NHS - Understanding how to make the process of sending class lists to vaccination teams easier

[BenW]

Hello, 

 

I'm a researcher in the NHS. I'm working on a project to make it easier for school data managers and administrators to send class lists from their MIS to the local vaccination teams.

 

From speaking to the vaccination teams, schools can often find it hard to send the information required, especially when they are so busy. We're creating a new system to try and make it easier.

 

To help make sure the new system meets the needs of schools, I'm looking to speak to users of various MIS, to understand the current process and get feedback on the new draft design we have. This should take 20 - 30 minutes over a Teams call. 

 

Just for reassurance: The interview will be anonymous and used only for user research, with all information deleted after a short period of time. We do not require any real student data, and you should not need headteacher approval to view the design concept.

 

Please can you let me know if you'd be interested in taking part. 

 

Thanks

 

Ben

[andy_b]

Assuming all the GDPR requirements / Parental permissions are respected - look at using Wonde (https://www.wonde.com/uk  to pull the information out of school's MIS.

[psydii]

WONDE

[ThomL]

8 minutes ago, psydii said:

WONDE

I second this! Whatevery you develop should make use of the Wonder API's to collect its data - most school will already be integrated with Wonde so they will just need to allow your application/solution access to their data which can then gather the needed data 👍

Edited September 3 by ThomL

[Ditto]

Former Data Manager and familiar with school data. Currently working with a charity that is working on services that are linked to a NHS contract and responsibe for NHS data submissions (MHSDS monthly). So, I have insight to a small part of NHS dataset. I guess one of the biggests issues is NHS number is the key unique key for NHS, but it is not something schools are required to collect. More than happy to get involved - just PM me the details.

For the other replies, Wonde in the early days got some flack around handling data and respecting privacy regs (NHS have too!). Is that no longer the case?

[Ditto]

Is this part of the Mavis development?

[BenW]

21 minutes ago, Ditto said:

Is this part of the Mavis development?

Yes it is. Are you familiar with it?

[Ditto]

46 minutes ago, BenW said:

Yes it is. Are you familiar with it?

No direct involvement but aware of it as part of NHS digital improvements.

[pete]

I'll echo the "integrate with Wonde".

 

Our experience (Lincolnshire) is that all too often we get a quite-last-minute iffy looking request from an overworked practicioner who expects us to send a spreadsheet with a password of "schoolname" or "same password for every spreadsheet in the county".  And then I get a "the NHS are doing dodgy things with personal data again" email from the school office(s).

[BenW]

18 hours ago, pete said:

I'll echo the "integrate with Wonde".

 

Our experience (Lincolnshire) is that all too often we get a quite-last-minute iffy looking request from an overworked practicioner who expects us to send a spreadsheet with a password of "schoolname" or "same password for every spreadsheet in the county".  And then I get a "the NHS are doing dodgy things with personal data again" email from the school office(s).

Hi Pete - this sounds interesting/irritating/concerning, and also something it would be really good to understand in a bit more detail. I'll see if I can ping you on this separately. Thanks

[TheRobins]

Wonde Yes, This would also cover issues with sending csv files via email to the teams and possible issues around that. 

[Devaleth]

BenW

Your intentions are laudable but I'm not entirely sure what gap this is filling? Right now our nurse teams ask for a list of names and contacts. Completing this has never been problematic. However, we often then get returns from them with students who have left terms/years ago, so clearly, data handling on their end is poor.

 

Additionally, as a secondary, how could we expect nurses to understand what all our classes are? Students are in upwards of a dozen different classes and they way they all interact on the timetable aren't always obvious from the naming. Is the intention for nurses to come in with a schedule they have devised based on the class lists? If so that would be a non-starter for us due to the chaos it would cause.

 

If you're just after the basics, then a pull from Wonde as suggested above is definitely the right approach.

[DrCheese]

Wonde or Groupcall.

Do not reinvent the wheel by making your own sync system or make IT/Data managers do awful CSV exports.

[HC_Netman]

I have raised the issue of how poorly the NHS treat our data on numerous occasions but unfortunately they don't seem to listen. As stated in previous posts it is often a last minute send us your data over email with no consideration of how to secure that data.

 

A link to Wonde would be ideal and means they have accurate and up to date information when they need it. 

[Mr_Co]

I see there is a DfE Sign In for DfE services. I wonder if there could be an equivilent login for the NHS so schools could login and view/manage pupil data, import pupil data via CSV file (as an extra option to syncing via Wonde, were that to become an option).

 

https://services.signin.education.gov.uk/

[David44]

7 hours ago, DrCheese said:

Wonde or Groupcall.

Do not reinvent the wheel by making your own sync system or make IT/Data managers do awful CSV exports.

I'm not sure a publicly owned school data sync tool would be such a terrible thing.

[BenW]

Thanks for all your suggestions. It's most critical for us at the moment to understand how the current process works. This will help us to understand what works well, and where the painpoints are that we need to design out. Please could anyone who would be interested in a 30-minute call let me know on here, and then I'll be in touch through DM to arrange it. 

 

Thanks, 

 

Ben

[BenW]

7 hours ago, Devaleth said:

BenW

Your intentions are laudable but I'm not entirely sure what gap this is filling? Right now our nurse teams ask for a list of names and contacts. Completing this has never been problematic. However, we often then get returns from them with students who have left terms/years ago, so clearly, data handling on their end is poor.

 

Additionally, as a secondary, how could we expect nurses to understand what all our classes are? Students are in upwards of a dozen different classes and they way they all interact on the timetable aren't always obvious from the naming. Is the intention for nurses to come in with a schedule they have devised based on the class lists? If so that would be a non-starter for us due to the chaos it would cause.

 

If you're just after the basics, then a pull from Wonde as suggested above is definitely the right approach.

Hello Devaleth, 

 

Thanks for your reply. It's interesting that completing the list of names and contacts that the nurse teams request isn't problematic - for many schools we speak to, it can be. It would be really interesting to see if you're doing something in particular that makes that process easier. 

 

In terms of your second question - we're not planning to make something to make something that creates the vaccination schedule on the day, just a way to help schools send and receive class list information to and from the vaccination teams more easily. 

[Dos_Box]

19 hours ago, David44 said:

I'm not sure a publicly owned school data sync tool would be such a terrible thing.

Not taking sides here, but there are several factors to consider in this. Does anyone remember the very good BBC Bitesize web services and facilities from the 2000's? Many of them were nixed after the edtech industry complained that public money was being used to compete with them, the very same could happen here.
Mix that up with having to start from scratch to be as good as already established products and services without the trial, errors, and learning that existing EdTech companies have had to go through for many years to offer these to schools. 
All it takes is one data-breach and no one will trust it again, then its lots of money down the drain, and no govt wants that kind of publicity.
If someone wanted to try that as an open source project, then that could be a whole different thing.

[Dos_Box]

Does, or has anyone shared data via, for example, a 365 OneDrive or Google folder shared with the recipient, and would that fit the relevant data protection rules?
I suppose that there is a factor where sharing person to person with 'raw' data such as an open spreadsheet is less secure than transferring data system to system i.e. from one database to another with it being immediately available on receipt.
As others have said, having the facility to securely transfer sensitive data from schools to authorised govt departments in a standardised way would be A Very Good Thing. 

[dhicks]

On 03/09/2026 at 11:43, BenW said:

I'm working on a project to make it easier for school data managers and administrators to send class lists from their MIS to the local vaccination teams.

 

A simple, well-defined, stable API for schools to be able to submit data to. It could probably be as simple as a single endpoint that accepts a CSV file. Schools could write their own tools to compile and submit data or, more likely, the vendors of common data-processing tools (Salamander, Locker, etc) could support it. You could, of course, also provide a simple submition form for people to upload the CSV file manually if they wanted.

 

As others have pointed out, integrating with Wonde (or Clever, etc) would be ideal for many schools, as it would just be another service to approve on their Wonde dashboard and then that would be done. I understand that, while free for schools, Wonde charges per-customer for data access, so this might take some negotiation / budget allocation to sort - it would probably be the simplest option for a lot of schools, but I can understand there might be difficulties sorting this out at the NHS end if it involves having to pay a third-party vendor.

[dhicks]

20 hours ago, Dos_Box said:

Does, or has anyone shared data via, for example, a 365 OneDrive or Google folder shared with the recipient, and would that fit the relevant data protection rules?

 

If you are meeting organistational security standards, you don't generally allow anyone-with-the-link sharing of files / folders to Google Drive / OneDrive any more. We still allow sharing between specific, named users, so a user on our Google Workspace could share a spreadsheet with a named user at the NHS. I could see that becoming a bit tricky to manage at the NHS side as your would have to support direct sharing from all vendors, and I suspect there will be a user limit to how many shares one named user could have, at which point you're probably looking at creating a separate user per school to receive shares. Probably do-able, but I suspect an API endpoint that accepts submissions of data is going to be simpler (and cheaper) to manage at the NHS side.