Scottish Vaccine Update
Issue 86

Introduction

Welcome to the April edition of the Scottish Vaccine Update.

This edition focuses on the spring coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine programme.

COVID-19 spring 2025 programme

In Scotland, the coronavirus (COVID-19) spring 2025 vaccination programme started on 31 March 2025. The purpose of this programme is to provide protection to those most at risk of hospitalisation and severe illness from COVID-19.

The optimum timing of this delivery is proposed each year by the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), an independent expert advisory body that advises health departments on immunisation and effective vaccine delivery.

In Scotland, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) within Scottish Government reviews JCVI advice and, with ministerial approval, instructs the 14 NHS health boards on the requirements for delivery of this, and all, vaccine programmes.

Read the CMO letter detailing thes eligibility for the COVID-19 spring 2025 programme.

For ease of reference, the following groups are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine this spring:

• residents in care homes for older adults
• adults aged 75 years and over on 30 June 2025 (those born on or before 30 June 1950)
• people aged 6 months and over (by 31 March 2025) with a weakened immune system

View a full list of eligible conditions on NHS Inform

The primary aim of the COVID-19 vaccination programme has always been the prevention of severe COVID-19 disease, hospitalisation and death in those most at risk.

Even if eligible individuals received a COVID-19 vaccination last winter, it’s important they get another dose this spring to help reduce the risk of becoming severely unwell from COVID-19.

Healthcare professionals are therefore encouraged to support those who are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine this spring to come forward when invited.

JCVI recommendations

The UK Heath Security Agency's Immunisation Against Infectious Disease collection, popularly known as the 'Green Book' contains chapters on vaccine-preventable infectious diseases in the UK.

These chapters are updated as necessary to reflect the current policies and procedures as advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

View the chapter relating to the COVID-19 spring 2025 programme.

COVID-19 spring 2025 programme delivery

To support this COVID-19 spring 2025 programme, there are many different national teams working behind the scenes to provide information, resources, and support to help health boards deliver a safe and effective programme.

These include:

• information systems which provide health boards with the details of those eligible for vaccines each year, using JCVI advice and health records
• the national vaccination scheduling system which sends out letters, emails or texts (based on patient communication preference) to those eligible people

Ensuring safe and reliable supplies of vaccines is also key with a network of supply routes and vaccine holding centres across the whole of Scotland.

The National Contact Centre is providing telephone support for the COVID-19 spring 2025 programme (via the national vaccination helpline on 0800 030 8013) for those who may need help to book appointments or more specific information. Public Health Scotland provides and regularly updates call handler guidance in the form of a question-and-answer document.

Uptake data, including that for key groups and different locations is recorded throughout the spring programme, allowing uptake rates to be monitored and any issues identified at an early stage.

Evaluation of this data and the vaccination experience for many groups in recent years is used to drive improvements to the programme, supporting local health boards in their work to reach communities and groups and tackle barriers which may exist.

Find out more information on the COVID-19 vaccination programme.

National specimen patient group direction (PGD)

Patient Group Direction (PGD) have been issued to NHS health boards which support the COVID-19 spring 2025 programme.

View the PGDs for the:

• administration of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines to individuals under 18 years
• administration of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines to individuals aged 18 years and over

Please refer to your locally approved PGD alongside the training materials from NHS National Education for Scotland (NES).

Informed consent materials

Ensuring the public can access information on the COVID-19 spring 2025 programme and individual vaccines is also key to ensure trust in all vaccination programme, and to help those who may need more support in accessing vaccination. 

Public Health Scotland (PHS) has developed resources to support the workforce to:

• be fully informed about the COVID-19 spring 2025 programme
• support vaccine confidence and equity
• be an aid to conversation about the vaccines

This includes information to support informed consent for the COVID-19 spring 2025 programme, aiming to support confident conversations about the vaccines being offered to those eligible this spring.

Information leaflets are available in English and alternative languages and formats (such as British Sign Language, Audio and Easy Read).

Resources for professionals

View the COVID-19 spring vaccination information.

Resources for the public

View the NHS inform COVID-19 vaccine information for patients.

Social media toolkit

Public Health Scotland has developed a social media toolkit to support the COVID-19 spring 2025 programme by raising awareness of the benefits of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine and information on eligibility.

The toolkit provides social media assets and captions for stakeholders to download and share on their channels.

A template for stakeholders to use on email, website and newsletter platforms has also been developed to encourage communication directly with those who are eligible.

Access the COVID-19 spring vaccine social media toolkit.

Workforce education materials

To help support practitioners involved directly with the spring COVID-19 vaccination programme, NES and PHS will make available workforce education resources. These include eLearning, posters and slides.

Access these on NES TURAS Learn.

In addition, a vaccination conversations TURAS Learn page has been developed to help practitioners who may have an opportunity to have supportive conversations with the public in relation to vaccination, including Health Visitors, Pharmacists and Midwives among others. These pages will include illustrative animations and signpost to additional learning.

Vaccine-preventable disease surveillance data

Spring 2025 COVID-19 vaccine uptake

Uptake figures in eligible groups for the spring 2025 COVID-19 programme will be published on the PHS vaccination surveillance dashboard.

For the spring 2024 COVID-19 programme:

• over 445,000 individuals were vaccinated
• uptake in adults aged 75 years and over was 72.9%
• uptake in care home residents was 81.6%
• uptake in those with weakened immune systems was 45.7%

There were inequalities in uptake with differences by:

• ethnic group
• ethnicity
• deprivation
• urban-rural classification

Vaccine supply

Routine vaccines

There are currently no issues with vaccines for the routine vaccination programmes.

Please ensure you hold stocks sufficient for two weeks supply locally.

If you have any queries around ordering limits or supply issues, please contact your local vaccine holding centre.

Non-routine vaccines

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publishes an update on supplies for the non-routine vaccine programmes.

It is available in the UKHSA vaccine update: issue 356, March 2025 as well as in the following section.

Subscribe to the Scottish Vaccine Update

The Scottish Vaccine Update provides regular, up-to-date information for Scotland’s vaccination workforce.

We aim to keep healthcare practitioners informed on the latest activity within each of the vaccine programmes.

If you subscribe to our mailing list, we will send you a notification when a new issue of the Scottish Vaccine Update has been published.