Immunisations Guidance

Vaccination take up for Looked After Children and young people has been below the recommended level for some time. It is the duty of corporate Parents to improve the life chances of all Looked After Children and Young People And it is essential to work in collaboration with healthcare professionals so that all children and young people are offered the chance to be vaccinated and advised of the importance of completing recommended immunisation schedules.

Reassurance should be provided that all children and young people are offered the chance to be vaccinated safely and effectively.

When children/young people have missed their scheduled doses of immunisation, a catch-up schedule should be commenced.

The expectation is to re-immunise if it is unknown whether past immunisation has taken place.

Consult LAC Nurses to plan an immunisation catch-up schedule for a Looked After Child/Young Person.

Caption: Routine Childhood Immunisation Programme

Routine Childhood Immunisation Programme
When to Immunise	What Vaccine is Given	How it is Given
Two, three and four months old	Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio and Hib (DtaP/IPV/Hib) Men C	One injection
Around 13 months old	Measles, mumps and rubella (MMR)	One injection
Three years four months to five years old	Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio (dTaP/IPV or DtaP/IPV) Measles, mumps and rubella (MMR)	One injection
Ten to 14 years old (and sometimes shortly after birth)	BCG (against tuberculosis)	Skin test then, if needed, one injection
Thirteen to 18 years old	Tetanus, diphtheria and polio (Td/IPV)	One injection