Approximately 71,000 school children across Cumbria will be provided with potentially life-saving vaccinations between October and December. 

North Care Integrated Cumbria (NCIC) announced earlier this week that they had been appointed as the provider for School Age Immunisation Services for both north and south Cumbria from September 1, 2023.

The School Aged Immunisation team plays an important role in making sure children, young people and the wider population in Cumbria have a high level of protection against a range of preventable diseases, including flu, HPV, tetanus, diphtheria, polio, meningitis, and MMR.

After vaccinating more than 50,000 children in schools and community clinics last year, this number represents the largest cohort so far for the NCIC. 

Gayle Howarth, specialist nurse for immunisation, said: "I am absolutely thrilled that our service has been recognised for their hard work and dedication to protecting our children, families, and local communities by being awarded this contract for another 5+ years.

"We strongly focus on maximising overall vaccination coverage in the eligible population whilst also doing our best to make sure inequalities are identified and addressed.

"We are passionate about providing the best possible protection to children for a range of conditions and we urge all parents to take up the opportunity of getting their child vaccinated.”

"Over 50,500 vaccinations were delivered by the team last year, we are expertise in this area and we make it our mission to make the experience as easy as possible for all our young patients."

The vaccinations will be delivered between October and December 15 of this year.

Kerry Foot, school aged immunisation programme lead, said: "We have a long history of successfully running the School Age Immunisation Programme in Cumbria and consistently performing better than the national uptake rates and have frequently topped the regional uptake rates for many of our programmes.

"Our School Aged Immunisation Service team are extremely knowledgeable and passionate. We will work with our communities and partners to successfully protect Cumbria’s school-aged population from preventable diseases."