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Council commits its support for an extended vaccination programme

Published: 23/03/2016

At Tuesdays meeting (22 March), Flintshire County Council’s Cabinet approved an additional report submitted at the request of Cllr Christine Jones, Cabinet Member for Social Services. Cllr Jones put forward a recommendation for the Council to commit its support for the extension of the meningitis B vaccination programme to all children up to the age of 11. The UK Government has received a petition signed by over 820,000 people to extend this programme and this report was submitted in response to public support for this petition. Cllr Jones said after the meeting: “I am really pleased that Cabinet supported this recommendation. We are asking the Government to look at extending this vaccination programme which was introduced in September 2015. Essentially, all children born after 1 May 2015 will be covered by this, but that leaves a lot of vulnerable children who will not receive this potentially life-saving vaccination. This is a preventable disease which has a terrible impact on children and families affected.” The Parliamentary Petitions Committee, working jointly with the Health Committee, is currently holding its second evidence session on the meningitis B vaccine and have agreed to schedule a debate on this petition in Parliament after the evidence sessions have taken place. The Government will announce the date in due course.