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The importance of the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine

The UK Health Security Agency has asked us to reminded parents of the critical importance of the MMR vaccine in protecting children, staff, and the wider community.

• Measles is one of the most highly infectious diseases and spreads rapidly among those who are unvaccinated. It is a particularly nasty disease for any child and sadly for some children can be serious, leading to complications especially in young infants and those with a weakened immune system, and on rare occasions can tragically cause death.

• Measles is preventable with two doses of the MMR vaccine, but many thousands of children around the country are still not vaccinated and may be at risk.

• In recent years, uptake of the routine childhood vaccinations, including the MMR vaccine has fallen. Coverage in England is well below the 95% target set by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is necessary to prevent outbreaks and achieve and maintain measles elimination.

• Vaccines are our best line of defence against diseases like measles and help stop outbreaks occurring in the community.

• We are calling on all parents and guardians to make sure their children are up to date with their 2 MMR doses. To see if your child is up to date with their MMR vaccines, check your child’s personal child health record (PCHR), known as the red book, or contact your GP practice. People may also be able to check their vaccination status on the NHS App.

• Getting vaccinated means you are also helping protect others who can’t have the vaccine, including infants under one year and people with weakened immune systems, who are at greater risk of serious illness and complications from measles. They rely on the rest of us getting the vaccine to protect them.

• It is never too late to catch up. The MMR vaccine is free on the NHS, whatever your age. If anyone has missed one or both doses of the MMR vaccine, contact your GP practice to book an appointment.

NHS advice

There is information on measles on the NHS website. This includes advice to parents and carers to check if their child has measles, including photos of the measles rash.

Best Start in Life

As part of this government’s commitment to making the lives of parents easier, the government are launching the new Beststartinlife.gov.uk website.

Beststartinlife.gov.uk replaces the Childcare Choices website as your main source of information for early education and childcare support. It brings together trusted information and tips to help you to support your child grow and develop.

You can still access information and check your eligibility on childcare support, but now with a wider range of resources. These include support for families from pregnancy through to starting school and beyond, a map to check what schools offer free breakfast clubs, and a checker to find your local Best Start Family Hub.

Do you know about the HMRC app?

Did you know you can claim and manage Child Benefit on the HMRC app? You can even use it to keep personal information such as your address and bank details up to date.

Get on it to be in control of your money and tax today. Download the HMRC app: bit.ly/EYAHMRCapp 

To access the app, simply:

  1. Search ‘HMRC app’ in the App Store or Google Play Store and download the free app
  2. Follow the instructions on screen to complete set up – you will be asked to sign in. If you don’t already have an ID and password, this can be created on the same sign-in page.
  3. Once this is all set up, signing into the app can be even faster with a PIN, fingerprint or facial recognition, allowing you to have all your personal tax information at your fingertips.

Childhood vaccinations

When your child starts nursery they will be learning and playing with more children. If they are not up to date with their jabs, they could be at risk of catching preventable diseases.

A list of the vaccinations a child should have had, by age, is available via the NHS website: NHS vaccinations and when to have them – NHS (www.nhs.uk)

If you are not sure if your child has had all of their vaccinations, you are able to check their personal health record (the red book) if you have any questions, you should contact your child’s doctor’s surgery.

The benefits of vaccination and possible risks to a child if they were to catch these diseases, can be found in the links below: