Organisation objective

• Statutory item
• Governance

Working with people and communities

What approaches have been used to ensure people and communities have informed this programme of work?

• N/A

Executive summary

This paper is for the Board’s information only to provide an overview of the Community Services Data Set Amendment Directions 2024 (Directions) issued to NHS England in March 2024 by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (SoS). These Directions have been issued under section 254 and 304(9), (10) and (12) of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (2012 Act) and section 13ZC and 272(7) and (8) of the National Health Service Act 2006 (the 2006 Act).

The purpose of these amendment Directions is to amend the Community Services Data Set Directions 2000 (Original Directions) to require NHS England to carry out a Community Services Data Set Pilot Data Collection (the pilot). The pilot will test the collection of a core community services data set in a new granular daily flow, in order to inform improvements to the current national collection.

Action required

The Board is asked to note the amendment Directions and the information provided in this Paper regarding their purpose, effect, and requirements.

Background

1. Under section 254 of the 2012 Act, the SoS may direct NHS England to establish and operate a system for the collection or analysis of information. These are functions exercisable in relation to the development or operation of information systems in connection with the provision of health services or of adult social care in England. Under section 13ZC of the 2006 Act, the SoS may give NHS England directions as to the exercise of any of its functions.

2. The amendment Directions are issued by the SoS to NHS England under these provisions and are functions which have been transferred to NHS England from NHS Digital under the Health and Social Care Information Centre (Transfer of Functions, Abolition and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2023.

Purpose of the Direction

3. The purpose of these Directions is to amend the Original Directions to require the pilot to be carried out. This includes an additional requirements specification to be complied with (pilot specification).

4. As a secondary uses data set, the Community Services Data Set (CSDS collection) is a long-standing data collection. It obtains national, comparable, standardised data about community services from community services providers that will be used to support community services providers to share good practice, identify improvements and implement the NHS Long Term Plan to achieve better outcomes for children, young people and adults.

5. The purpose of the Pilot is to develop and test the collection of a core subset of the CSDS data set (as defined within the DAPB1069: Community Services Data Set Information Standards Notice), most of which are already collected under the CSDS collection, into a granular daily data collection which is intended to lead to improvements in the CSDS collection and to the transformation of community data collections more widely. Currently the data is collected monthly.

6. The pilot is a short term pilot which will continue until 31 May 2024 only. The intention is that the community programme will roll out the pilot to early adopters to test the data collection form and method. The pilot will then be evaluated to inform the roll out to further providers. The further roll out is not in scope of this pilot or these Directions and would be subject to new directions. The manner of this short-term pilot collection will be limited to using the existing NHS England National Data Platform (Foundry) to test the form and methods of collection for the flows of data. The data will not flow into the Federated Data Platform under this Direction.

7. The pilot will also address the reporting burden on providers by working with integrated care boards to replace existing local data flows and rationalising the national aggregate data collections by NHS England.

Effect and requirements of the Direction

8. From 11 March 2024, the date of signature of the Directions, NHS England has a legal duty to comply with the Directions, which requires it to establish and operate such systems for the collection and analysis of information set out in the specification.

9. These functions are to be exercised in accordance with the service levels, support and monitoring requirements, and the reporting and governance requirements notified by the SoS in writing to NHS England. The exercise by NHS England of the functions set out in the Directions is also subject to the statutory guidance issued by the SoS to NHS England under section 274A of the 2012 Act: NHS England’s protection of patient data, 23 May 2023 which is guidance that NHS England has a duty to have regard to when discharging its functions under these Directions.

Approval of acceptance of Directions and publication

10. This Directions amendment has been approved for acceptance by the Director of Privacy and Information Governance and the National Director of Transformation (Interim) and National Medical Director on behalf of the Accounting Officer as set out in the NHS England Scheme of Delegation. The Directions have been published on the NHS England website.

Annex 1

• Community Service Data Set Amendment Directions 2024
• Main Directions page: Community Services Data Set Directions 2020
• The Community Services Data Set (Amendment) Directions 2024: letter
• Requirements specification for community services data set – community pilot collection