Organisational attendees

Office of the National Data Guardian
Understanding Patient Data
Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board
Information Commissioner’s Office
NHS England
Department of Health and Social Care
Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
Royal College of General Practitioners
Healthwatch
Royal College of Surgeons
NHS Confederation
NHS England
Patients Association
Association of Medical Research Charities
Nottingham University Hospitals Trust

Apologies received

UNISON
National Voices

Open actions and decisions recorded

Meeting notes

Welcome and introductions 

The Office of the National Data Guardian covered the role of Chair for the meeting. The Chair welcomed all members to the call and noted any apologies.

Introductions of new members took place as well as noting any conflicts/declarations of interests.

FDP experience

The Group Chief Digital Information Officer at University Hospitals of Leicester and University Hospitals of Northamptonshire provided an overview to the group on their experience of implementing the FDP.

The Group Chief Digital Information Officer at University Hospitals of Leicester and University Hospitals of Northamptonshire highlighted the variation across the group and the role in bringing them together and providing a platform for collaboration and acceleration on digital maturity.

The University Hospital of Leicester are live with the Care Coordination Inpatient product, as well as being in the process of deployment the Referral to treatment validation tool and incubating the FDP as the core acute data platform. The University Hospital of Northamptonshire and University Hospitals of Leicester are collaborating and proactively sharing learning to support.

The Group Chief Digital Information Officer at University Hospitals of Leicester and University Hospitals of Northamptonshire provided an overview of the incubation piece of work currently being undertaken for the FDP to become the core acute data platform. The vision is to develop a sustainable, fit for future University Hospital of Leicester Data Platform and Data eco system to meet the needs of an acute trust. This area of work includes understanding how the FDP can support in democratising access to data across the organisation, not moving data around but inviting regulators to the data, creating a quicker route from idea to delivery, joining up data, and identifying a lower cost of delivery.

The Group Chief Digital Information Officer at University Hospitals of Leicester and University Hospitals of Northamptonshire gave a number of reflections of implementing the FDP and carrying out this incubation. This included:

• enjoying working with the programme team, including the support from Palantir
• the FDP Programme team has an excellent understanding of information governance and have ensured rigorous framework and processes are in place
• if there was an ability to free up more local resource, the process could have been done quicker as resource capacity can be a challenge
• the approach to considering opportunities to be ‘limitless’ has helped the organisation to gain more value to and insights of future platform capabilities
• a challenge, as with many digital services, is planning for a multi-year approach

The group did not have any questions for the presenter.

The Chair thanked the Group Chief Digital Information Officer at University Hospitals of Leicester and University Hospitals of Northamptonshire for their time and presentation.

Minutes and actions from previous meeting

The Check and Challenge members approved the minutes and actions from the last meetings on 15 November 2024.

The Chair took the group through the open actions.

A member of the group asked whether there are any updates on the FDP Care Coordination Suite Outpatient product review. The Director of Data Management and Transformation advised that the initial review has been completed which include engagement with all sites that were live with the Outpatient product and a number of recommendations have been identified. Agreement for the update on the FDP Outpatient product review to be provided at the next meeting.

Action: Update on the FDP Outpatient product review to be provided at the next meeting.

NHS Federated Data Platform Programme update

The Director of Data Management and Transformation provided an update of the FDP Programme.

The FDP Programme currently has 91 trusts signed up to the FDP as well as 31 systems. Delivery is going well with implementation and ‘go lives’ at a number of trusts over the last month. The Delivery Team have been supporting trusts to implement the FDP through to benefits realisation before transition to business as usual. The programme is on track to achieve the target of 71 trusts by March 2025.

Currently the FDP Programme is planning for 2025 roll-out of the FDP based on a continued progression towards the target of 240 organisations by 2027. The FDP Programme are also working on the FDP community and mental health offers and exploring how the programme can support those organisations to adopt the FDP as well as maximise utilisation and benefits from existing products.

The Chair asked the FDP Programme to comment on recent local trust cyber-attacks. The Director of Data Management and Transformation confirmed that this is not linked to the FDP.

The Director of Data Management and Transformation provided an update on communication and engagement. Last month the FDP Programme relaunched their website and publicised the FDP uptake and benefits report. There have been newly developed social media promotions as well as the publicised FDP animation video which has created a good level of engagement. In terms of media coverage, there have been a number of stories about the impact of the FDP, with reference to the increase of 114 patients seen per month for trusts who have adopted the FDP Inpatient product. Media stories have also included references to the FDP uptake exceeding the 71 trust target and the FDP Programme celebrating its first ‘birthday’ as FDP contracts were signed in November 2023. The latest FDP bulletin was published, with 860 subscribers currently signed up.

The FDP Head of Information Governance (IG) provided an update to the group. As the programme nears the end of the year, the FDP IG framework has now been in place for almost 1 year. The IG team is now in the process of commencing a review of the framework, in line with good practice of managing IG documentation, to reflect lessons learnt and ensure it reflects the use of the platform and new products coming through. The IG team is also updating the FDP data protection impact assessments (DPIA), reflecting on what has worked well to date and additions where required, of which the Data Governance Group (DGG), National Data Guardianship (NDG), and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) are involved. The National Data Group meet on a monthly basis and review both significant updates to existing products as well as new products. As the programme moves forward the IG team is working with the DGG, NDG, and ICO to review the privacy enhancing technology (PET) DPIA including reviewing the legalities and IG required for local organisations to utilise PET. The FDP Head of IG reflected on how well a collegiate approach to IG development has worked and has resulted in a significant update on IG documentation.

A member of the group asked whether there are any plans for communicating information on potential future FDP use cases. The Director of Data Management and Transformation advised that no further FDP use cases have been identified at this time. The existing use cases are very broad to capture a number of products, but there is recognition that further development on how underpinning capabilities are categorised. There is also recognition that further communications on the FDP product roadmap may help in the public and colleagues further understanding how products are developed under those use cases. The FDP Programme Director advised that the Communications team is working on further communication materials, including further videos to continue to share digestible levels of information to the public. The member of the group encouraged the FDP Programme to share information as soon as possible to ensure it is proactive communication.

A member of the group asked what the response rate has been from the patient and public engagement portal. The FDP Programme Director advised on the number of submissions into the portal has decreased over time and is now considered to be low.

The FDP Senior Responsible Officer asked the group for any suggestions on how the FDP Programme could frame communications on use cases and products. A member of the group suggested for communications to be focused on the pull from organisations to want to use the FDP and how the FDP Programme is responding to this in implementation and development.

A member of the group advised that recent media articles have focussed on artificial intelligence (AI) and highlighted the need for communications to be shared on AI and the FDP and queried if there has been anything of note from the large-scale public engagement programme. The FDP Programme Director suggested that a blog could support communications. The FDP Senior Responsible Officer advised that they haven’t had sight of anything AI related in the large-scale public engagement programme but acknowledged that this topic is due to be picked up in a future deliberation.

The FDP Senior Responsible Officer provided an update on the development of the 10 Year Health Plan. The 10 Year Health Plan is part of the government health mission to build a health service fit for the future. A commitment to a 10 Year Health Plan is central to the government’s health missions to fix the NHS and make it fit for the future.

The plan will deliver on 3 big shifts needed to move healthcare from hospital to the provider, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention. The plan will be focussed on modernising the NHS, with an emphasis on meeting the healthcare needs of future generations. The plan will be co-developed with the public, patients, and staff so that all these groups feel ownership of the plan. There are multiple workstreams established to develop the plan and are based on the findings from the Darzi Report. The process will be deliberative with sets of policy groups, working group, and senior stakeholders. Planning for further round table discussions is taking place. A lot of ideas and suggestions have been submitted through the portal as well as a lot of staff and patient experiences and sector organisational views. In addition to the portal there are a number of activities in place and arranged for engagement.

The FDP Senior Responsible Officer provided an overview of the policy approach and enabler workstreams in place to support.

A member of the group asked whether NHS England is working with EPSRC in terms of projects that can impact on digital transformation. The member of the group provided an example of the digital health hubs established to improve digital literacy and skills in the healthcare workforce. The FDP Senior Responsible Officer asked the member of the group to provide a contact to enable that connection to be made.

A member of the group asked whether it would be helpful for the FDP Check and Challenge Group to feed into the Data and Digital Enabler Group. The FDP Senior Responsible Officer took an action to review how the group could input into the Data and Digital Enabler Group.

A member of the group asked if the FDP Senior Responsible Officer could comment on the spending review regarding proposals for FDP funding in the longer term. The Senior Responsible Officer advised that the FDP funding is protected however a review of funding is being undertaken to understand how the FDP can enable faster digitalisation. In regard to mutli-year spending review, the FDP Senior Responsible Officer advised that this is currently being worked through by the NHS England Transformation Directorate.  

Action: Any suggestions on how the FDP Programme could frame communications on use cases and products.

Action: Member of the group to provide a contact for the EPSRC to the FDP Senior Responsible Officer.

Action: FDP Senior Responsible Officer to review how the Check and Challenge Group could input into the Data and Digital Enabler Group for the 10 Year Health Plan development.

FDP benefits update

The FDP Head of Benefits provided an update to the group on the 2024/25 quarter 2 benefits and evaluation procurement process.

The evaluation comments from this group have been taken on board and the evaluation questions have been amended in line with feedback. On Friday 13 December the team has a pre-market engagement session with suppliers after which the team will move into preparing for procurement. The FDP Head of Benefits agreed to provide an update in the February 2025 Check and Challenge meeting.

Executive summary of the 2024/25 quarter 2 benefits was presented to the group. This included key figures on the programme; delivering more products to more acute trusts, improving existing products and developing new products at our acute trusts, delivering benefits to patients, enhancing analytical capabilities for integrated care boards. The uptake and benefits information has now been published on the FDP website a quarter in arrears.

An overview of key achievements of the FDP Programme was shared with the group. This included achievements such as: exceeding 71 trust sign up to the FDP, successful transition of pilot sites to the FDP, a number of sites involved in piloting and incubating products as part of product development, the FDP Centre of Excellence providing tailored training and resources to maximise to use of the platform. The FDP Head of Benefits also outlined an achievement of the development of the Strategic value logic model which enables the programme to respond effectively to NHS’s biggest priority. The FDP Programme agreed to bring the Strategic value logic model to a future Check and Challenge meeting.

A member of the group commented that it would be helpful to contextualise benefit figures to help the understanding of the scale of impact. This will also help with continued transparency. The FDP Head of Benefits supported this feedback and agreed to take this back to develop.

Action: Update on the FDP evaluation procurement to be provided at the February 2025 Check and Challenge meeting.

Action: FDP Programme to bring the Strategic value logic model to a future Check and Challenge meeting.

Any other business and close

The next meeting is due to take place on Friday 17 January.

The Chair thanked all for their attendance and closed the meeting.