DURHAM County Council is urging its social services staff to get flu jabs to ensure that illness does not hamper its work.

The council is encouraging 1,200 frontline workers to get immunised and is offering to pay any medical bills from a specially set aside winter pressures budget.

The initiative, the first of its kind the council has launched, is being run in conjunction with the County Durham and Darlington Health Authority.

Officials want to ensure that the service to vulnerable clients is not disrupted by large numbers of staff coming down with flu during the winter.

They hope that teams working with pensioners, residential care staff and emergency duty teams will get the jabs. The scheme will be assessed in spring to see if it had any impact on sickness levels.

Social services project manager George Longthorne said: "We have a real duty to our clients and want to ensure our staff are available during times of great need. The pressures that the winter period brings means it is an extremely busy period.

"By offering the flu immunisation programme, we hope to minimise the risk of frontline staff being sick and not being able to carry out their core duties. That in turn will mean a better service for our clients."