6-in-1 vaccine coverage by year
Last updated on Thursday, 28 August 2025 at 02:11pm
Summary
- Topic
- 6-in-1
- Category
- coverage
- API name
6-in-1_coverage_coverageByYear
Rationale
This metric is based on Cover of Vaccination Evaluated Rapidly (COVER) official statistics to monitor the percentage of eligible children who received the primary course of 6-in-1 (DTaP_IPV_Hib and DTaP_IPV_Hib_HepB) by 12 months, 24 months or 5 years of age each year.
This can be used as an indicator for protection against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio (poliomyelitis), haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and hepatitis B in children before school entry and supports monitoring against the WHO target of 95%.
Methodology
In England, local Child Health Information Systems (CHIS) and GP systems submit aggregate figures to the UKHSA. A CHIS is a computerised clinical record system which supports a range of health promotion and prevention activities including screening and immunisation for children. Children are entered onto the local CHIS at birth or when they move into the upper-tier local authority.
Routine data submissions are made through the NHS Digital Strategic Data Collection Service (SDCS) and extracted by UKHSA. The submissions include aggregates figures at the local authority level for the number of children eligible for each vaccine as well as the number of children who have received each vaccine.
The 6-in-1 vaccine is one of the routine childhood immunisations and is administered according to the routine immunisation schedule. Vaccine coverage is calculated for each upper-tier local authority as the percentage of eligible children in that local authority that have received the vaccine. For the 6-in-1 vaccine, coverage is calculated for children who have been immunised by 12 months, 24 months and 5 years of age. Figures are further aggregated to calculate coverage for Regions and for England.
In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, health boards submit data to the UKHSA. The UKHSA quality assures and publishes this data annually. Numbers for the Four Nations are combined to give overall coverage for the United Kingdom.
Further information can found in the change specification document in the information standard for the COVER programme.
Caveats
Data reflects 4-in-1 vaccination coverage by 5 years of age, not the age at vaccination.
Annual immunisation coverage is calculated and reported by financial year (1 April to 31 March). In time series data, coverage statistics for a given year are tied to the end of respective financial year. For example, annual 4-in-1 coverage reported for the 2022-23 is represented by the date 31 March 2023.
Disclosure controls are applied by combining pairs of local authorities where eligible populations are small. On a map, the first local authority in the pair will appear with no data and the second local authority in the pair will present data for both local authorities.
- Numbers for the Isles of Scilly are combined with and reported as Cornwall.
- Numbers for the City of London are combined with and reported as Hackney.
- Numbers for Rutland are combined with and reported as Leicestershire.
In 2021, Cumbria became two distinct local authorities: Cumberland, and Westmorland and Furness. However, these areas submit aggregated vaccination data together as ‘Cumbria’. On a map, combined data is presented for both local authorities.
System changes in 14 local authorities in London earlier this year and changes to the way multiple dose courses are calculated mean that the coverage in London for some vaccines, particularly the pre-school 4-in-1 booster and MMR2 is likely to be underestimated. Reported falls in coverage in these vaccines in the current year should not be used in isolation for local vaccination performance management or to direct public health action.