The Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency have published their annual flu letter, which sets out guidance for the 2025 to 2026 season.
From October 2025, the exact start date to be confirmed by NHS England in due course, the following cohorts are announced and authorised to be eligible to receive a flu vaccination:
- Those aged 65 years and over.
- Those aged 18 years to under 65 years in clinical risk groups (as defined by the Green Book, Influenza chapter 19).
- Those in long-stay residential care homes.
- Carers in receipt of carer’s allowance, or those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person.
- Close contacts of immunocompromised individuals.
- Frontline workers in a social care setting without an employer led occupational health scheme.
This includes those working for a registered residential care or nursing home, registered domiciliary care providers, voluntary managed hospice providers and those that are employed by those who receive direct payments (personal budgets) or Personal Health budgets.
Social care workers directly working with people clinically vulnerable to flu should also have the flu vaccine provided by their employer. There are circumstances where frontline staff, employed by specific social care providers without access to employer led occupational health schemes (see cohort eligibility), can access the vaccine through the NHS free of charge.
