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Family Hubs vaccination clinics launch across Leicester and Leicestershire
From this week, free family vaccination clinics will be running across Leicester and Leicestershire to support families, and especially those with young children and new-born babies, to get protected against preventable viruses.
The free clinics are being held at select best start in life, family hubs to make it as easy as possible for everyone in the community to find out information about all routine NHS recommended vaccinations on a walk-in basis. The clinics will also offer the opportunity for all to get vaccinated against any routine vaccines they may have missed.
Getting vaccinated now is particularly important to prevent the spread of viruses as we fast approach the colder winter months. Vaccines work by giving the best possible protection to help prevent the spread of viruses especially to those that are most vulnerable, including pregnant women, newborn babies and young children.
There will be a range of vaccines available and clinical staff on hand to discuss all your family’s needs.
You can find all available walk-in clinics by clicking here.
Young adults offered MenB vaccine before heading to university
A new, time-limited MenB vaccine offer is available this summer for all current Year 13 students (born between 1 September 2007 and 31 August 2008), and under 25s (born on or after 21 July 2001) who will be starting university as undergraduates or moving into residential further education settings for the first time in autumn 2026.
The programme has been introduced in response to recent meningitis outbreaks to provide young adults with added protection before the start university. MenB can spread easily in confined spaces such as university halls and social settings so it’s important to get vaccinated with both doses ahead of the autumn term.
In England, the following groups are eligible:
- young people currently in school Year 13 (born between 1 September 2007 and 31 August 2008)
- all undergraduate freshers born on or after 21 July 2001 who will be attending university for the first time in autumn 2026
- those born on or after 21 July 2001 who are starting further education for the first time in autumn 2026 and who will be living in further education accommodation or halls of residence.
This includes international students who may not arrive in the UK until September, and those from the devolved nations attending these settings in England.
Eligible students will need 2 doses of the MenB vaccine to receive the best possible protection, with the first being offered from late July 2026 and the second dose from August 2026. There must be at least 4 weeks in between both doses.
Appointments can be booked to get vaccinated at a community pharmacy near you from Monday 13 July 2026, to find your local pharmacy that is providing the MenB vaccine visit: www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/vaccination-and-booking-services/book-a-menb-vaccination-appointment/
Vaccine FAQs
Flu facts – Helping you choose whether to get a vaccine
We know that you want to know the facts before making a choice about having a flu vaccine. To help you, we have put together some flu facts below.
The injected vaccine for adults does not contain any live viruses. This means it cannot give you flu. Some people might get a slightly raised temperature and aching muscles for a couple of days after the injection, but this is because your immune system is excited and not a result of the vaccine giving you any infection.
The flu vaccine cannot give you a sore throat, runny nose or cough so if you develop these symptoms after your flu jab it is probably due to you simply catching a cold around the same time.
It is important that you get your vaccine as early as possible, as it can take up to 14 days for your immune system to respond and build up immunity.
Yes, you need a new flu vaccine each year to make sure you have the latest protection.
The viruses that cause the flu change and evolve every year, so you need to have a new vaccination that matches the new viruses.
While colds and flu share some similar symptoms (such as a blocked nose, sore throat, and high temperature), a bad case of flu is much worse that a cold.
Colds tend to cause more nasal problems than flu, while fever, tiredness and muscle aches are more likely and more severe with the flu. If you get complications caused by flu, you could become seriously ill. The risk of most serious illness is highest in children under 6 months, pregnant women, older people and those with underlying health conditions. These groups are at greater risk of complications from flu such as bronchitis or pneumonia.
When you have a cold, you usually begin to feel better after a couple of days. Many people with flu are bed bound for several days and it takes around a week to recover, although you can feel tired for much longer.
Just because you haven’t had the flu before, does not mean you are immune.
Having a flu vaccine isn’t just about keeping you safe and well. It’s about protecting those close to you who might be more vulnerable to the effects of the virus. Just because you haven’t had the flu before doesn’t mean you are immune and won’t get it this year.
For adults, each year of added age makes us slightly more vulnerable to serious complications from flu, so the vaccine becomes increasingly important.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the official UK regulator authorising licensed use of medicines and vaccines, has said these vaccines are safe and highly effective. The NHS has full confidence in their expert judgement and processes.
General vaccine FAQs
Vaccination is the most important thing we can do to protect ourselves and our children against ill health. They prevent millions of deaths worldwide every year.
Since vaccines were introduced in the UK, diseases like smallpox, polio and tetanus that used to kill or disable millions of people are either gone or are now very rarely seen.
Other diseases like measles and diphtheria have reduced to a very low number of cases each year since vaccines were introduced.
However, if people stop having vaccines, it’s possible for infectious diseases to quickly spread again. In other countries these diseases are still common and so overseas travel can import disease back into the UK.
Vaccines teach your immune system how to create antibodies that protect you from diseases.
It’s much safer for your immune system to learn this through vaccination than by catching the diseases and treating them.
Once your immune system knows how to fight a disease, it can usually mount an immune response very quickly which means that you can control the infection without becoming seriously unwell. Sometimes, your immune system remembers the vaccine so well that it can even give you life long protection from the disease.
To help you understand how vaccinations and the immune system work together to protect you and your family from harmful illnesses, Dr Virginia Ashman, clinical lead for the immunisation programme in LLR, has produced a video to explain the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klqcqLo9JAY
All vaccines are thoroughly tested to make sure they will not harm you or your child.
It often takes many years for a vaccine to make it through the trials and tests it needs to pass for approval.
Once a vaccine is being used in the UK it’s also monitored for any rare side effects by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It is also carefully monitored to make sure it still works.
Most of the side effects of vaccination are mild and do not last long. In fact, if you feel a little unwell after your vaccine it suggests your immune system is responding really well to your vaccination.
The most common side effects of vaccination include:
- the area where the needle goes in looking red, swollen and feeling a bit sore for 2 to 3 days
- feeling a bit unwell or developing a high temperature for 1 or 2 days
- older children and adults may feel faint
- feeling tired, having a headache, fever, or muscle aches and pains
Some children might also cry and be upset immediately after the injection. This is normal and they should feel better after a cuddle. Common side effects usually pass after a few days.
Most vaccines contain a small amount of bacteria, virus or toxin that’s been weakened or destroyed in a laboratory first.
Some contain just tiny fragments of the germ that make your body think it’s coming into contact with the bacteria, virus or toxin.
Some vaccines contain the genetic coding for a tiny fragment of the virus so that your cells can create their own copy and your immune system can familiarise itself up close.
This means there’s a very low risk of healthy people catching a disease from a vaccine. It’s also why you might see vaccines being called “live” or “non-live”.
Live (weakened) vaccines | Non-live (destroyed) vaccines |
Contain viruses or bacteria that have been weakened | Contain viruses or bacteria that have been destroyed |
Cannot be given to people with a weakened immune system | Can still be given to people with a weakened immune system |
Scientists are constantly monitoring to see which infectious diseases pose the greatest threat to us here in the UK. If a disease becomes a significant threat, then they will try to create a vaccine to prevent that disease (e.g., the Covid vaccine was developed during the pandemic in 2020). Scientists are not always successful at creating vaccines (e.g., there is still no vaccine against either Hepatitis C or HIV infection) and some vaccines wear off (wane) too quickly to be worthwhile. There are currently around 20 different diseases that we can protect ourselves against here in the UK; these are called vaccine preventable diseases.
Each vaccine is designed to protect against a specific infection, and, for each infection, we find that a different age group is at most risk; some vaccines are therefore given at the right time of life to protect people when they are most vulnerable.
Other vaccines work best at a certain age so we sometimes delay giving them until we know the immune system will be able to mount a strong response to the vaccine.
Some vaccines are designed to protect us against short-term seasonal threats; the flu vaccine is the best example of this where we must have a vaccine each year before the flu season starts and that vaccine is updated each year to try to protect against the strains of virus predicted to be circulating.
Sometimes vaccine immunity wanes (wears off) with time. This isn’t always a problem as sometimes we have grown older and are no longer at such high risk from the disease (e.g., Whooping cough vaccine is not necessary for adults but is essential for tiny babies and children). Other vaccines create immunity that usually lasts forever. An example of this effect is the MMR vaccine which gives lifelong protection against Measles but waning protection against Mumps – this is why it is still possible to catch Mumps as an adolescent despite having had the vaccine as a child; this doesn’t mean the entire vaccine has worn off and the Measles component is usually still working extremely well into older age.
In the UK we have a Vaccination Schedule which outlines which vaccines we should receive, at what time, for the best protection when we are most vulnerable.