In November 2023, NHS England updated the MMR catch-up campaign, which is to be implemented in 2 stages.  The first stage will run from 1st November 2023 and will require practices to undertake a call and recall for eligible children aged 12months to 5 years inclusive.  The second stage commences in January 2024 and will involve the identification of patients aged 6 years to 25 years with an incomplete MMR vaccination status.


Ardens has provided a suite of searches to support practices with this.


Locating the MMR catch-up Searches

To locate the searches, access the Population Reporting module > Ardens Searches > 3.22 Vaccinations - MMR catch-up folder.



The 1. National catch-up campaign folder is broken down by the two phases.


The Age 1 to 5 years folder contains 7 sub-folders.



The 1. Cohort age 1-5y folder identifies all children in the eligible age range, with a breakdown of those that require a 1st vaccination and those in need of a booster.  


Please note - children become eligible for a booster only after reaching 3years and 4 months, and this must be administered at least 28 days after the first vaccination.



The 2. Review eligibility > check for contraindication folder identifies children within the eligible age range with potential contraindications for receiving the MMR vaccination (based on the Green Book).  Any patients appearing in the results of these searches will not be included in the main invitation searches and should be considered individually and if appropriate add a contraindication code to their records.



The 3. Due age 1-5y folder identifies all those that are due vaccination, separating out those with potential contraindication for vaccination and those without.


The 4. Send invite age 1-5y folder contains sub folders for those due an invitation for the 1st dose and those due and invitation for the booster dose.



Each folder then contains searches identifying those needing 1st, 2nd and 3rd invitations.  


Please note - declining will remove patients from the results of these invitation searches, however for QOF this will not remove them from the indicator.



The 5. Consider invite age 1-5y + possible contraindication folder contains invitation searches similar to the above for those patients with a condition that indicates contraindication for vaccination. Practices should consider whether or not to invite this cohort of patients.



The 6. Consider visit age 1-5y folder contains searches identifying patients eligible for vaccination who are coded as living in a care home or housebound. Practices should consider whether or not to visit this cohort of patients. 


The 7. Consider visit age 1-5y + possible contraindication folder identifies patients with a condition that indicates contraindication for vaccination and they are coded as living in a care home or housebound. Practices should consider whether or not to visit this cohort of patients. 



The Age 6 to 25 years folder are searches to identify patients within this age range who have not been fully vaccinated.



Please note - patients are being recalled centrally through a national process therefore these searches are NOT for call/recall purposes.


PLEASE NOTE: In rare instances, where a patient has had 2 doses of MMR aged 12-14m and a further dose aged 15-17m, the search suite may regard them as ‘fully vaccinated’, but the Green Book states “…If the child is given the second dose at less than 15 months of age, then another routine dose (a third dose) should be given after 18 months in order to ensure full protection, if the child is given the second dose from 15 months of age, no further routine doses are required.”


The 2. Green book eligibility folder contains searches that identify catch-up patients older than 25 years. This is based on the green book eligibility guidance and ages. 



The associated reports include the patients age, should you wish to filter/ sort any further.


If you require any further assistance on the process above, please contact Ardens support on: support-emis@ardens.org.uk