This is generally due to the requirements being tied to financial years, rather than calendar years
What are the targets and eligibility windows?
CS005 and CS006 are the two main smear targets. They are written by NHS England and we produce them as written. There are limits to how early you can recall people in and each smear service is slightly different. Most allow for early recall of 6 months which causes some confusion as it means we recommend calling people in earlier than practices normally do (as they tend to wait till a month before the anniversary rather than 6 months). This means that most people can be recalled from the time they are 24.5 years old. The same buffer is not applied to the top end of the window (so the targets don’t end at 65.5 years), but depend on your age at the end of the QOF year.
CS005 is for women aged 25-49 and states that they should have a smear every 3 years. Due to this being a QOF target it means it runs on financial years, rather than calendar years. The target also has a buffer built in so if the smear happens in the previous 3 years and 6 months, it is still counted.
CS006 is for women aged 50-64 and states that they should have a smear every 5 years. As above this is a QOF target and means it runs on financial years rather than calendar years. The target also has a buffer built in so if the smear happens in the previous 5 years and 6 months, it is still counted.
Examples
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Woman A turns 25 on 1/4/25. She has her first smear on 4/4/25. She will be eligible again from 1/4/28 (as this is the QOF year that 3 years will arrive in).
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Woman B turns 25 on the 1/4/25. She has her first smear on 1/1/25 (before she is 25 but is allowed as her service accepts women from 24.5). The practice won’t get any QOF income for this QOF year as she needs to be 25 to be counted, but will for the next QOF cycle as she has had her smear in the 3.5 years before the end of the QOF calendar. She will next be eligible for a smear on 1/7/27 (6 months before ethe 3 year anniversary date but in the QOF year when it becomes 3 years).
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Woman C turns 25 on 1/1/25. She has her first smear on 1/12/24 (early but is allowed at her service which accepts women from 24.5 years upwards). She will be eligible again from 1/6/27 (6 months before the 3 year anniversary date but in the QOF year when it becomes 3 years).
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Woman D turns 64 on 1/9/25. She had her last smear on 1/3/20. She has been eligible since 1/9/24 (6 months before the 5 year anniversary, in the QOF year that the 5 year anniversary occurs). She needs to have her smear before the 1/4/26 or she will no longer be eligible for smears (as she will be older than the top eligible age in the following QOF year).