Healthcare Support Worker Immunisation Update
This half-day Healthcare Support Worker Immunisation Update is designed for Healthcare Support Workers, including HCAs, who have previously completed foundation immunisation training and are currently involved in supporting vaccination programmes within Primary Care or community settings.
The session provides an opportunity to refresh key immunisation knowledge, review current national guidance, and explore the practical implications of working safely within the HCSW role.
Teaching is aligned with the UKHSA National Minimum Standards and Core Curriculum for Vaccination Training, which was updated in 2025 and now brings together guidance for both registered healthcare professionals and healthcare support workers in one document. The standards recommend that vaccinators undertake regular updates, with annual update training as a minimum.
The course will include current guidance on:
- Vaccine administration
- Documentation
- Cold chain management
- Adverse events
- Anaphylaxis awareness
- Safe delegation
- Supervision
- Competency assessment
A key focus of the session will be the role of the HCSW in immunisation practice, including the limits of the role in relation to clinical assessment, Patient Group Directions (PGDs), and informed consent.
Current guidance clarifies that HCSWs may have a role in administering vaccines where this has been appropriately delegated, but they should not:
- Undertake the clinical decision to vaccinate
- Work under PGDs
- Take informed consent
Completion of this course confirms attendance at an immunisation update. It does not confirm competence to practise independently, extend a delegate’s scope of practice, or replace the employer’s responsibility for local governance, supervision, competency assessment, and role-specific sign-off.
Who Should Attend
This course is suitable for:
- Healthcare Support Workers
- Healthcare Assistants
- GP Assistants where immunisation activity forms part of their locally agreed role
- Non-registered staff currently involved in supporting vaccination programmes
Delegates should have previously completed foundation immunisation training and should already be working, or preparing to continue working, within an immunisation role under local supervision and governance.
This course is not suitable as initial immunisation training for staff completely new to vaccination practice.
What This Course Covers
Current Immunisation Guidance
- Review of UKHSA National Minimum Standards and Core Curriculum
- Using the Green Book in day-to-day practice
- Staying up to date between formal training sessions
- Recent guidance relevant to HCSWs in vaccination services
- Annual update requirements and ongoing learning
The HCSW Role in Vaccination
- What HCSWs can and cannot do within vaccination services
- Delegation, supervision and accountability
- The role of the registered healthcare professional
- The HCSW’s responsibility for their own practice
- Working within local policy and agreed competence
- Knowing when to stop, check and escalate
Consent and Clinical Assessment
- Current guidance on consent for vaccination
- The difference between informed consent and consent to administer
- Why clinical assessment and informed consent sit outside the HCSW role
- Responding safely to patient questions
- Recognising when a registered clinician must review the patient
- Avoiding role drift in busy vaccination clinics
Vaccine Administration Refresher
- Safe vaccine preparation and administration
- Intramuscular injection technique
- Site selection and patient positioning
- Reducing pain, anxiety and avoidable vaccine wastage
- Infection prevention and safe disposal of sharps
- Practical considerations for high-volume clinics
Vaccine Safety
- Contraindications and precautions: what the HCSW needs to recognise
- When to pause vaccination and escalate
- Common expected side effects
- Adverse events following immunisation
- Anaphylaxis awareness and emergency escalation
- Incident reporting and learning from errors
Cold Chain, Storage and Documentation
- Cold chain principles
- Safe vaccine storage and handling
- Checking vaccines before administration
- Batch numbers, expiry dates and documentation
- Recording administered vaccines accurately
- Managing stock issues, errors and near misses
Programme-Specific Updates
The session can include updates relevant to current or seasonal programmes, such as:
- Influenza
- COVID-19
- Pneumococcal vaccination
- Shingles vaccination
- RSV vaccination
- Other locally relevant adult vaccination programmes
Programme content can be adapted depending on the needs of the commissioning organisation or local workforce.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this update, delegates will be able to:
- Identify key sources of current immunisation guidance
- Describe the role and limitations of HCSWs within vaccination services
- Explain the importance of delegation, supervision, competency assessment and local governance
- Understand the limits of the HCSW role in relation to clinical assessment, PGDs and informed consent
- Recognise when a patient query or clinical issue must be escalated to a registered clinician
- Refresh safe principles of vaccine administration, including IM and SC injection technique
- Apply cold chain, documentation and incident reporting principles in practice
- Recognise common adverse events and know when to escalate concerns
- Support safe and effective delivery of vaccination clinics within their agreed role and local competency framework
Course Format
Duration: Half-day session
Delivery: Virtual or face-to-face
Format Includes
- Structured teaching
- Guidance update
- Case-based discussion
- Scope-of-practice scenarios
- Interactive Q&A
- Practical problem-solving for Primary Care vaccination clinics