Annex B - COVER programme vaccine coverage data collection
Published 27 July 2021
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bcg-immunisation-programme-changes-from-september-2021-letter/annex-b-cover-programme-vaccine-coverage-data-collection
The Coverage of Vaccine Evaluated Rapidly (COVER) programme is responsible for the data collection in England of local authority (LA) and GP level immunisation coverage data from Child Health Information Systems (CHIS) for children aged 1, 2 and 5 years of age.
Collection of coverage of Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine evaluated at 12 months has been attempted at a national level, but the data on the eligible population (denominator) has been inadequate in the past. The information to enable this will be available going forward from 1 September 2021.
A new Information Standard for COVER will be submitted to the Data Standards Assurance Service (DSAS) for appraisal and then submitted to the Data Alliance Partnership Board (DAPB) for approval. There will be at least 6 months between the publication of a revised Information Standard and the first data submissions using the new standard.
In order to allow timely monitoring of BCG programme delivery, the new Information Standard will require BCG vaccine coverage to be evaluated in babies at 3 months of age in addition to the current evaluation at 12 months.
Specifications for the revised collection of vaccine coverage data through COVER will be available on the NHS Digital COVER Information Standard page.