If you’re the parent of young children and/or are pregnant, the NHS is encouraging you to get your free flu vaccine to help protect yourself and your children against serious illness this winter.

The flu vaccination programme started on 1 September for:

• pregnant women who can get the flu vaccine at their GP surgery, through their ante-natal appointment at hospital, or at participating pharmacies
• children aged 2 and 3 years (on 31 August 2025) who will be invited by their GP for a quick and painless nasal spray vaccine
• school-aged children (Reception to Year 11) will be offered the nasal spray flu vaccine by the school-aged immunisation service starting mid-September. Your child's school will contact you with the date of the visit and ask you to complete a consent form
• children aged 6 months to 2 years with an underlying health condition:
  • conditions that affect their breathing, such as asthma (needing a steroid inhaler or tablets) or cystic fibrosis
  • had a lung or airways infection in the past that meant they needed to stay overnight in hospital
  • serious heart conditions
  • kidney or liver disease
  • some conditions that affect their brain or nerves, such as cerebral palsy
  • diabetes
  • a weakened immune system due to a condition or treatment, such as HIV or AIDS, chemotherapy or steroid medicine
  • problems with their spleen, such as sickle cell disease, or if they've had their spleen removed
  • a learning disability.

Visit the NHS website for more information on the children's flu vaccine and the flu vaccine in pregnancy.

The Integrated Care System (ICS) for Nottingham and Nottinghamshire is a partnership of health and care organisations that work together to deliver services to improve the health of local people. They are creating a five-year plan to decide what they should focus on, and to make sure it really reflects what matters, they need to hear from children, young people and families. 

Two surveys have been created with local young people to make sure they ask the right questions and give young people a voice.

The ICS would like to hear from young people aged 11 to 19 years or up to 25 years with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), and families with children aged 0 to 10 years, who live in Nottingham or Nottinghamshire.

Your feedback will play a crucial role in shaping the ICS Children and Young People’s Strategy. The closing date for both surveys is 26 September 2025.

We are asking people who use adult social care, their families, or unpaid carers, for their views and experiences of social care and what they would like to see in the future. Your feedback will help us develop the Adult Social Care Strategy, our Local Account, for 2026.

If you use social care, you can find out more, take part in the survey and book onto one of our listening events on our website. The survey is open until 30 September 2025.

Advice from the NHS is to get protected before you go by checking with your GP that you’re up to date with all your vaccines.

• MMR vaccine protects against measles, mumps and rubella
• HPV vaccine protects against HPV related cancers
• MenACWY vaccine protects against meningitis

If you need medical help while you’re at uni, pharmacies can treat many minor illnesses and offer a contraception service. You don’t need to go to your GP or be registered.

Visit the NHS website for more information on vaccinations and how pharmacies can help.  

World Suicide Prevention Day 2025 took place yesterday on 10 September with the theme ‘changing the narrative’. It aims to inspire us all to engage in open and honest discussions about suicide and suicidal behaviour to break down barriers, raise awareness and encourage anyone who needs support to reach out.

Earlier this year, we and Nottingham City Council jointly launched the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Self Harm and Suicide Prevention Strategy and the Suicide Prevention Charter.

The charter sets out the voice of people with lived experience and what’s important to them, to shape local suicide prevention activity. Insight from the charter helped to shape our local vision, ambitions and guiding principles for self-harm and suicide prevention that are set out in our strategy.

We’re proud to say that several local organisations including the NHS Integrated Care Board, Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust, Nottinghamshire Police and some voluntary organisations, have pledged their commitment to both the strategy and the charter. Read more.

If you’re struggling or you’ve been bereaved by suicide, you are not alone. Find mental health advice and information on local support services on the NottAlone website.

Nottinghamshire Insight is a local information system that provides publicly accessible data, insight, research and other information to support communities, improve decision making, inform funding bids and support partnership working. If you’ve used Nottinghamshire Insight in the past, we’d really appreciate hearing about your experience of using the website to measure its impact and help make improvements.

We’ve extended the closing date of the online survey as we’re keen to hear from as many people as possible. The short survey is open to anyone in Nottinghamshire to complete until Friday 12 September 2025.