List of requirements

Based on the findings of this review, we have identified six requirements that NHS Education Scotland (NES) must fulfil for its statistics on the NHS workforce in Scotland to become accredited official statistics (called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007).

We expect NES to meet these requirements within six months and update us on its progress.

Requirement 1

To reinforce its autonomy from Public Health Scotland, NES should publish its own governance procedures and statistical policies.

Requirement 2

To support the principle of equality of access and reduce the risk of data leaks, NES should review its PRA lists for all three workforce statistics to ensure that all named officials still require access, particularly those in the Scottish Government. NES should also put in place a regular review process to ensure that PRA lists are minimised.

Requirement 3

To strengthen confidence in the statistics and ensure user needs are met, NES should develop and publish a current user engagement strategy. This strategy should include information on how user requests are prioritised and clearly communicate what developments are being pursued, the rationale behind them, and, where applicable, the reasons for not progressing certain suggestions.

Requirement 4

To help users understand the comparability of the statistics and use them appropriately, NES should publish information about coherence and cross-UK comparability within its statistical releases. NES should also publish more information about any collaborative work being done to improve comparability across the UK.

Requirement 5

NES should improve the presentation of the statistics so that they are easy to access and use, engaging with users as part of this work. Where improvements are likely to take longer to implement or depend on wider developments, such as the planned new website, NES should include details of its plans on its future development page.

Requirement 6

Where data definitions differ from alternatives suggested by users, NES should clearly set out the reasons for the methods it has selected to ensure user confidence and understanding.