Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken with respect to people with mental health issues as part of the roll out of the covid-19 vaccination programme.

The Government accepted the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and included those with severe mental illnesses within cohort six of the vaccine programme. Working in partnership with secondary care mental health services and voluntary, community and social enterprise partners, general practitioners should ensure appropriate outreach mechanisms are in place to prioritise people with severe mental illnesses.

NHS England and NHS Improvement and Public Health England have been working with Rethink Mental Illness to understand the barriers to vaccination and concerns from people living with severe mental illnesses to develop and promote targeted communications materials.

Three delivery models are currently in operation to allow people to visit a site most appropriate to their needs; hospital hubs, local vaccination services (including pop up sites) and vaccination centres. This allows the programme to to deliver vaccines in a tailored way to suit individual circumstances and needs.