Health Education: Communication

This year’s national communications campaign to support the uptake of essential winter vaccinations, including influenza and COVID-19, launched on 23 September 2024, and will run throughout the autumn and winter. The campaign, called Get Winter Strong, will particularly target eligible cohorts where uptake has historically been lower, and will involve a range of national media engagement activities, paid marketing, social media, and stakeholder engagement.

There is also a comprehensive range of information leaflets, promotional materials, and other resources to inform members of the public and health care professionals, to raise awareness of the programmes, and support decisions in relation to consent. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.healthpublications.gov.uk/Home.html

These cover all of the vaccination programmes, including childhood programmes, flu, COVID-19, and vaccines for older people, specifically pneumococcal, respiratory syncytial virus, and shingles. These resources are co-branded with the National Health Service and include translations into a range of languages and accessible formats, for instance braille, British Sign Language videos, large print, and audio.

In addition, NHS England has now published the Winter and H2 Priorities for the NHS letter. This is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/winter-and-h2-priorities/

A national press release has also been issued, and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/2024/09/nhs-announces-plans-to-prepare-for-busy-winter-period/