Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Tenth Report - Prevention in health and social care: vaccination
Health and Social Care Committee
HC 1764
Published 27 July 2023
Recommendations
4
Deferred
Para 19
Consult on amending regulations to give students and retired staff roles in immunisation.
Recommendation
To ensure that nobody misses out on vital vaccine protection because of practical challenges such as convenient times or locations, a more flexible delivery model, that makes the most of the wide range of healthcare professionals, is needed. We recommend …
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Government Response Summary
The government deflected the recommendation, responding by referencing Lord O’Shaughnessy's review of commercial clinical trials and outlining commitments to improve their speed, instead of addressing a consultation on routine immunisation delivery.
Department of Health and Social Care
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6
Accepted
Provide Government commitment and support to NHS England's vaccination and immunisation strategy.
Recommendation
We welcome NHS England’s intention to set out an integrated vaccination and immunisation strategy. This strategy will be vital if England is to meet the 95% target for all childhood vaccinations and to address the variations in uptake across routine …
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Government Response Summary
The government confirms that NHS England, in collaboration with partners, is developing an integrated vaccination and immunisation delivery strategy to improve uptake and coverage, which will be published later in 2023.
Department of Health and Social Care
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7
Accepted
Para 28
Require NHS England's strategy to address access, professional roles, local empowerment, and communication.
Recommendation
The NHS England integrated vaccination and immunisation strategy must: a) have a strong focus on the action that is needed to tackle the practical challenges that limit access to vaccination; b) set out how to make best use of the …
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Government Response Summary
The government states NHS England is developing an integrated vaccination and immunisation delivery strategy, due for publication later in 2023, which will address the committee's points by focusing on local empowerment, diverse healthcare professionals, and targeted outreach.
Department of Health and Social Care
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9
Accepted
Para 34
Swiftly implement O’Shaughnessy review recommendations for clinical trials and patient engagement.
Recommendation
We welcome Lord O’Shaughnessy’s review of commercial clinical trials, which chimed with a lot of the evidence that we heard in this part of our inquiry. The Government’s positive response to the recommendations is encouraging. We especially endorse the following …
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Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendations in principle, noting it has made five headline commitments backed by £121 million to improve commercial clinical trials and will provide an implementation update in the autumn outlining progress and responding in full to the remaining review recommendations.
Department of Health and Social Care
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10
Accepted in Part
Prepare regulatory and delivery systems for future personalised preventative healthcare innovations.
Recommendation
Exciting innovations are on the horizon and have the potential to transform preventative healthcare. While the timeframe for such innovations, like a personalised cancer vaccine, is unknown, future planning must be done on the assumption that personalised therapeutics will become …
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Government Response Summary
The government outlines existing effective regulatory and delivery processes for new medicines and states it monitors partner organizations. It highlights £10 million funding allocated to MHRA to accelerate bringing innovative medicines to UK patients, aligning with the goal of faster access.
Department of Health and Social Care
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11
Accepted in Part
Require DHSC and NHS England to submit plan for regulatory readiness and resourcing.
Recommendation
The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England must lay before Parliament a plan for how they intend to ensure all relevant regulatory and delivery systems are ready to assess and deliver these new innovations to patients. As …
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Government Response Summary
The government describes existing regulatory processes and monitoring for new medicines, detailing how it supports JCVI's modelling capabilities and allocates £10 million over two years to MHRA for accelerating innovative medicine delivery, but does not commit to laying a formal plan before Parliament as requested.
Department of Health and Social Care
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Conclusions (4)
2
Conclusion
Accepted
Para 17
Vaccination is the one of the greatest success stories when it comes to preventing infection. Its impact is transformative. This makes it all the more concerning that England did not reach the 95% target for any routine childhood immunisations in 2021/22. The Government and NHS England should constantly strive to …
Government Response Summary
NHS England, in collaboration with partners, is developing and will publish a vaccination and immunisation delivery strategy later in 2023, aimed at improving uptake and coverage, reducing inequalities, and delivering locally tailored services with targeted outreach.
3
Conclusion
Deferred
Para 18
The incredible success of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout showed what can be achieved with a mission-based attitude from Government, which involved making it as easy as possible for everybody to receive the vaccine. Fundamental to that success was the wide range of people that were mobilised to deliver the vaccination, …
Government Response Summary
The government deflected the recommendation, focusing instead on its efforts to improve commercial clinical trials, clinical research delivery, and partnerships for vaccine innovation, rather than routine immunisation delivery.
5
Conclusion
Accepted
Para 26
We agree that there is a need for national oversight of vaccination programmes and the value of this was clear during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, with routine immunisation programmes, the role of the Government and, in particular, NHS England must be limited to the more strategic, national level. Local ICS …
Government Response Summary
The government described existing national oversight roles (DHSC, UKHSA, JCVI) and processes for new immunisation products. It stated it is working with JCVI and UKHSA to support resources for outbreak response and improvement of existing programmes, and mentioned funding for MHRA to bring innovative medicines to market.
8
Conclusion
Accepted
Para 33
We are deeply concerned to hear about the decline in clinical trial activity and the risk to the UK’s position as a global leader in this area. The challenges highlighted by witnesses, particularly around the administrative aspects of running a trial, are clearly fixable and it is vital that they …
Government Response Summary
The government notes the concerns about clinical trial decline but highlights an increase in participants since 2018 and the impact of the pandemic. It details existing efforts like the Research Reset programme and the 'Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery' strategy, reaffirming its commitment to regaining global leadership.