Dear Scott,
Assessment of NHS Education Scotland’s workforce statistics
We have completed our assessment of statistics about the NHS workforce in Scotland produced by NHS Education Scotland (NES): Workforce statistics, CAMHS Workforce statistics and Psychology Workforce statistics. I am grateful for the positive contribution and engagement from the team at NES throughout the assessment process.
As you know, we began an assessment of NHS workforce statistics in 2022, following the change in producer organisation from Public Health Scotland (PHS) to NES. Our early investigations identified that further work was required to ensure that the statistics fully complied with the Code of Practice for Statistics (the Code) so we agreed with you to temporarily pause the assessment process at that time.
Last year your team wrote to me to explain that NES had made substantial progress and was ready to restart the assessment. We restarted our assessment in January 2025. We found that NES has made good progress in its compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics (the Code). NES has improved its governance processes, engages well with users and improved its published information on quality and methodology.
We have identified six requirements to help strengthen the statistics further, to ensure that they fulfil the expectations of the Code. These focus on publishing statistical policies and governance procedures, reviewing the pre-release access lists, publishing a user engagement strategy, publishing more information on cross-UK comparability, improving the presentation of the statistics (including the coherence of data definitions), and clearly setting out reasons for methods choices.
We judge that the statistics about the NHS workforce in Scotland can be designated as accredited official statistics once we have confirmed that the requirements set out in the report have been met. Addressing the requirements will demonstrate that statistics about the NHS workforce in Scotland meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value and comply with the Code. We have agreed with NES that it should meet these requirements within six months and keep us updated on progress.
I am copying this letter to Colin Tilley, lead official at NES.
Yours sincerely
Ed Humpherson
Director General for OSR
Related
Compliance review of statistics about the NHS workforce in Scotland
Scott Heald to Ed Humpherson: Request for Assessment of the NHS Scotland workforce statistics (February 2022)
Ed Humpherson to Scott Heald: Assessment of the NHS Scotland workforce statistics (February 2022)
Mark Pont to Scott Heald: Assessment of the NHS Scotland workforce statistics (August 2022)
Catherine Bromley to Ed Humpherson: Request to re-start assessment of the NHS Scotland workforce statistics (March 2024)
Ed Humpherson to Catherine Bromley: Request to re-start assessment of the NHS Scotland workforce statistics (March 2024)