UK Statistical System UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice
Improving the Public Value of Health and Care Statistics in England

Improving the Public Value of Health and Care Statistics in England

Published
29 March 2018
Last updated on
7 December 2020
Domain pages
Related Publications
Health and Social Care
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March 2018 Phase 1 Systemic review health and care summary

Download "March 2018 Phase 1 Systemic review health and care summary" in 0.37 format (0.39MB)

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In 2015, we became concerned that there were issues within the statistical system that needed to be addressed to enhance the public value of health and social care statistics. We discovered from a series of Patient Experience assessments published in 2014 that areas for improvement were replicated across a suite of statistics published by different producers, indicating a systemic problem. These concerns led to a suite of co-ordinated activity undertaken by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) to improve the coherence and accessibility of health and social care statistics in England.

As part of this systemic review the Office for Statistics Regulation took the lead on:

  • identifying key issues of coordination and leadership within the statistical system;
  • obtaining acknowledgement of the issues by the organisations involved in producing these statistics;
  • asking producers to take ownership of the issues and commit to improvement; and
  • facilitating discussions to develop actions for the statistical system.

The report summarises the key findings, action taken and recommendations from this suite of activity.

Following the publication of the report we stepped back from convening producers and setting the agenda, allowing those producing the statistics in England to take leadership in setting the strategic direction for health and care statistics. During this time, we retained regulatory oversight to assist improvements with health and care statistics.

In April 2019, we took the decision to close the formal part of this systemic review. We felt that this was an appropriate decision given the progress we had seen over the previous 12 months, and our increasing confidence that producers of health statistics across the UK are looking to collaborate and support each other better. At this point we continue to keep in touch with the EHSSG to ensure that progress continues at a satisfactory rate and the EHSSG continues to deliver against its action plan.

 

Related links

Letter to producers, setting out the recommendations which they needed to act on to maintain momentum (March 2018)