COVID-19 Vaccination Claiming Service 2026-2029

Purpose and outline

The aim of the COVID-19 vaccinations programme is to protect individuals at highest risk from serious illness or death from COVID-19 and to protect the NHS by reducing the risks of hospitalisation and critical care admission.

COVID-19 vaccination is a targeted offer for those at higher risk of severe COVID-19 disease and is offered during planned seasonal campaigns. These campaigns are currently bi-annual: an autumn campaign (part of overall winter health preparedness) and an additional spring campaign, offering the vaccine to those at the highest risk: older adults and those who are immunosuppressed due to disease or treatment.

This service has 3 automated indicators where data will be extracted via GPES and 6 manual indicators where data is required to be inputted into CQRS. Payment of all indicators is subject to the usual declaration process.

How this service is commissioned and provided

Region’s commission this service for GP practices.

NHS England service specifications 

Each Practice opting in to participate in the service must:

1. Accept the offer in CQRS by 2 February 2026 for the commencement of the Spring 2026 programme; and
2. Complete this form, which will be open for registrations from 5 January 2026, by 2 February 2026 for the commencement of the Spring 2026 programme.

Information about this service:

• Quality service start date: 01 April 2026
• Quality service end date: 31 March 2029
• Payment period: Monthly
• Collection frequency: Monthly
• Manual or automatic entry: Automatic data collection and manual data collection
• Included in data collection: All system suppliers (TPP, Medicus and Emis)
• System type: Vaccination and Immunisation (V&I)

COVID-19 Vaccination Claiming Service – Additional Information for General Practices

This additional information should be read in conjunction with the NHS England » General practice: Seasonal Vaccination Programmes – additional guidance 2026/27

There are 9 payment indicators in the COVID-19 Vaccination Claiming Service. Of these:

• 3 indicators are automated, where the data is extracted through GPES and payment is automated subject to the usual CQRS declaration process.

• A maximum of two automated vaccinations payments may be made per patient within the financial year.

• Any additional eligible vaccinations must be claimed through the relevant manual indicator.

• 6 indicators require manual data entry by practices into CQRS.

• All payments remain subject to the usual CQRS declaration process

• All indicators are payment; there are no management indicators in the service.

Automated Payment Indicators

The following 3 indicators are automated, where the data is extracted through GPES and payment is automated subject to the usual CQRS declaration process:

For automated indicators:

• payment will only be made where the vaccination:

• has been administered by a GP practice; and

• is the first eligible vaccination within the relevant campaign or timeframe.

• vaccinations must be recorded using the approved clinical codes included within the relevant SNOMED CT refsets.

• only one automated indicator will generate activity within a given extraction month, as each indicator relates to a specific campaign period.

Manual Payment Indicators

The following indicators require practices to manually enter activity into CQRS:

For manual indicators:

• If the input value for a manual indicator is not updated before declaration, CQRS will automatically default the value to 0

Summary

Service user guides

The below links to user guides describe how to participate, manually enter, and declare achievement for this service:

Viewing, accepting and rejecting a Quality service offered in CQRS National

Manually inputting Achievement data

Declaring an achievement for payment