The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the pivotal role of a responsive and capable vaccination workforce, revealing both strengths and structural gaps, particularly in education, preparation, and opportunities for career progression. As vaccination services continue to grow in complexity and reach, a confident, agile, and values-led workforce is essential to delivering safe, person-centred, and equitable care.

This Vaccinators Development Framework provides a nationally aligned structure to support the education, development, and progression of healthcare staff delivering vaccination services across Scotland. It covers career levels 3 to 7 and outlines the role, scope, qualifications, and expected knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs) for each level.

To ensure the framework is both nationally aligned and locally relevant each section includes:

• Core content drawn from the NMAHP Development Framework and
• Specialist vaccinators’ content tailored to the evolving responsibilities and context of the vaccination workforce.

This integrated approach brings core and specialist content together in one place, eliminating the need to refer to multiple frameworks. Individuals can navigate directly to the career level most relevant to their role, responsibilities, or development goals, making the framework practical and accessible for everyday use.

By supporting excellence in vaccine governance, learning, education and supervision, addressing false vaccine information, and increasing equitable uptake, this Framework contributes to the development of a future-ready, skilled, and compassionate vaccination workforce for Scotland.

For the purposes of this Framework, a vaccinator is defined as a healthcare support worker (HCSW) or registered healthcare practitioners whose primary role involves the delivery of vaccination services. This includes those working in dedicated Vaccination Teams or in roles where vaccine administration, coordination, and related care form the focus of practice.

While the Framework is primarily designed for those in dedicated vaccination roles, it may also be a useful reference for practitioners who deliver vaccinations as part of a broader role, such as midwives, school nurses, health visitors, community nurses, and pharmacists.

The Framework is designed to:

• Provide clarity on career pathways and expectations across the vaccination workforce.
• Support the implementation of Scotland’s 5-Year Vaccination and Immunisation Framework and Delivery Plan.
• Support professional development, supervision, and reflective practice.
• Align with NHS Scotland values and the principles of Realistic Medicine.
• Guide workforce planning and service redesign at national and local levels.

It serves as a practical tool for vaccinators, managers, and educators to assess, develop, and maximise workforce capability across vaccination service settings in Scotland.

This Framework is strategically aligned with key national initiatives to ensure consistency, quality, and sustainability in vaccination services and workforce development in Scotland.

These include:

• Scotland’s 5-Year Vaccination and Immunisation Framework and Delivery Plan, which set out the vision for delivering accessible, safe, and person-centred vaccination services across the country.
• NMAHP Development Framework, which underpins this tool’s structure, language, and competency framework.
• Transforming Roles Programme, which supports optimisation of nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals (NMAHPs) through role clarity and structured career pathways.
• The UK National minimum standards and core curriculum for vaccination training, provides guidance on training for all healthcare staff with a role in delivering vaccination programmes.
• Immunisation Coordinator Knowledge and Skills Matrix, which outlines the suggested knowledge and skills required by Immunisation Coordinators (Career level 8).

Together, these initiatives reinforce the commitment to a future-ready, skilled vaccination workforce.

This national framework aims to support the education, development, and progression of vaccinators in Scotland, enabling a competent, confident, and inclusive workforce aligned to Scotland’s public health needs.

Objectives

1. Clarify Career Pathways
   Define progressive levels of practice (3–7), aligned to the national NMAHP Development Framework, to support clarity and progression.
2. Standardise Competency Expectations
   Establish consistent knowledge, skills, and behaviours across the four pillars of practice.
3. Support Learning, Supervision, and Reflection
   Ensure access to high-quality education, clinical supervision, and reflective practice tools.
4. Enable Workforce Planning and Redesign
   Support decisions on skill mix, workforce deployment, and succession planning.
5. Enhance Service Quality
   Promote high-quality, safe, and person-centred vaccination delivery.
6. Embed NHS Values and Realistic Medicine
   Promote and foster values-led, compassionate, and equity-focused care.
7. Facilitate Continuous Improvement
   Encourage innovation, evidence-based practice, and quality improvement in vaccination services.