Vaccinations

NHS vaccination programmes save lives, reduce ill health and reduce pressures on hospitals. This is done by reducing the impact of preventable diseases by better protecting individuals and the population as a whole and by providing information to help make informed decisions.

Our work is strategically important to the NHS, supporting the goals set out in the 2025 10 Year Health Plan for England, which prioritises prevention, population health, and using digital technology to transform healthcare.

We’re working on both patient- and staff-facing services, as well as behind-the-scenes data flows and operational systems, to help make the whole vaccination system more efficient and more responsive.

Background

In VDS, our vision is to Protect the NHS and the public, particularly those facing vaccine inequalities, by ensuring more people get vaccinated, more easily.

We were set up during the COVID-19 pandemic to mobilise the national vaccination effort. Since then, we have continued to build on that success by improving the vaccination processes of not just COVID-19 (C19), but influenza (flu), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), and human papillomavirus (HPV). In fact, we are striving to improve all the vaccines listed in the DHSC Section 7a Immunisation programmes list.

Aims

To achieve this, VDS will provide:

• digital services to the public that increase awareness and simplify access to vaccinations
• digital tools to providers that enable them to offer accessible, cost-effective services
• data to commissioners to help design and implement vaccination services tailored to local population needs

Approach

Vaccines save lives, but delivering them at scale (to millions of people, every year) requires a great deal of coordination. We have to ensure the right people are offered the right vaccines, at the right dose and the right time.

The complexity is worth overcoming, because preventing illness is far more efficient than treating it. The more people we can keep well with vaccines, the better we can concentrate treatment on people who need it.
Our digital products and services are designed in collaboration with users and insights are used to continually improve and expand them. We initially build and release our new digital capabilities on a small scale. This allows us to test our approach to designing and delivering new services that support the clinical journey for the public and staff and ensures that the new services can be integrated smoothly with existing systems.

Progress and next steps

Until April 2026, we are working towards:

• Continuing to tackle winter pressures and outbreak response
• Enabling community pharmacies to deliver more NHS vaccinations
• Scaling improved delivery of all vaccinations in schools
• Enabling national flexibility to support local delivery
• Ensuring data and platforms improve our services

You can also check the VDS section on the DPSP roadmap.

Current live services include:

• Select People for Invitation (SPI), a system for campaign managers to run awareness or invitation campaigns, sending communications to eligible people
• Manage Your Appointments (MYA), a tool to help vaccination staff manage appointment availability
• National Booking Service (NBS), a set of services to help patients book, change or cancel vaccination appointments
• Record A Vaccination Service (RAVS), helping NHS staff record vaccinations and automatically update patient records
• Manage Vaccinations In Schools (MAVIS), a service to help school staff, health providers and parents/carers with organising vaccinations for school-age children
• Vaccinations Data Flow Management, including the Immunisation FHIR API for access and updating of patient immunisation records; and the Eligibility Data Product (EliD), enabling NHS England organisations and services to check whether an individual is eligible for a particular vaccination.

Actively developing:

• My Vaccines, which will enable the public to access our services through the NHS App.