Better Health For All

This is anything but a typical year and we all want to protect ourselves and those close to us.

Receiving the flu vaccine is more important than ever before because of co-circulation of COVID-19 and flu. The flu vaccine will help reduce pressure on health and social care during a challenging time and by reducing transmission of flu, help to protect some of the most vulnerable in our community. Those most at risk from flu are also most vulnerable to COVID-19. We must do all we can to help protect them this winter.

Therefore, the Health and Social Care Workers flu vaccination campaign is more important than ever. The flu virus spreads from person-to-person, even amongst those not showing any symptoms. For frontline workers, there is an increased risk of contracting flu and it’s very easy for individuals to pass the virus on without knowing. Even if they’re healthy, they can still get flu and spread it to the people they care for, their colleagues and to their family. This year, more than ever, we are stressing that getting the flu jab is simple, easy and free to those eligible.

For the campaign we carried out research to understand health and social care workers’ barriers to and motivations for getting the flu vaccination in this unusual environment. The research brought out the need to promote a protection-based message, as well as the message that many with the flu can be asymptomatic. This insight has helped shape our creative, communications, and partner assets to ensure they are effective as possible in encouraging uptake of the flu vaccine. Also, a new range of adaptable materials have been provided to allow communication teams to promote local information or new ways for staff to get vaccinated. We knew the flu vaccination may be offered in slightly different ways than previous years, whether that’s easier access for social care workers or hospitals hosting vaccinations in an outdoor marquee!

Due the current environment and the extended eligibility of the social care workforce, we’ve worked even more extensively with Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England & Improvement (NHS E&I). We want to ensure that all communication opportunities are being used to engage and that the sectors are aligned. This can be seen at campaign launch where NHS E&I released an open letter from senior clinicians, sent to all NHS frontline staff alongside a short video by Chief Nursing Officer, Ruth May, promoting the programme. DHSC also released a video from Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Prof. Van-Tam and sent targeted communications to social care organisations and workers.

The Health and Social Care Workers flu vaccination campaign launched on the 16th September and has attracted widespread positive attention from the start with comment from Secretary of State, content across trade media, social media as well as communications from employers, sector stakeholders and representative bodies. There has already been a huge increase in demand for campaign resources, with some assets seeing well over double the amount of orders compared to the previous year. For anyone looking to deliver their own local Health and social care worker flu vaccination campaign, please visit Public Health England’s Campaign Resource Centre for access to toolkits, campaign resources and more.

Written by Public Health England