The change follows a review by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) which suggested Covid vaccination ‘likely now has only a very limited impact on reducing staff sickness absence’.
The move is a change from last Autumn, where health and social care workers were eligible for Covid-19 vaccination.
According to a letter sent by Caroline Temmink, director of vaccination, primary care, community, vaccinations and screening (PCVS) directorate at NHSE, to healthcare providers last week, the autumn Covid vaccination programme will prioritise and focus on particularly vulnerable groups.
NHSE has also confirmed that legal frameworks and training materials around vaccination will be updated before the programme’s launch in September 2026.
From 18 August, sites will begin posting appointment availability on the National Booking Service (NBS). The public will be able to book appointments from 1 September 2025, with vaccination appointments available from 1 October 2025. The final booking date for Covid jab appointments will be January 2026, while the final booking date for flu appointments will be 31 March 2026, when the programme ends.
The letter also states that PCNs and PCN groupings should work with providers to prioritise the vaccination of older care home residents, and those who are housebound.
Those eligible for the autumn 2025 Covid-19 jab include:
- Adults aged 75 and over
- Residents in care homes for older adults
- Individuals aged six months and over who are immunosuppressed, as defined in the government’s Green Book (Chapter 14a, Tables 3 and 4)
Those eligible for a flu jab this year include:
- Pregnant women
- All children aged two or three years on 31 August 2025
- Primary school aged children (from Reception to Year 6)
- Secondary school aged children (from Year 7 to Year 11)
- All children in clinical risk groups aged from six months to less than 18 years
- 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
- 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 health care workers, including both clinical and non-clinical staff who have contact with patients
A version of this story was first published on our sister title Nursing in Practice.
