News and events

As World Immunisation Week draws to a close, we're highlighting the impact of our Off the Grid programme, part of our East of England Community and School Aged Immunisation Service (CSAIS), which takes vaccinations into trusted community settings to reach people who can be missed by mainstream services. 

Off the Grid focuses on reducing barriers to access and tackling health inequalities by delivering flexible, outreach-based vaccination clinics in places where people already receive support — including homelessness services, asylum accommodation, community venues and secure settings.

Some of the projects which teams have been recently involved with are:

• Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes: working with trusted local organisations such as homeless shelters, day centres and food banks to provide clear health promotion, flexible clinic times and repeated engagement to improve vaccine confidence and uptake among people experiencing homelessness.
• Cambridgeshire and Peterborough: monthly on-site vaccination clinics at asylum hotels delivered in partnership, and targeted vaccination outreach in secure settings, including at Peterborough Prison — vaccinations were delivered there in March 2025, the first since the prison opened in 2005 — and Littlehey Prison.
• Hertfordshire: a community-led programme taking vaccinations into trusted community settings for people facing barriers to traditional services and supporting prevention and early intervention.
• Norfolk: teams are working with asylum families, HMP Whatton and home-educated families in partnership with Norfolk County Council, as well as developing a new pathway working with the adult learning disability team.
• Suffolk and North East Essex: working with young people who are not currently in school or needle phobic and in partnership with Suffolk Health Protection promoting MMR for school readiness in primary schools at highest need.

Caroline Shepherd, Assistant Director for Child Health and Immunisation Programmes East of England said: “Off the Grid is about meeting people where they are — making it easier to get protected and making sure no one is missed. By working with local partners and delivering vaccines in trusted settings, we’re improving access and helping to reduce inequalities across our communities.”

World Immunisation Week ends tomorrow (30 April) and this year has the theme ‘Every generation, vaccines work’ to promote how vaccines safety protected people, families and communities for generations.