Guidance

Appendix 2: data collection

Updated 3 July 2023

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-flu-immunisation-programme-plan/appendix-2-data-collection

Introduction

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publishes the national Official Statistics on vaccine coverage for frontline healthcare workers (HCWs), school aged children and GP registered patients that are used to formally evaluate the programme year-on-year, are quoted in the public domain and reported to the World Health Organization. These data collections are managed through the ImmForm website. Providers should ensure they complete these data returns through ImmForm during the appropriate time windows throughout the season.

UKHSA coordinates the data collection and will issue details of the collection requirements and guidance on the data collection process. This vaccine guidance and influenza vaccine uptake data will be available on GOV.UK.

In addition to the established ImmForm data collections, as was the case in the previous 3 seasons, NHSE will also collect vaccination data for operational management purposes. Further information will be provided on this ahead of the influenza season and providers should ensure they comply to their contractual obligations in this regard.

Queries concerning data collection content or process should be emailed to influenza@ukhsa.gov.uk. Queries concerning ImmForm login details and passwords should be emailed to helpdesk@immform.org.uk.

Reducing the burden from data collections

Considerable efforts have been made to reduce the data burden of UKHSA data collections and these are regularly submitted for approval to the Data Alliance Partnership Board, (DAP board) the new governance structure providing oversight of the assurance and approval of information standards, data collections and data extractions across health and social care.

Over 95% of GP practices benefited from using automated IT data returns for final data collections extracted directly from GP system suppliers (GPSS) in 2022 to 2023 survey. GP practices that are not able to submit automated returns should discuss their arrangements with their GPSS. If automated returns fail for the monthly data collection GP practices will be required to manually submit the mandatory data items on to ImmForm to meet contractual obligations.

Data collections for 2023 to 2024

Monthly data collections (frontline HCWs, school aged children and GP registered patients) will take place over 5 months (for HCWs and GP patients) and 4 months (for schools) during the 2023 to 2024 influenza immunisation programme.

Subject to the approval from the DAP board the first data collection will be for vaccines administered by the end of October 2023 (data collected in November 2023), with the subsequent collections monthly thereafter, and with the final data collection for all vaccines administered by the end of February 2024 (final data collected in March 2024). For schools the final data collection is for vaccines administered by the end of January 2024 (final data collected in February 2024).

Data will be collected and published monthly using NHS geographies and by local authority (LA) level.

During the data collection period, those working in the NHS with relevant access rights are able, through the ImmForm website, to:

  • see their uptake by eligible groups
  • compare themselves with other anonymous general practices or areas
  • validate the data on point of entry and correct any errors before data submission
  • view data and export data (including ethnicity) into Excel, for further analysis
  • make use of automated data upload methods (depending on the general practices system supplier used at GP practices)
  • access previous years’ data to compare with the current performance

The data and tools provided by ImmForm are a trusted source of information. These can be used to facilitate the local and regional management of the influenza vaccination programme, enhance the monitoring of inequalities and the impact of interventions to address these.

All NHS Trusts are required to record influenza vaccinations, for staff and patients, at point of care using the data capture application/s specified by NHSE. Point of care data capture provides daily management information, allows the comprehensive aggregation of vaccination activity for healthcare workers across delivery models (Trust, GP practice or community pharmacy) and ensures that vaccination events flow back to GP records.

Since 2021 to 2022 season, the data collection for frontline healthcare workers has also included coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination coverage to allow for a direct comparison during the influenza season.

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