Birth Notifications
Defines the process for the notification of births, in particular the message set based on the NHS Number for Babies (NN4B) service.
About this standard
- Publisher
- NHS England
- Reference code
- ISB1555 Amd 3/2014
- Publication date
- 11/07/2014
- Status
- Active
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Active. Active standards are stable, maintained and have been approved, assured or endorsed for use by qualified bodies.
Deprecated Deprecated standards are available for use and are maintained, but are being phased out, so new functionality will not be added.
Retired standards Retired standards are not being maintained or supported and should not be used.
- Standard type
- Information standards
Show definitions of standard types
Collections. A Collection is a systematic gathering of a specified selection of data or information for a particular stated purpose from existing records held within health and care systems and electronic devices.
Extractions. An extraction is a type of collection that is pulled from an operational system by the data controller and transmitted to the receiver without additional processing or transcription by the sender.
Information standards. Information standards are agreed ways of doing something, written down as a set of precise criteria so they can be used as rules, guidelines, or definitions.
Technical Standards and specifications. Technical standards and specifications specify how to make information available technically including how the data is structured and transported.
- Contact point
Link to standard
- Documentation
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- Applies to
- Maternity System providers
- Child Health providers
- Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- National Hearing Screening Programme (NHSP)
- Local registries of births and deaths
- Associated medias
- Conformance date
- 31/12/2014
- Effective from
- 01/07/2014
Topics and care settings
- Topic
- Demographics
- Information codes of practice
- Information governance
- Messaging
- Care setting
- Hospital
- Maternity
Dependencies and related standards
- Dependencies
This Specification should be read in conjunction with the following standard:
- NHS Number Published as ISB 0149.
- NHS Number
- Related standards
- Information Governance Framework ISB 1512 Amd 159/2010
- Information Governance Framework
Review Information
- Scope
- All suppliers and users looking to implement PDS-compliant systems, including users migrating to the PDS-compliant web portal, for the purposes of either requesting NHS numbers for babies or receiving birth notifications.
- Sponsor
Phil Walker, Department of Health.
- Business Lead
- Paul Arrowsmith
Legal basis and endorsements
- Legal authority
Section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012
This information standard is published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012
More information
The core purpose of this Operational Standard is to notify births, allocate NHS numbers for births and send birth details to all relevant departments thereby fulfilling statutory and screening requirements to notify others outside the maternity department of the birth.
These requirements are currently satisfied by the legacy NHS Numbers for Babies (NN4B) service which is in the process of being decommissioned. NN4B is contracted until December 2014. The standard will provide the means for a continuing service for the notification of births and the allocation of NHS numbers to newborn babies following the closure of NN4B.
The replacement service is provided by the Personal Demographics Service (PDS) and this Operational Standard defines the requirements for achieving PDS compliance for Birth Notifications. The standard will apply to those suppliers migrating from NN4B to PDS as well as new suppliers entering the maternity and child health markets and developing PDS interaction from the outset.
About this change
Further to the publication of the Birth Notifications release on 5 December 2013, this release amends the implementation date from 30 June 2014 to 31 December 2014. The implementation date has been adjusted to allow more time for suppliers and trusts to adopt the new message set.
Note that an interim review of implementation progress is scheduled for December 2014.
Page last updated: 04 May 2024