Autumn Winter Covid and Flu Vaccinations
Written by AlisonFreemantle on Friday 27th June 2025
Start date announced
The vaccination service for both covid and flu will start on the 1st October 2025.
Pregnant women flu vaccination will start from 1st September 2025.
Following the Government acceptance of JCVI’s advice on the COVID-19 programme, NHS England has published the Flu and COVID-19 Seasonal Vaccination Programme: Autumn/ Winter 2025/26 letter
This sets out the eligible groups for flu and COVID-19 vaccination in autumn/winter 2025/26, confirms the timing of the campaign (main campaign starting on 1 October 2025, with flu vaccinations in pregnant women from 1 September 2025), and lays out next steps.
The cohorts eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine in autumn/winter 2025/26 are:
- Residents in a care home for older adults
- All adults aged 75 years and over
- 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 (here).
National Booking Service (NBS)
To support preparedness and delivery:
- NBS will be opened for participating sites to post flu and COVID-19 vaccination appointments from 18 August 2025
- it will be open for bookings from the public from 1 September 2025 for vaccination from 1 October 2025
Published resources
Updated training materials for COVID-19 vaccinations will be made available in advance of the programme. National protocols and Patient Group Directions (PGD) will be published before the start of the respective programmes.
The letter has been published here: