Is your pharmacy ready for the new school vaccination season?
School vaccination clinics are changing for 2026/27.
The latest Service Provider / School Agreement sets out a number of requirements around consent, pre-vaccination review, identity checks, vaccination-team preparedness and accurate record keeping.
For pharmacies, the important question isn’t simply “What are the new requirements?”
It’s:
How do you build them into your normal school vaccination workflow without creating more administration?
Here’s a practical look at the six key areas every pharmacy should have in place for the 2026/27 school vaccination season.
1. Consent must be collected in advance
One of the clearest changes is the requirement for valid medical consent to be obtained before the vaccination date.
The material for 2026/27 states that day-of paper consent forms are not accepted and that consent should be signed and dated by the parent or guardian.
For pharmacies, this means consent needs to be treated as part of the preparation process—not something to be dealt with when the child arrives at the clinic.
A digital consent process can help pharmacies collect registrations in advance, identify missing information and have the relevant information available for review before clinic day.
The goal: arrive at clinic day with consent already organised.
2. Pre-vaccination information needs to be reviewed
Collecting consent is only one part of the process.
Relevant medical information needs to be collected as part of the consent process and reviewed in advance.
Any queries should be dealt with before the clinic day, with the requirement that children should not arrive at the clinic with an outstanding query.
This changes the emphasis from simply collecting forms to actively preparing for the clinic.
For pharmacists, that means identifying registrations requiring further consideration early enough to do something about them.
The School Vaccination Hub supports this preparation by allowing registrations to be reviewed and flagged before the clinic.
3. Parents must have a clear route to withdraw consent
Consent isn’t necessarily permanent.
Parents or guardians can withdraw consent at any time before vaccination, and providers need to provide a clear route for them to do so. Withdrawals also need to be recorded.
This is particularly important in a school environment, where circumstances can change between registration and vaccination day.
A robust workflow therefore needs to account for both:
Consent received → Consent withdrawn
rather than treating registration as the end of the process.
The School Vaccination Hub incorporates withdrawal into the workflow, allowing changes to be managed before the child reaches the vaccination stage.
4. Identity checks are particularly important
The requirements also place emphasis on checking the identity of every child.
Providers should use date of birth and other identifiers, with particular care taken where children have similar names.
It is also important to identify duplicate registrations before clinic day. A child may be registered more than once, particularly where parents submit information separately or make changes to an existing registration. Identifying and resolving duplicate entries in advance helps ensure that the vaccination team is working from one accurate record for each child and reduces the risk of confusion during the clinic.
This is particularly important in a school environment, where you’re working through large class lists and need to be confident that the child in front of you matches the correct vaccination record.
The process needs to make it easy for the vaccination team to confirm the child’s identity and ensure they are working from the correct, up-to-date record.
It’s another reason why accurate preparation and organised digital records matter before clinic day.
5. The vaccination team needs to be prepared
The 2026/27 requirements also address the vaccination team itself.
The source material specifies at least two trained personnel at each clinic, with training in anaphylaxis management and basic life support, and vaccinators working within their scope of practice.
This is about more than having enough people in the room.
A well-prepared clinic needs the right people, the right information and the right process in place before vaccination starts.
Good preparation should make the clinic-day workflow straightforward, allowing the team to concentrate on safely delivering vaccinations rather than solving administrative problems.
6. Vaccination records need to be accurate and completed properly
The final piece is what happens during and after vaccination.
Vaccination outcomes need to be recorded accurately, appropriate records maintained for each child, and session reporting and adverse-event documentation provided where required.
The 2026/27 material also specifies that records should be entered on the day of vaccination.
For pharmacies, this is where a good clinic-day workflow can make a significant difference.
Instead of recording outcomes on paper or in a separate spreadsheet and reconciling everything afterwards, the School Vaccination Hub provides a dedicated clinic workflow with outcomes including:
- Vaccinated
- Absent
- Refused
- Withdrawn
Records are captured as the clinic progresses, helping reduce the reconciliation work once the final child has left.
From HSE Requirements to a Better Clinic Workflow
The important thing about these requirements is that they’re not six separate administrative tasks.
They form a complete workflow:
Consent
Collect valid consent before the vaccination date.
↓
Preparation
Collect and review information and resolve queries.
↓
Review
Manage withdrawals and identify children requiring further consideration.
↓
Identity
Confirm the child’s identity before vaccination.
↓
Clinic Day
Record the vaccination outcome accurately on the day.
↓
Completion
Maintain the records and reporting required after the session.
From Consent to Completion.
That’s exactly the workflow the School Vaccination Hub has been designed around.
The opportunity for pharmacies
The 2026/27 requirements may initially look like another layer of administration.
But they also provide an opportunity to rethink how school vaccination clinics are organised.
If consent is collected digitally, information is reviewed before the clinic, classes are organised in advance and vaccination outcomes are recorded as they happen, much of the administrative work traditionally associated with school clinics can be moved out of clinic day.
The result is a more organised process:
Less chasing. Less paperwork. Less reconciliation.
And more time for your team to focus on delivering the clinic.
School Vaccination Hub: From Consent to Completion
The School Vaccination Hub brings the entire workflow together in one platform.
Consent — collect paperless parent consent.
Preparation — organise schools, classes and reviews.
Clinic Day — record every outcome with confidence.
Completion — finish with accurate records and minimal reconciliation.
It’s a workflow designed around the realities of running school vaccination clinics—not simply another piece of software.
Is your pharmacy ready for 2026/27?
If you’re reviewing your school vaccination process for the coming season, we’d be happy to show you how the School Vaccination Hub can help you build these requirements into a simpler, more organised workflow.
Book a demonstration and see the Hub in action.
This article is intended as a practical summary of the 2026/27 requirements described in the Service Provider / School Agreement material available to us. Pharmacies should refer to the current HSE documentation and their applicable agreement for the authoritative requirements.
Contact Refill Assistant today:
- Phone: +353 21 2121393
- Email: info@refillassistant.com
- Website: www.refillassistant.ie
