A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said:

This decision is based on expert advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which continuously monitor and evaluate emerging scientific evidence on COVID-19 vaccines.  

The autumn 2025 vaccination programme will target people who are at the highest risk of serious illness to protect the most vulnerable.

We encourage anyone who is eligible for COVID-19 vaccination to come forward for vaccination this autumn.”   

Background information

On the 13th November 2024, the JCVI published advice on the COVID-19 vaccination programme for spring 2025, autumn 2025 and spring 2026. On 26th June 2025, the Government decided, in line with JCVI advice, that a COVID-19 vaccine should be offered to those in the population most vulnerable to serious outcomes from COVID-19 and who are therefore most likely to benefit from vaccination.

Vaccination will be offered in England in autumn 2025 to:

• Adults aged 75 years and over
• Residents in a care home for older adults
• Individuals aged 6 months and over who are immunosuppressed, as defined in tables 3 and 4 of the COVID-19 chapter of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Green Book on immunisation against infectious disease.

In line with JCVI advice, frontline health and social care workers (HSCWs) and staff working in care homes for older adults will not be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination under the national programme for autumn 2025.

This is following an extensive review by JCVI of the scientific evidence surrounding the impact of vaccination on transmission of the virus from HSCWs to patients, protection of HSCWs against symptoms of the disease, and staff sickness absences.

In the current era of high population immunity to COVID-19, additional COVID-19 doses provide very limited, if any, protection against infection and any subsequent onward transmission of infection.

For HSCWs, this means that COVID-19 vaccination likely now has only a very limited impact on reducing staff sickness absence. Therefore, the focus of the programme is now on those at greatest risk of serious disease and who are therefore most likely to benefit from vaccination.