Croydon COVID-19 vaccination programme

Last updated: 24 September 2021

Over 16? Book your COVID-19 vaccination online now

If you’re aged over 16, a carer or have an underlying health condition, call 119 or visit nhs.uk/covid-vaccination to book your COVID-19 vaccination appointment.

Your local NHS is delivering the biggest vaccination programme in its history. Everyone has an important part to play to help us with this programme of work

  • The COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. They will give you the best protection against coronavirus.
  • It’s never too late to get the Covid vaccine. It’s safe and effective, but speak to your GP if you have any concerns.

Who’s being prioritised for vaccination?

Anyone aged 16 and over can now get their COVID-19 vaccination. Eligible children aged between 12 and 15 can also receive their jab. For further details on whether your child is eligible, click the link below.

Find out who is being prioritised and why

What do you need to know about appointments?

When it’s your turn, you’ll be invited by the NHS to book an appointment.

Read more about how you will be invited for vaccination

Where can you get vaccinated?

The vaccination is being offered in a variety of places across south west London, including GP and pharmacy-led services, hospitals and community vaccination centres.

Find out where you can get vaccinated

You may also be able to have your first vaccination at one of the following walk-in clinics in south west London – but not everyone is eligible, so please check the clinic details before deciding to go.

No post found!

Local update

The government have announced that 12- to 15-year-olds are now eligible for their Covid-19 vaccination. All 12- to 15-year-olds will be offered one dose of the vaccine. We are working in partnership with Directors of Public Health and schools across South West London so that the local NHS can lead and deliver this vaccination programme within schools across our boroughs. Invitations for vaccination will begin from 22 September 2021.   

We have now administered over 2 million vaccinations in South West London. This marks another important milestone in our ongoing drive to protect people from Covid-19. We want to assure anyone who is eligible, from all age cohorts, but has not yet taken up the offer of a Covid-19 vaccine that it’s not too late.    

We continue to have thousands of vaccination bookable and walk in appointments each day across our boroughs at our community vaccination sites, hospital hubs, GP-led vaccination centres, and numerous community pharmacies. We would encourage anyone who still has questions about the Covid-19 vaccine to come and talk to our friendly teams so they can make the best decision for them.  

For those aged 16 and over, you can find the latest walk-in vaccination clinics on our website here – this page is updated regularly and we would appreciate your support in sharing the information.  

Read more in our weekly borough update

Highlight

After months of deliberation, Andrew Brown, CEO of the Croydon BME Forum got his vaccine at Selhurst Park.   Find out more about it by watching our video.

Watch more films about COVID-19 vaccination

Top questions

The government has accepted the advice of the 4 UK CMOs and we are preparing to deliver a schools-based vaccination programme, which is the successful model used for vaccinations including for HPV and Diphtheria, Tetanus and Polio (DTP). Invitations for vaccination will begin next week.  

Healthy school-aged children aged 12 to 15 will primarily receive their COVID-19 vaccination in their school with alternative provision for those who are home schooled, in secure services or specialist mental health settings.   

All parents or those with parental responsibility are asked for consent and will usually make this decision, jointly with their children. The information leaflet is addressed to the child (as the recipient of the vaccine) and encourages them to discuss the decision about the vaccine with their parents. In Croydon, consent forms will be sent out electronically to parents and guardians ahead of school visits who will be asked to return them back to the vaccination team.  We ask and encourage conversations at home so parents and guardians talk about the vaccination with their children, and we will be happy to answer any questions they may have.  

In secondary schools, some older children may be sufficiently mature to provide their own consent. This sometimes occurs if a parent has not returned a consent form on the day of the session. Our vaccination team will contact the parent or guardian to seek their verbal consent and without parental consent we will not vaccinate the child that day.  We will have conversations with children and their parents or guardians to answer any questions or concerns they may have as we fully appreciate the importance of this. This is a well-established process which is used in other school-based vaccination programmes. 

The vaccine works by making a copy of the protein from the outside of the virus, that is important for creating protection. The protein works in the same way they do for other vaccines by stimulating the immune system to make antibodies and cells to fight the infection.  

It’s much safer for your immune system to learn to fight illnesses through vaccination than by catching and treating them.  

When enough people get vaccinated, it’s harder for a disease to spread to those who can’t have vaccines. Getting vaccinated protects not only you but also your family, friends, and community.  

Yes, vaccines approved for use in the UK have met strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness set out by the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).   

Research and data shows that the most common adverse effects following vaccination in children aged 12 to 17 years are injection site pain, fever, and headache. These reactions are generally mild, self-limiting and short-lived, typically lasting 1 to 2 days.   

Real-world data on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in children is currently limited, but there have been extremely rare reports of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the membrane around the heart) following the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in millions of younger adults.  

If you have ha

This month we have been engaging with local residents door to door and at local busy areas, having conversations about how to stay safe generally (testing, masks, social distance) as well as the vaccines. Thanks to the support of local event organisers trained sessional workers from Croydon Voluntary Action have been able to attend a number of social events and groups including the London Road Carnival, Crystal Palace music event and a community theatre event in Park Hill. Our own event at Lantern Hall for homeless people, asylum seekers and sex workers offered health checks and in addition to the vaccine.

We continue to hold information sessions with local frontline staff and volunteers, such as those working in soup kitchens so that they are able to hold confident conversations about the vaccine and other measures in place to keep people safe and to encourage people to take up the offer of the vaccine. If you are part of or know of a group who would like to attend a session, please contact jo.austin@swlondon.nhs.uk We have distributed information via food parcels through the summer holidays offering information sessions to anyone who has further questions.

Asian Resource Centre of Croydon and Croydon BME Forum continue to work with local businesses and to hold focus groups, particularly focussing on young people to help us plan a programme that works for local residents and to help understand how people are feeling about the vaccine.

Early September saw the return of learners at Croydon College and we were able to attend their enrolment sessions to answer questions and encourage young people to go to Centrale to get their vaccine before the start of term. We look forward to working with Croydon College, John Ruskin College and South Bank University in the coming months to make sure that young people are able to make an informed decision.

Discover more answers in our Q&A

Getting tested if you don’t have symptoms

Around 1 in 3 people with COVID-19 do not have any symptoms. You can get a free rapid COVID-19 test at a local site in Croydon, and get the results the same day, usually within 30 minutes. This is called lateral flow testing.

Find out more at croydon.gov.uk

Information in different formats and languages

You can translate all the written content on this website by using the language menu in the top right hand corner of this page.

Useful resources are available in many languages and formats, including British Sign Language, which will help you to learn more about the vaccine and how it’s being offered. The handy resources have been produced by the NHS, Public Health England and partners.

Explore the leaflets to find out more

Engagement with local communities in Croydon

We know that in Croydon some of our communities are less likely to take up the offer of the vaccine than other groups.

We’re engaging with local communities to give people the chance to ask local experts about the vaccine so that they can make informed decisions and we can understand any concerns they may have.

We continue to hear from our local communities about the vaccine roll out.

This month we have been engaging with local residents door to door and at local busy areas, having conversations about how to stay safe generally (testing, masks, social distance) as well as the vaccines. Thanks to the support of local event organisers trained sessional workers from Croydon Voluntary Action have been able to attend a number of social events and groups including the London Road Carnival, Crystal Palace music event and a community theatre event in Park Hill. Our own event at Lantern Hall for homeless people, asylum seekers and sex workers offered health checks and in addition to the vaccine.

We continue to hold information sessions with local frontline staff and volunteers, such as those working in soup kitchens so that they are able to hold confident conversations about the vaccine and other measures in place to keep people safe and to encourage people to take up the offer of the vaccine. If you are part of or know of a group who would like to attend a session, please contact jo.austin@swlondon.nhs.uk We have distributed information via food parcels through the summer holidays offering information sessions to anyone who has further questions.

Asian Resource Centre of Croydon and Croydon BME Forum continue to work with local businesses and to hold focus groups, particularly focussing on young people to help us plan a programme that works for local residents and to help understand how people are feeling about the vaccine.

Early September saw the return of learners at Croydon College and we were able to attend their enrolment sessions to answer questions and encourage young people to go to Centrale to get their vaccine before the start of term. We look forward to working with Croydon College, John Ruskin College and South Bank University in the coming months to make sure that young people are able to make an informed decision.

To find out more about engagement in Croydon, you can read the Croydon Communications and Engagement Plan. 

If you’d like to attend a local COVID-19 vaccination event or find out more, email getinvolved@swlondon.nhs.uk

COVID-19 news

Borough updates

For the latest coronavirus updates, and information from your area, please visit Croydon Council