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ℹ️ Introduction
This article explains how Ardens resources can support your practice in managing the routine childhood immunisation programme. By the end of this article, you will understand how to identify eligible patients, manage recalls, record vaccinations, and monitor outstanding immunisations using Ardens resources.
Background
The childhood immunisation schedule is one of the most effective ways to protect children from serious infectious diseases and reduce the spread of preventable illnesses.
The national vaccination schedule is updated regularly to reflect changes in clinical guidance and vaccine recommendations.
From 1st January 2026:
Introduction of an additional (4th dose) of DTaP/IPV/Hib/HepB vaccine at a new routines appointment at 18 months.
Second MMR dose moved from 3 years 4 months to the new routine appointment at 18 months.
Source - Changes to the routine childhood schedule letter - GOV.UK
How Ardens Can Help
Ardens resources help practices manage childhood immunisations by supporting teams to:
Identify children who are due or overdue vaccinations
Monitor vaccination milestones
Manage invitation workflows
Record vaccinations consistently
Review incomplete vaccination courses
Monitor safeguarding and follow-up activity
How to Access
📅Plan
The planning resources help practices identify eligible children, review safeguarding concerns, and monitor patients approaching vaccination milestones.
Cohorts
The cohort report identifies all patients at the practice aged between 4 months and 4 years, regardless of whether they have received all, some, or none of their childhood vaccinations, or have declined them.
Review before
Before sending invitations, we recommend reviewing the following reports for safeguarding purposes. These reports identify patients under 4 years of age who have had a vaccination decline recorded within the last 12 months and do not have a complete vaccination record for their current milestone. Reviewing these reports helps practices confirm that declines were recorded appropriately, check whether families still wish to decline, and identify any vaccinations that may have been given elsewhere but not yet recorded.
⚠️Please note: If all relevant vaccinations have already been administered, or if the patient has an exception code recorded (e.g., adverse reaction), they will be automatically excluded.
Due
The Due reports identify patients who have not yet received the vaccinations they are currently due. These reports support practices to proactively identify eligible patients and ensure vaccinations are offered in a timely manner.
Due soon: patients are due within the next 4 weeks. Patients will only display here if the previous vaccination has been recorded, to ensure the schedule is followed correctly.
Due now: patients who are due for their next vaccination now.
⚠️Please note:
These reports provide an overview of patients soon due for childhood vaccinations. They should not be used for sending invites, which is done via the 'Invitation' folders.
Patients will only be displayed in these reports if the previous vaccination has been recorded, ensuring the schedule is followed correctly.
Once the vaccine is recorded in the patient's record, they will be removed from the report.
Patients will automatically be moved from 'Due soon' to 'Due now' when applicable.
↩️ Recall
Invites
The Invitation reports are designed to help practices communicate with a patient’s parent or guardian, inviting them to book vaccinations at the appropriate age.
Invite reports are grouped into the following folders:
Invite as due soon: patients who have not yet received a vaccination that is due within the next 4 weeks (up to the day before it is scheduled). Practices can use these reports to proactively invite patients ahead of schedule.
Invite as due now: patients whose next vaccination is now due, according to the schedule for their age or milestone. These reports are broken down further by 1st, 2nd and 3rd invites.
⚠️ Please note:
Once the appropriate invite code is recorded in the patient record, the patient will no longer display in the reports.
For patients due now, if no vaccine has been recorded within 2 weeks of the 1st invite being sent, they will automatically move into the 2nd invite. Same logic applies for 2nd to 3rd invites.
No specific SNOMED invite codes exist for 18-month vaccinations yet; generic codes are used until the official codes are available.
Patients appear in the Invitation report only if all previous vaccinations are complete. Those with incomplete courses appear in the ‘Review After’ folder.
Invite Codes:
8 Week
First primary immunisation invitation first letter (867671000000101)
First primary immunisation invitation second letter (867691000000102)
First primary immunisation invitation third letter (867711000000100)
12 Week
Second primary immunisation invitation first letter (867731000000108)
Second primary immunisation invitation second letter (867751000000101)
Second primary immunisation invitation third letter (867771000000105)
16 Week
Third primary immunisation invitation first letter (867791000000109)
Third primary immunisation invitation second letter (867811000000105)
Third primary immunisation invitation third letter (867831000000102)
12 Month
12-13 month immunisation invitation first letter (867971000000108)
12-13 month immunisation invitation second letter (868011000000101)
12-13 month immunisation invitation third letter (868031000000109)
18 Month
Child immunisation invitation first short message service text message (867491000000104)
Child immunisation invitation second short message service text message (867511000000107)
Child immunisation invitation third short message service text message (867471000000103)
3 Year 4 Month
Pre-school booster immunisation invitation first letter (868111000000100)
Pre-school booster immunisation invitation second letter (868131000000108)
Pre-school booster immunisation invitation third letter (868161000000103)
The For Follow-up reports list patients who received their 3rd invitation for a vaccination 12 or more months ago but still have no record of that vaccination. Practices can use these reports to review patients and follow up on outstanding childhood vaccinations. Patients remain on the report until they receive the vaccination or reach 4 years of age.
The reports can be exported as a CSV file for further filtering and third-party platform to send text messages. Please refer to this support article for additional information on how to do this.
💉Deliver
To support vaccine delivery and ensure accurate coding, templates are available for consistent and efficient documentation.
Use the Vaccinations Launcher (Ardens New) (access this support article for instructions on using the Template Launchers). Alternatively, open a consultation and select Run Template and search for the Childhood Vaccinations Template.
Select the Child-template option.
When launching the template, the first page will summarise the vaccine codes that exist on the patient's record.
Select the relevant age page based on where the patient is on the schedule and record the consent and advice.
The Administer section will allow you to record details of the vaccine given, including expiry date and manufacturer.
Save the template once complete.
You may be alerted by Optum to record additional vaccines. Either select the relevant vaccine if required or 'Exit without adding.....'.
📈 Evaluate
Review After
The reports in this folder identify patients whose vaccination due date has passed but who do not have the vaccine recorded. They highlight children who are now overdue, enabling a clinical review to determine the next steps.
They include:
Older children and young adults with long-standing gaps in their childhood vaccination history. Enabling clinical review, catch-up vaccinations, and updating to the national schedule.
Incomplete courses tracking patients at each stage of the schedule.
Patients who have not received a specific vaccine course.
Insights
For Ardens Manager subscribers, the Vaccinations dashboard provides a clear visual overview of the vaccination uptake.
This helps you prioritise and target specific patient populations more effectively.
Review After
❓FAQs
Why are some patients not appearing in the Due reports?
Patients only appear when previous vaccinations in the schedule have been recorded correctly.
Why are some children excluded from the Invitation reports?
Children with incomplete earlier vaccinations are managed separately through the Review After workflow.
When do patients move from 1st to 2nd invites?
Patients automatically move after 2 weeks if no vaccination has been recorded.
🏫Additional Support
To further your understanding of the Ardens resources:
Book training for your GP Practice, PCN or ICB
Contact our Support Team for support in real time