Redcar and Cleveland children lagging behind national average in vaccinations
Work needs to be done to make sure children across Redcar and Cleveland are getting vaccinated - after health bosses found the area is lagging behind the national average
Last updated 1st May 2025
Health bosses on Teesside are raising concerns about the low numbers of children being vaccinated across Redcar and Cleveland.
Councillors were told how the uptake of jabs in 10 year olds in the borough is lagging behind the national average.
Latest figures showed how only 64% of eligible adolescents had received the HPV vaccine, which is designed to protect against a common virus that can cause several types of cancer, including cervical cancer.
The national target is 90%.
Meanwhile coverage of the so-called 6-in-1 vaccine, which protects against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, pertussis, Hib, and MenC, was only about 61 or 62% among adolescents in the borough.
The national target is 95%.
The presentation by Sarah Slater, an advanced public health practitioner with Public Health South Tees, said there were “unfair and avoidable” differences in vaccine uptake among local populations and additional funding had been allocated to the area in a bid to improve the situation.
She said a leaflet had been issued encouraging parents to get their children fully vaccinated, while the importance of vaccines was being promoted in some community venues.
In the childhood category, uptake of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) jab, which requires two doses by the age of five, had also recently dipped to 89.1% when the national target is 95%.
The presentation referred to vulnerable groups at risk of not being properly vaccinated, including people for whom English was not their first language, home educated youngsters and children in care.
Mrs Slater told the council’s adults, wellbeing and health scrutiny committee one of the “biggest barriers” in respect of adolescent-age vaccinations was the parental consent that was required.
She said: “There aren’t many people who don’t want their child to be protected, but some simply don’t get around to doing it providing the consent.
“We have worked with a whole range of partners to produce an adolescent vaccine video, which has just been finalised, and have produced a leaflet to go alongside that.
“It’s raising awareness and education around the importance of adolescent vaccines working with schools and the school age immunisation service to make the consent process as robust as it can be.”
She also said all GP practices now held a small stock of adolescent-age vaccines for those who missed out on their jabs at school.
Mrs Slater said: “Before, if you had missed a vaccine it was really tricky to catch up.
“The vaccines are free, but the GP practices can be reimbursed for their administration cost.”
Councillor Craig Hannaway suggested the information being shared was akin to a “rational, factual approach and you need something more emotional”.
He said: “Do we need something more raw and direct to get the message across?”
Councillor Ceri Cawley described her struggle as a parent of twins to catch up with vaccines in school they had missed and said she had “gone round in circles” in an effort to do so.
Mrs Slater said additional catch up clinics in the community were being held over Easter and the summer holidays.
Cllr Cawley also reiterated how it was important for boys to have the vaccine since they can transmit the HPV virus to girls.
She said: “It’s not about whether or not they have a cervix, that is where the message is lost.”
Councillor Ursula Earl, the cabinet member for health, welfare and housing, said: “All of these vaccines are free, you don’t have to pay for them, and it is incredible to me that people don’t rush to get them.”