The Health and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee of Leicestershire County Council met on Wednesday 3 June 2026 to discuss a range of health-related topics. The meeting's agenda included a review of hospital discharge experiences, progress on annual health checks for individuals with learning disabilities, and an update on vaccination and immunisation programmes across the county.

Improving Hospital Discharge

The committee was scheduled to consider a report from Healthwatch Leicester and Leicestershire concerning the experiences of patients and carers with hospital discharge. The report aimed to provide independent insight into what is working well and where improvements are needed, with recommendations to support ongoing discharge and flow improvement across the health system. The report highlighted that while 58% of respondents felt involved in discharge discussions, 38% did not receive clear information about follow-up care, medication, or support. Furthermore, only 16% of carers were informed of their right to a Carers' Assessment. The Healthwatch Leicester and Leicestershire report, Improving hospital discharge - what patients and carers told us, was presented, along with a related Discharge Wards Enter and View report.

Learning Disability Annual Health Check Progress

A progress update was scheduled regarding the work of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) Learning Disability and Autism (LDA) Collaborative to increase the number of people with a learning disability, aged 14 and over, receiving an Annual Health Check (AHC) from their primary care provider. The report noted that people with learning disabilities experience poorer health outcomes and a higher rate of avoidable deaths. The LDA Collaborative has a commitment to ensuring individuals receive high-quality AHCs through their GP, strengthening the relationship between patient and provider. The report indicated that the number of people receiving an AHC in LLR had increased annually since 2021, exceeding national targets. The committee was also to be informed about LLR being selected as one of two national pilot sites to test the feasibility of combining AHCs for severe mental illness (SMI), learning disabilities (LD), and autistic people into one combined health check.

Vaccination and Immunisation Programmes

The committee was set to receive a joint report from the NHS LLR ICB Vaccination & Immunisation team and the Director of Public Health, providing an overview of life-course vaccination delivery across Leicestershire. The report was intended to outline current arrangements, recent activity, challenges, and future direction for vaccination services, with a particular focus on reducing persistent inequalities.

The report indicated that while early years programmes show high uptake, Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) two-dose coverage remains below the 95% threshold, increasing the risk of outbreaks. Adolescent programmes, such as HPV and MenACWY, showed greater variability. Adult and seasonal programmes, including flu and COVID-19, demonstrated good uptake in older adults but lower coverage in under-65 at-risk groups and pregnant women. Across all programmes, headline averages were noted to mask significant variation between communities, GP practices, and Primary Care Networks (PCNs).

Key issues identified included persistent and widening inequalities in uptake, a drop-off in coverage at transition points, variation in delivery and engagement across providers, and sub-optimal coverage in some groups creating ongoing risk of outbreaks, particularly for measles. The system's response was described as a targeted, data-driven approach, including expanding flexible delivery models, strengthening primary care recall, and working with Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) partners.

Specific vaccination programmes discussed were:

• HPV Vaccination Programme: Uptake remained higher among girls than boys, with challenges in reaching students who miss school sessions. Efforts to improve post-school catch-up and opportunistic offers for eligible individuals were detailed.
• Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR): Two-dose coverage was reported as 91.0%, below the 95% threshold required to prevent outbreaks. The report highlighted significant inequalities in protection at the PCN level and noted cohort effects from past misinformation.
• Meningococcal Group B (MenB) Vaccination: While Leicestershire performed relatively well overall for the infant MenB programme, a gradual decline in coverage was noted. The adolescent MenACWY programme showed a more marked decline over time.
• Seasonal Vaccinations (COVID-19 & Flu): Uptake in those aged 65 and over was around 78.2%, but considerably lower in other eligible cohorts, such as individuals aged under 65 in clinical risk groups (43.7%) and pregnant women (43.9%). Declining trends were also noted for younger children. Significant inequalities by ethnicity were highlighted for the COVID-19 vaccination programme.

The report also detailed capacity-enhancing support, including the Roving Healthcare Unit (RHU) and the Supervaccinator Workforce, and recent projects such as the Local Immunisation Street Team (LIST) and the Public Health Investment Fund (PHIF), aimed at addressing inequalities in vaccination uptake.

The committee was invited to note the progress described in the report and provide comments on how life-course vaccination delivery can continue to improve.