Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to (a) recruit and (b) train a workforce to administer a covid-19 vaccine safely.

The National Health Service is preparing to recruit people to be trained as COVID-19 vaccinators in support of the national effort to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. We are working with experienced NHS partners to prepare for when a vaccine becomes available to enable the NHS to vaccinate as many people as possible.

Secondary legislation enabling more healthcare workers to administer flu and potential COVID-19 vaccines has been introduced. This means that the NHS can expand the vaccination workforce by recruiting to clinical roles needed to support mass vaccinations in a safe way. Recruitment is focused on those who already have experience in handling vaccinations but may currently work outside of NHS settings, for example, independent nurses or allied health care professionals. We will also use existing schemes such as NHS Bring Back scheme to fill roles. Robust training and supervision will be provided for all those who will be part of the vaccination effort.