Question reference: S5W-31987
- Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 23 September 2020
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Current status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 1 October 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that every child can safely access the HPV vaccination and ensure that uptake remains high.
Answer
Planning is underway within NHS Boards to deliver teenage immunisations, including HPV vaccination, in academic year 2020-21. This includes ensuring that strict infection prevention and control measures are in place.
To ensure uptake of the HPV vaccination programme remains high, Public Health Scotland produce a variety of information materials/resources to raise awareness of the HPV school immunisation programme. These include a user-tested leaflet, parent letter and consent form, posters for schools and community settings, an education pack for schools, and a toolkit of resources for stakeholders including social media assets.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some teenage immunisations offered during academic year 2019-20 were delayed, however, with the support of Public Health Scotland, NHS Boards are working on plans to ensure that any missed vaccination sessions within schools are rescheduled as soon as practicable. Young people and their parents can therefore be reassured that if they have missed their HPV, Meningitis ACWY or Tetanus/Diphtheria/Polio booster vaccines, these will be rescheduled. Further information is available on the HPV campaign website ( https://www.nhsinform.scot/campaigns/hpv ) and Immunisation pages on NHS Inform ( https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/immunisation/vaccines/hpv-vaccine#overview ).