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Guidance

Breast screening: set and maintain round length

Procedures to ensure the interval between breast screening and invitation for the next screen is 36 months for all eligible women.

Updates to this page

From:
NHS England
Published:
1 May 2008
Last updated:
24 July 2025
Show all updates

  1. Changed lead organisation from Public Health England to NHS England.

  2. Updated December 2018 guidance.

  3. Updated to take account of the Breast Screening Select system, the call/recall function administered by screening services.

  4. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Achieving and maintaining the 36 month round length

HTML

Appendix 1: calculating screening numbers and capacity

PDF, 364 KB, 4 pages

Appendix 2: building a new screening round plan

PDF, 347 KB, 5 pages

Appendix 3: how to create batches

PDF, 619 KB, 6 pages

Appendix 4: helpful features on NBSS

PDF, 853 KB, 7 pages

Appendix 5: BSS reports, NBSS end codes and translation to BSS

PDF, 248 KB, 5 pages

Details

The time interval between screening and invitation is the round length.

This publication sets out guidelines for breast screening services to meet a 36 month round length.

It includes information about:

  • building a new screening plan
  • maintaining the time interval
  • reasons the target round length gets missed

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