| Age | Vaccination | Schedule |
|---|---|---|
| Reception to Year 11 (up to year 13 in special schools) | October to December | |
| Year 8 (catch up for Year 9 and Year 10) | HPV | April to July |
| Year 9 | April to July | |
| Year 9 (catch up for Year 10 and Year 11) | January to March |
School based
If your child is due a vaccination, school will forward you an email inviting you to give consent for their vaccination. The email will contain a link to the online consent form as well as a unique code for your child’s school. Please follow the link to complete the electronic consent form.
You are requested to complete and submit the consent form no later than 1 week before the school session. The date of the school vaccination should be shared with you by school.
Once you have submitted a consent form, you will receive an email to confirm this. Please check both your inbox and junk mail to ensure you have received this confirmation.
Get in touch if you have any problems completing the consent form.
Home educated/not in school
If we have your child’s details and they are due a vaccination we will send a letter to your home address. This letter will contain the information to access the consent form online as well as the unique code to enable you to proceed with the consent. After submitting the consent form, please contact us to book your child into one of our community vaccination clinics. Dates, venues and our contact details are on this webpage.
Once you have submitted a consent form, you will receive an email to confirm this. Please check both your inbox and junk mail to ensure you have received this confirmation.
Get in touch if you have any problems completing the consent form.
Children registered at a school will receive a consent link and school code to complete the online school code. The children will receive at the school session. If children miss the session at school, parents can book the child in for a clinic appointment.
Children educated outside of school will receive a letter inviting for a community clinic.
If you are a healthcare professional or a parent/guardian and you think a child is outstanding any school vaccinations, please contact us.
Before you begin completing this consent form, make sure you have your child's school code to hand.
If you choose not to consent for your child to be vaccinated, please complete the form indicating no-consent.
Guidance for completing the consent forms
- The direct link for the consent forms is: https://www.cumbriaschoolimmunisations.co.uk. If you experience problems with the link, please let your local immunisation team know.
- Please enter your email address and confirm your email address. It is important you have filled this in correctly as this is where you will receive any correspondence relating to the vaccination.
- Next you will need the school code which can be found on the invite email or letter or in the section on this webpage. The school code is very sensitive to how it is typed in. Please ensure there are no spaces before or after the code and no full stop
- Please click 'Find School' once the code is typed in. This enters the name of the child's school in the box underneath school code.
- You can then press ‘Next’ on the form. This will take you to enter your child's details. Please ensure your child's details are entered correctly. If you don’t have your child’s NHS number, we can enter this after the consent form is complete.
- The next section is your contact number. It’s really important to include an up-to-date phone number, this is essential if we need to ring you for further information.
- The consent section is next where you enter if you consent or do not consent to your child receiving the vaccination(s). Consent must only be given by the person with parental responsibility.
- If you give consent, you will then be asked a series of health questions. You must answer all the questions. If you answer yes to any of the questions, please provide any additional information as requested.
- The consent form is now complete and can be submitted. If there are any changes to your child’s health after submitting the consent form please inform your local Immunisation Team and they can amend this with you.
- Complete and submit the consent form no later than 1 week before the school immunisation session. After this date the link will be closed and you won’t be able to access the consent form. School immunisation dates can be found on this webpage.
- Check your inbox and junk mail after 6pm on the day you submitted the e-consent form for an email to confirm the form has been received. If you do not receive this email, please speak to the local immunisation team before submitting a new consent form as we can check if a form has been received and confirm your email address.
- A new form needs to be completed for each child and vaccination programme. If you have children at different schools, their form must be completed with the code for their school.
- If your child has their vaccine at the GPs after you have submitted the consent form, please let your local immunisation team know.
- On the day of the school vaccination session, you will receive an email in the evening to confirm your child has had their vaccination that day. If your child has refused the vaccination or has been absent, you should also receive and email to confirm this and signpost you to your local immunisation team to discuss this or arrange a clinic appointment. You will only receive this email confirmation if you have submitted a YES consent form. Please remember to check in your junk box too for this email.
Allerdale and Copeland
Call 01900 705867
Email ncm-tr.westschoolimmsteam@nhs.net
Carlisle and Eden
Call 01228 608157
Email ncm.tr.northschoolagedimmunisationteam@nhs.net
South Lakes and Furness
Call 01539 718014
A person who gives consent for their child to have the vaccination must have parental responsibility for that child.
This could be:
- the child's mother or father
- the child's legally appointed guardian
- a person with a residence order concerning the child
- a local authority designated to care for the child
- a local authority or person with an emergency protection order for the child
If you sign a consent form for a child and you don’t have parental responsibility, this may delay the child receiving their vaccination.
Further information on parental can be found on the Government's website.
We offer the opportunity to contact your local immunisation team to give verbal consent to your child’s vaccination. This is available if you have missed the school cut-off date for completing the form or you are experiencing difficulty completing the form online yourself. The nurse will ask you all your child’s details as well as any relevant health information.
If you have consented for your child to receive a vaccination, but at the session they refuse, we will not coerce them into having the vaccination. We will discuss the vaccination with them so they have been informed of the benefits and risks. You will receive an email to confirm your child has not received the vaccination that day. We will contact you to discuss this and the best way to support them to have the vaccination.
Very occasionally a young person under the age of 16 may request a vaccination without parental consent. In these circumstances an experienced Immunisation Nurse would make a thorough assessment of the young person’s understanding, knowledge and competence to make such a decision. If the decision is made that they have the right level of knowledge and understanding, and they cannot be persuaded to discuss it with their parents, the Immunisation Nurse may go ahead and vaccinate the young person. This is known as being Gillick Competent.
If a Gillick-competent child consents to treatment, a parent cannot override that consent.
Further information can be found at the links below:
Without vaccines, we are at risk of serious illness and disability from diseases like meningitis, measles pneumonia, tetanus and polio. It is estimated that childhood vaccines alone save over 4 million lives every year.
Vaccines protect ourselves and those around us. Not everyone can be vaccinated so they depend on others to be vaccinated to ensure they are also safe from vaccine preventable diseases (World Health Organisation 2020)
Vaccines work by causing the body’s immune system to make antibodies (substances to fight infection and disease). So, if you come into contact with the infection, the antibodies will recognise it and help to protect you.