Interim evaluation reports on Scotland’s flu and COVID-19 vaccination programme published

Public Health Scotland (PHS) has today published three interim reports which evaluate various aspects of the flu and COVID-19 vaccination programmes.

The first of the publications is Factors affecting uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine – Learning from the flu and COVID-19 vaccination evaluation, which focuses on our learning to date about factors affecting vaccine uptake including booking methods and delivery models. Although there has been a high uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations in Scotland overall, uptake levels have not been equal across all population groups. This publication includes recommendations to support maximal and equitable access to vaccinations, both for the COVID-19 and other vaccination programmes.

The Evaluation of the flu and COVID-19 vaccination programmes in Scotland - Interim report (November 2021) has also been published today. This report details interim findings on delivery models used for vaccine rollout, methods for maximising uptake in different population groups, factors affecting vaccine uptake, lessons learned about programme implementation and recommendations for the programme.

The third report is Learning from interviews with health board vaccination leads about their experience of the COVID-19 vaccination programme (September 2021). Findings include learning on delivery models; engagement and communication; inclusion and outreach activity; what helped and hindered vaccine roll out; and recommendations for the programme.  

Many of the evaluation findings in these reports have already been shared with key stakeholders and led to real-time improvements in the roll out of the flu and COVID-19 vaccination programmes.

The final evaluation report from Public Health Scotland on the flu and COVID-19 vaccination programme, which is due to be published in September 2022, will synthesise the learning from all our evaluation activity and make recommendations to inform future vaccination programmes.