Childhood immunisations

• North Tyneside are achieving 95% and over coverage rates for all immunisations by the time the child turns one and two years of age and for most immunisations by the time the child turns five. Rotavirus has slightly lower coverage than the other primary immunisations. There is practice level variation – this means not every practice in North Tyneside are achieving 95% and over coverage rates.
• Men B vaccination coverage – practice level data indicates coverage is lower for this vaccination than others by the time the child is one year of age.
• MMR – North Tyneside are not achieving the 95% coverage target for MMR dose two by the time the child turns five (94.5%).
• There is currently no data available for the neonatal BCG immunisation programme which has recently moved to a 28-day immunisation programme. The BCG vaccine is a live attenuated vaccine and is not given as part of the routine vaccination schedule but only when a child is at increased risk of coming into contact with Tuberculosis (TB). The BCG vaccine had been offered to eligible babies soon after birth, often whilst the baby is still in hospital. However due to the addition of the evaluation for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Screening (SCID) to the routine newborn screening test when the baby is five days of age, it has been necessary to move the BCG vaccination when a SCID screening outcome will be available, which will be by 28 days of age. This is to ensure that babies with SCID are not given the live attenuated BCG vaccine which is contraindicated in these babies.
• Flu vaccination – in the 2021/22 flu season North Tyneside saw a decline in uptake compared to the previous year for those aged two and three years. This is in line with national and local trends.  North Tyneside achieved lower than the national average for secondary school flu vaccination.
• Adolescent Immunisations – Uptake of the first dose of HPV in year eight females and males is an outlier in terms of North Tyneside performance in other immunisations but does recover by the time the young people are in year 9 and receive a second offer.

Future concerns – Nationally nine out of 13, 0-5 years immunisation programmes have seen a decrease in coverage on the annual 2020/21 data review. North Tyneside has seen a decrease in four programmes. On the most recent quarterly data (Q3 2021/22) North Tyneside have seen an improvement in 10 out of 13 immunisation programmes. Continuing inequalities in the vaccination programme remains a concern for those that continue to be unvaccinated.