Childhood Vaccination Coverage Statistics- England, 2021-22

This publication reports childhood vaccination statistics for England in 2021-22, relating to the routine vaccinations offered to all children up to the age of 5 years, derived from the Cover of vaccination evaluated rapidly (COVER) programme.

The European Region of the World Health Organization (WHO) currently recommends that on a national basis at least 95% of children are immunised against diseases preventable by immunisation and targeted for elimination or control (specifically, diphtheria, neonatal tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), Hepatitis B, measles, mumps and congenital rubella1).

The routine childhood immunisation programme for the UK includes these immunisations recommended by WHO as well as a number of others as advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination & Immunisation (JCVI) and defined by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)²

There is an expectation that UK coverage rates of all routine childhood immunisations evaluated up to 5 years of age achieve 95%.

Seasonal influenza vaccine coverage is also presented in this report, for children aged 2 and 3 years. The 95% target does not apply to influenza vaccinations. 

1. Source: http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/98398/wa540ga199heeng.pdf

2. Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immunisation-against-infectious-disease-the-green-book

Report bulletin

• Presents a detailed summary of the 2021-22 data collection.
• Further information on the data presented is available in the additional resources outlined here

Interactive dashboard

• The main report is accompanied by an interactive data dashboard. Data are presented in maps and charts. This allows comparison between areas as well as showing changes over time.
• The geographic breakdowns included in the dashboard are upper tier local authority, region and country

Data tables

• Contain all relevant statistics for 2021-22.
• Available in Excel or csv format.

Appendices

• Further detail on a number of topics including
  • Publication context
  • Coverage definitions
  • Changes to the programme
  • Data collection
  • Specific vaccines
  • Future collections
  • Related publications

Quality statement:

• Methods for data collection

All resources are available from the Childhood Vaccination Coverage Statistics- England, 2021-22. 

PCV schedule changes

Coverage for PCV at 12 months is reported this year. It was unavailable in 2020-21 due to changes to infant PCV schedule for babies born on or after 1 January 2020:

From 1 January 2020, the infant vaccination schedule for pneumococcal vaccine (PCV) changed. All babies born on or after 1 January 2020 will receive their 1st dose of PCV with their other infant vaccinations at 12 weeks of age and a booster dose of this vaccine on or after their 1st birthday. Prior to this, PCV was offered as a 2+1 schedule  with doses administered at 8 and 16 weeks with a booster at one year of age. 

2021-22 is the first year that coverage reported is based on the single dose primary course.

Children in the 12 month cohort in 2020-21 were born between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020. This meant that most of these children would have received 2 doses of PCV but the children born in the most recent quarter would have only had 1 dose when measured at 12 months. It was therefore not possible to provide an accurate estimate of coverage for completed courses of PCV vaccine at 12 months in 2020-21.

This change did not affect calculation of coverage of the PCV booster given at 12 months and evaluated at 24 months of age.

COVID -19

Disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in March 2020, is likely to have caused some of the decreases in vaccine coverage seen in 2020-21 and 2021-22, compared to earlier years. This is most likely to be seen in the 12- and 24 -month cohorts, where some children would have been scheduled to receive their routine childhood immunisations from March 2020 onwards. 

For children in the 5 year old cohort, their vaccines would have been scheduled to be given before the COVID-19 pandemic started. However, some children who may have missed out on receiving routine immunisations at the scheduled time and otherwise would have caught up by their 2nd or 5th birthday, may also have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic from late March 2020 onwards.

See the full schedule in the table below for details of vaccination timings.

			Age at which Coverage is measured*
Disease (Vaccine)	Age	Notes	12m	24m		5yr
Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b and hepatitis B (DTaP/IPV/Hib/HepB)** (6-in-1 or Hexavalent vaccine)	1st dose: 8 weeks	Primary course
	2nd dose: 12 weeks
	3rd dose: 16 weeks
Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio (DTaP/IPV)	3 years and 4 months or soon after	Booster: 3 years after completion of primary course
Pneumococcal disease (PCV)***	1st dose: 12 weeks	Primary course
	One year	Booster
Rotavirus	1st dose: 8 weeks	Primary course (has to be completed before 24 weeks of age)
	2nd dose: 12 weeks
Meningococcal group B (MenB) (from September 2015)	1st dose: 8 weeks	Primary course
	2nd dose: 16 weeks
	1 year	Booster
Haemophilus Influenzae type b and meningococcal group C (Hib/MenC)	1 year	MenC primary
		Hib booster
Measles/mumps/rubella (MMR)	1 year	First dose
	3 years and 4 months or soon after	Second dose
			2yrs		3yrs
Children’s flu vaccine (2021-22)	Aged 2 to 10 years on 31/08/2021	Annual vaccination

*   Coverage is assessed when children reach specific ages. The ages presented in this report are marked with a tick

_{** From autumn 2017, all babies born on or after 1 August 2017 are eligible for a hexavalent vaccine which includes hepatitis B (HepB) for their primary immunisations.
    In 2021-22, the 12 month and 24 month birth cohorts (children born between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2021) would receive the 6-in-1 vaccination. The 5 year cohort (born between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017) would have been eligible for the 5-in-1 vaccination.} 

_{*** Babies born from 1 January 2020 will be offered 1 dose of PCV at 12 weeks of age and a booster dose at 1 year (Pneumococcal vaccination: infant schedule changes from January 2020 letter). Due to this change, PCV 12m data was not available for 2020-21.}

_{Prior to this, the primary course consisted of a 1st dose at 8 weeks, a 2nd dose at 16 weeks and a booster given at 12 months.}