Children in England to be offered vaccines in their own homes | Vaccines and immunisation

Health visitors will be sent door to door to deliver vaccines to children in England, amid fears one in five children will start primary school without protection against deadly diseases, the Guardian can reveal.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that at least 95% of children receive vaccine doses for each disease to achieve herd immunity. However, none of the main vaccines for children in England have reached their target in 2024-25. There are also stark differences in participation across the country.

In an effort to tackle the crisis, health visitors will begin offering a range of life-saving vaccines to children in their own homes as part of a £2 million pilot program starting in January.

Health visitors are nurses or midwives who specialize in working with families with children under five to identify health needs as early as possible. Under the scheme, they will target families who are not registered with a GP or who are struggling with travel costs, childcare, language barriers or other issues preventing them from seeing a doctor.

The children will be identified by the NHS using GP records, health visitor notes and local databases, sources said. Health visitors will be trained to administer vaccines safely and will have sensitive conversations with parents, including those who have doubts about the safety of vaccines.

Twelve pilot areas will launch in January across five regions of England – London, the Midlands, the North East and Yorkshire, the North West and the South West – in a bid to boost adoption and protect children from illness. If successful, the project will be deployed everywhere in 2027.

Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, said: “Every parent deserves the chance to protect their child from preventable illness, but some families have a lot on their plate and that can mean they miss out.

“Health visitors are already trusted faces in communities across the country. By enabling them to offer vaccines, we are using the relationships and expertise that already exist to reach families who need support most.

“Fixing the NHS means tackling health inequalities head on. By meeting families where they are, we’re not just increasing vaccination rates – we’re building a health service that works for everyone.”

The campaign to vaccinate children comes as the NHS remains under “extraordinary pressure” amid high rates of flu and other winter viruses. Health officials are preparing for a surge in cases in the coming days as temperatures drop.

In England, half a million more people were vaccinated against flu than the previous year. But health officials said Wednesday it’s not too late for unvaccinated people to protect themselves for the rest of the winter.

The decision to send health visitors with vaccines directly to children’s homes comes amid serious concerns about their uptake in England.

Only 91.9% of five-year-olds received a dose of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine in 2024-25, the lowest level since 2010-11, according to data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) reviewed by the Guardian.

Only 83.7% of five-year-olds received both doses of MMR, down year-on-year from 83.9% and the lowest level since 2009-10. The uptake rate for the first dose of MMR at 24 months stood at 88.9% in 2024-25 – again the lowest figure since 2009-10.

In July, a child died in Liverpool after contracting measles, the first such death in the UK in a decade. Only 73% of children in Liverpool have received both vaccinations needed to protect against measles.

The UK is the worst G7 country for MMR vaccination rates, according to the WHO: by 2024, only 89% of children had received their first MMR vaccine. Globally, millions of children are at risk of life-threatening diseases due to stopping or reversing vaccination coverage, according to the largest study of its kind.

Coverage of the Hib/MenC vaccine, which protects against Haemophilus influenzae type b and meningitis C, stands at 88.9% for five-year-olds in England, the lowest level since 2011-12.

Meanwhile, the four-in-one preschool booster vaccination rate – which protects against polio, whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria – was only 81.4% among five-year-olds in 2024-25.

This means around one in five people are unprotected when they start primary school, and this represents the worst take-up since current records began in 2009-10.

From Friday, a chickenpox vaccine will be rolled out in the NHS across England.

The vaccine, which costs around £150 in private clinics and pharmacies, will be part of a new combined vaccination as part of the children’s vaccination programme.

Ministers hope this will not only protect some young people from serious complications from the virus, but also prevent parents from taking time off work to care for their children if they become infected.

The varicella vaccine – also known as chickenpox vaccine – will be part of a new combined MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox) vaccine.

It will be offered in GP surgeries from Friday and is expected to offer protection to around 500,000 children each year. MMRV will eventually replace MMR, which is offered to babies at 12 months and 18 months.