The United Kingdom Health Statistics theme groups

Aim 1

We aim to improve accessibility and coherence of official statistics.

Aim 2

We aim to reduce the need for duplication in data collection and analysis to make sure producers of official statistics are working effectively.

Aim 3

We aim to harmonise methods and definitions used, where possible, and help users understand differences between methods and terminology used in analysis.

Aim 4

We aim to identify evidence gaps and priority areas for improvement and contribute to the development of statistics.

Aim 5

We aim to share learning and updates on projects to improve our understanding of the data landscape and act as a conduit between producers of statistics across the UK.

Aim 6

We aim to improve our understanding of our users and coordinate user engagement.

Contact

For further information on this theme group, contact Bethan Sherwood, Welsh Government on GSS.Health@ons.gov.uk.

Members

Members of this theme group come from the following departments:

• Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
• Department of Health, Northern Ireland
• NHS England
• Office for National Statistics (ONS)
• Scottish Government
• Welsh Government

Aim 1

We aim to co-ordinate release dates of data about alcohol and health.

Aim 2

We aim to make our terminology clearer and more consistent.

Aim 3

We aim to help users understand the range of questions asked in surveys about alcohol consumption.

Aim 1

Harmonise methods. Identify where cancer statistics cover similar topics.

Aim 2

Harmonise methods. Where statistics cover similar topics, we aim to remove or justify methodological differences.

Aim 3

Improve coherence. We will aim to coordinate releases of cancer data across producers and nations.

Aim 4

Improve coherence. We aim to make our terminology clearer and more consistent across outputs.

Aim 5

Improve accessibility. We will aim to improve the access to cancer data by creating a centralised hub for available data.

Aim 6

Improve accessibility. We will improve signposting of cancer statistics across producers through a publication matrix and where the data can be found. This will be published on the Analysis Function webpages and on statistics producers own web pages.

Aim 7

Understand user needs. We will aim to engage with our users to understand how best to present statistics.

Aim 8

Understand user needs. We will aim to engage with our users to identify any gaps in cancer data available.

Aim 1

We aim to improve the visibility of outputs across theme group organisations. This also involves identifying areas that would benefit from coordination to improve coherence.

Aim 2

We aim to improve our understanding of our users and coordinate user engagement.

Aim 3

We aim to identify evidence gaps and priority areas for development across the topics.

Aim 4

We aim to work together to develop requirements to improve the availability of children’s population data by ethnicity, and possibly other measures, for use as denominators and the production of rates by ethnicity.

Aim 5

We aim to review the use of geographical breakdowns in outputs, particularly Office for National Statistics (ONS) outputs that cover England and Wales combined.

Aim 6

We aim to monitor post-pandemic recovery in our statistics. Some new opportunities to share data were developed in response to the pandemic. We will identify which of these which opportunities were most useful and continue to support them.

Contact

For further information contact Hannah McConnell, Office for National Statistics (ONS) at GSS.Health@ons.gov.uk.

Members

Andrew Parker (Department of Health and Social Care)

Helen Duncan (Department of Health and Social Care, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities)

Isabelle Griffin (Department of Health and Social Care, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities)

Verity Pooke (Department of Health and Social Care, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities)

James Wallis (NHS England and Improvement)

Dan Collinson (NHS England)

Kate Croft (NHS England)

Amanda Sharfman (ONS)

Chloe Stevens (ONS) — Secretariat

Hannah McConnell (ONS) — Chair

Pamela Cobb (ONS)

Catherine Falconer (UK Health Security Agency)

Colin Campbell (UK Health Security Agency)

Craig Thomas (Welsh Government)

Aim 1

We aim to provide meaningful comparisons of secondary care waiting time and performance statistics across the UK. The comparisons should concentrate on similarities between the data rather than differences.

Progress

Work is ongoing to determine the mechanism for providing comparisons, and a written document will be produced and published to communicate the findings. The first subject for comparisons will be elective wait times.

Aim 2

We aim to look at outcome metrics to account for devolved policies and differences in data definitions.

Progress

Work is ongoing to identify outcome metrics, which will run alongside work outlined in aim one.

Aim 3

Contribute to the development of statistics and act as a conduit between producers of statistics across the UK. This will help ensure coherence across the UK in the longer term.

Aim 1

We plan to create an online area to help members of the group work together. Users will be able to use the online area to: talk to each other, share documents, share publication dates and calendars.

Aim 2

We plan to start talking about prevalence and differences in methodology and terminology between nations. The national prevalence leads will continue developing their own prevalence estimates but meet with a view to aligning methods and terms where possible and for group learning, and report back to the group.

Aim 3

We plan to talk to other theme groups to see if there might be some useful cross over or if guests joining from other theme groups would be informative such as alcohol or mortality where there are close links.

Aim 4

We plan to share what we have learnt about how the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected people who use drugs.

Aim 1

Make available a list of currently published end of life care statistics by June 2023.

Progress

A draft has been completed and work is ongoing.

Aim 2

Identify data gaps in end of life care statistics and explore possibilities for using currently collected data better.

Aim 3

Identify data gaps in end of life care statistics and promote the need for new data.

Contact

For further information contact Andy Pring, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) on GSS.Health@ons.gov.uk.

Membership

Andy Pring (Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, Chair)

Naa-Dedei Ellis (Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, Secretariat)

Jason Snowden (Department of Health and Social Care)

Amanda Little (Care Quality Commission)

Neil Bannister (Office for National Statistics)

Ed Manning (NHS England and NHS Improvement)

Giles Foster (NHS Digital)

Aim 1

We will decide on joint priorities going forward, we will set out a workplan with high-level aims for the Health Inequalities Theme Group. The workplan will include ways to measure progress and identify subgroups of people to lead each piece of work.

Aim 2

We aim to harmonise methods.

Aim 3

We aim to explore ethnic inequalities.

Aim 4

We will identify priority areas for development and create plans to make improvements in these areas.

Aim 5

We aim to improve user engagement with statistics, data, and publications.

Aim 6

Organisations will share details of planned work in advance. This includes sharing indicative release dates.

Aim 1

We aim to work together to:

• improve the visibility of outputs
• co-ordinate publications
• improve the coherence of Official Statistics across producers and within the four nations

Aim 2

We aim to work together to:

• harmonise methods and definitions used in mental health analysis, where possible
• help users understand differences between methods and terminology used in mental health analysis

Aim 3

We aim to:

• improve our understanding of our users
• coordinate user engagement

This will enable us to identify evidence gaps and priority areas for development and improvement.

Aim 4

We aim to:

• improve the coverage and quality of mental health data
• reduce the need for duplication of data collections

Aim 5

We aim to share knowledge and insights to help monitor post-pandemic recovery of mental health.

Aim 6

We aim to improve the support and training available to users of mental health data.

Contact

For further information on this theme group, contact Cher Cartwright, NHS England on GSS.Health@ons.gov.uk.

Members

Members of this theme group come from the following departments:

• Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Trust
• Care Quality Commission (CQC)
• Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
• NHS England
• Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)
• Office for National Statistics (ONS)
• University College London (UCL)

Aim 1

We will keep group members informed of upcoming mortality publications, as well as informing each other of changes and developments of any new and existing methods and definitions.

Aim 2

We aim to ensure group members to be kept informed of changes to death certification as a result of the introduction of medical examiners and the likely impact on statistics.

Aim 3

Replace 21st century mortality files publication with an electronic version that provides detailed data in a user-friendly format.

Aim 4

We aim to coordinate publications, analysis and advice. Reduce duplication and deliver efficiencies.

Aim 5

Identify priority areas for development within the topic and develop plans for each area identified.

Aim 6

Coordinate user engagement and deliver a seamless service to users.

Aim 1

We will develop an understanding of the coherence of experience data in the UK and identify areas where it is feasible and desirable to improve coherence.

Aim 2

We aim to identify topics where it would be beneficial to coordinate releases of experience data across producers and nations.

Aim 3

We aim to identify topics where it would be feasible and beneficial to harmonise methods. We aim to remove methodological differences, or to explain and justify them.

Aim 4

We aim to identify data gaps in experience data and explore possibilities for filling these gaps.

Aim 5

We will facilitate and promote collaborative working.

Contact

For further information on this theme group, contact Euan Smith, Scottish Government on GSS.Health@ons.gov.uk.

Members

Members of this theme group come from the following departments:

• Care Quality Commission (CQC)
• Department of Health, Northern Ireland
• NHS England
• Office for National Statistics (ONS)
• Scottish Government
• Welsh Government

The action plan for this theme group will be added once available.

Aim 1

Ensure the group has representation from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland by the end of 2022. 

Progress

This aim has been achieved. 

Aim 2

Group members will meet at least 2 or 3 times each year to share updates on recent projects to improve statistics on obesity, physical activity and nutrition. This will help to promote harmonisation and avoid duplication. 

Progress

This aim is currently being achieved. This objective is ongoing. 

Aim 3

Identify evidence gaps and priorities. 

Progress

This aim is currently being achieved by having of policy analysts in the group. This objective is ongoing. 

Aim 4

Investigate the possibility of publishing UK estimates of obesity prevalence by the end of 2023.  

Progress

This aim is ongoing.

This work is not currently possible because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on health surveys and national child measurement programmes, which has reduced comparability across the four nations. This will be reconsidered as these data collections evolve following the pandemic. Meanwhile, the group has produced a matrix exploring similarities and differences in current data collections and methodologies. If you would like a copy of the matrix, please email GSS.Health@ons.gov.uk.

Contact

For further information contact Paul Niblett, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), by emailing GSS.Health@ons.gov.uk. 

Members

• Paul Niblett (OHID) – Chair 
• Nick Coyle (OHID)  
• Caroline Hancock (OHID)  
• Craig Timpson (OHID)  
• Jo Nicholas (OHID)
• Gillian Swan (OHID)  
• Adrienne Cullum (OHID)   
• Katie Brown (OHID) 
• Celine Chauvin (OHID) 
• Marika Kulesza (OHID)  
• Alison Neave (NHS Digital)  
• Sharon Thandi (NHS Digital)  
• David Lee (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs)  
• Michael Hardie (ONS)  
• Helen Price (Sport England)  
• Flora Jackson (Public Health Scotland)  
• Justine Geyer (Scottish Government)  
• Cath Roberts (Welsh Government)  
• Julie Landsberg (Scottish Government) 
• Deirdre Corrigan (Northern Ireland Department of Health) 
• Maggie Graham (OHID) – Secretariat

Aim 1

We aim to improve access to Primary Care and Dental Data by creating a centralised “hub” of available data.

Aim 2

We aim to reduce duplication and align terminology by reviewing existing publications that cover similar topics.

Aim 3

We aim to identify any gaps in the Primary Care and Dental Data through user research.

Aim 4

We aim to co-ordinate data releases of relevant publications – for example, ensuring publications about GP Appointments and Workforce are released on the same day.

Aim 5

We aim to identify opportunities for any cross team working.

Aim 6

We aim to identify ways which we can develop publications to support the new NHS commissioning structure.

Aim 1

We aim to understand the effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on smoking statistics for users.

Aim 2

We aim to co-ordinate the publication of smoking statistics for 2022 to 2023 so they are released at the same time.

Aim 3

We aim to reduce duplication of work.

Aim 4

We plan to remove or explain methodological differences between smoking related questions used with surveys.

Aim 5

We aim to provide data for policy monitoring and development.

Aim 6

We aim to increase user engagement.