Consultation outcome

Health and social care statistical outputs published by DHSC (including OHID), NHSBSA, UKHSA, ONS and NHS England

Updated 21 November 2024

Health and Social Care Statistics Leadership Forum foreword

The COVID-19 pandemic thrust health and social care statistics into the headlines. Nearly 4 years on from the first news reports of the ‘coronavirus’, the public appetite for data and statistics has continued to grow. This has created new challenges for health and social care statistics producers, as well as highlighting existing areas for improvement, as set out in the Office for Statistics Regulation’s COVID-19 lessons learned report. The report noted the remarkable work of statistics producers, working quickly and collaboratively to overcome new challenges.

One of the recommendations of the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) report (lesson 7) calls for us to build on the statistical achievements of the last 2 years and ensure stronger analytical leadership and co-ordination of health and social care statistics. We have made substantial improvements since then, convening a Health and Social Care Statistics Leadership Forum (HSCSLF) bringing together statistical leaders in the Department of Health and Social Care (including the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities), NHS England, the NHS Business Services Authority, Office for National Statistics and UK Health Security Agency. 

We have used this monthly forum to build better collaboration across all our statistical work, and are working towards a broad and ambitious aim of a joined-up health and social care public narrative, where statistical portfolios are aligned and we provide complementary statistical products. We are therefore working together to understand how our products and landscape works for all types of users of our statistics, through this consultation. This consultation looks across all of the regular health and social care statistical products produced by HSCSLF’s member organisations, and sets out proposals to change those products and move towards an improved and more efficient health and social care statistical landscape.  

For example, we may propose to merge statistical products where there are multiple publications on the same or similar topic areas; to reduce the frequency of products where we expect there is limited value in more frequent data; to change the scope and volume of statistical products where there are multiple metrics and breakdowns that appear to be duplicative or rarely used; to introduce new statistical products where there is a new or emerging need; to pause or stop statistical products where the statistics may no longer be relevant, or appear to be rarely used. 

Please do provide your feedback on the proposals to change our health and social care statistical products, and help us to create a landscape that truly meets users’ needs.

Lucy Vickers
Head of Profession for Statistics, Department of Health and Social Care

Introduction

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, health statistics’ producing organisations continued to expand their publications and analyses, such that in places multiple products now exist on the same topic area, and the quantity and way in which outputs are currently produced is not sustainable. The end of COVID-19 as a public health emergency marks an appropriate time to consider the health statistical system and ensure that outputs are valuable, efficient and relevant to current user need, alongside ensuring that the resources deployed in producing statistics lead to the maximum possible benefit.

We are seeking views on possible changes to the health and social care statistical products published by:

• the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) including the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)
• the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA)
• the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
• the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
• NHS England (NHSE)

We are also seeking an understanding of how clear and valuable users find the current statistical system.

This consultation seeks user feedback on statistical products in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, to ensure that changes and improvements made to the statistical landscape provide the greatest possible value to users and make the best use of resources. The Code of Practice for Statistics and the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 both set out that statistics-producing organisations should consult users on changes to statistical products, and also emphasise that:

statistics producers should undertake public engagement collaboratively wherever possible.

The scope of this consultation is the regular statistical products of the member organisations of the Health and Social Care Statistics Leadership Forum (DHSC, including OHID, NHSBSA, ONS, NHS England and UKHSA).

These products predominantly cover England only, but in some instances may additionally cover Wales or the UK. For example, ONS produces national statistics for both England and Wales. For NHS England, the scope is limited to those outputs that are classified as official statistics. Health statistics at the UK level are not in scope for this consultation - however, there is ongoing work led by ONS, in collaboration with other organisations, to improve the comparability and coherence of UK health data.

To make the consultation as accessible as possible to a range of users, it is structured into different topic areas. The consultation comprises:

• an overarching section to draw out general views on the health and social care statistical landscape
• optional topic-based sections that present proposals for the future of statistical products on those areas and invite topic-specific feedback

The proposals put forward within this consultation have been worked through with statistical publication leads across ONS, DHSC, UKHSA and NHS England. They set out possible changes to products, including:

• products merging
• products changing in frequency
• products changing in scope and/or volume
• new products launching
• products pausing or stopping
• products being redesigned to better meet user needs

The consultation will run for 12 weeks, closing at 11:59pm on Tuesday 5 March 2024.

Following this, the HSCSLF will co-ordinate analysis of consultation responses and resultant decisions about changes to health and social care statistical products. Decisions on the future of the health and social care landscape will be made through consideration of consultation responses in combination with wider factors, including around data quality and availability, and technical and resourcing constraints.

We expect to publish a high-level summary response to this consultation in early summer 2024, with more detail on next steps for each topic area to follow later in 2024.

All types of users are encouraged to respond to this consultation - whether in academia, government, the local or national healthcare system or industry, or as interested members of the public. We are interested in understanding both the user needs of individuals and groups that we may not typically frequently engage with, and our regular users.

Code of Practice for Statistics

This consultation has been put together by lead statisticians in DHSC, ONS, UKHSA and NHS England, and is driven by the principles set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Through undertaking a collaborative review of the health and social care statistical landscape, including this collaborative consultation, the ambition is for the statistical landscape to better meet the following principles of the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Principle T4.4

Good business practices should be maintained in the use of resources. Where appropriate, statistics producers should take opportunities to share resources, and collaborate to achieve common goals and produce coherent statistics.

Principle Q2.2

Statistics, data and metadata should be compiled using recognised standards, classifications and definitions. They should be harmonised to be consistent and coherent with related statistics and data where possible.

Users should be provided with reasons for deviations from these standards and explanations of any related implications for use.

Principle Q2.6

Statistics producers should collaborate with topic and methods experts and producers of related statistics and data wherever possible.

Principle Q3.5

Systematic and periodic reviews on the strengths and limitations in the data and methods should be undertaken. Statistics producers should be open in addressing the issues identified and be transparent about their decisions on whether to act. 

Principle V1.1

Statistics producers should maintain and refresh their understanding of the use and potential use of the statistics and data. They should consider the ways in which the statistics might be used and the nature of the decisions that are or could be informed by them.

Principle V1.4

Statistics producers should engage publicly through a variety of means that are appropriate to the needs of different audiences and proportionate to the potential of the statistics to serve the public good. An open dialogue should be maintained using proactive formal and informal engagement to listen to the views of new and established contacts.

Statistics producers should undertake public engagement collaboratively wherever possible, working in partnership with policy makers and other statistics producers to obtain the views of stakeholders.

Principle V4.4

Statistics producers should seek to collaborate with other producers, including within the UK and internationally, when developing their statistics, overcoming practical obstacles and sharing best practice.

Principle V5.1

Opportunities for data sharing, data linkage, cross-analysis of sources and the reuse of data should be taken wherever feasible. Recognised standards, classifications, definitions and methods should be applied to data wherever possible.

However, it is also important to mention that the Code of Practice for Statistics is clear that statistical producers should routinely review the relevance and usefulness of their products and continuously improve them, considering whether to continue, discontinue, adapt or provide the statistics through other means, in discussion with users and other stakeholders (V1.3 and V1.6).

As such, while this consultation provides a particularly valuable opportunity to offer feedback because it looks across multiple organisations and multiple topic areas, statistical producers will continue to review their specific products and engage with users as needed.

They will engage about potential changes and user requirements, both through and beyond this consultation window, and we will use the information gathered through this consultation to support continual improvement of statistical products and the statistical landscape.

Legal duties

The general equality duty that is set out in the Equality Act 2010 requires public authorities, in the exercise of their functions, to have due regard to the need to:

• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the act
• advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
• foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not

The proposals relate to the public reporting of data and statistics, rather than to any changes to the actual provision of health and social care services to patients.

As part of the decision process for the future of statistical products following the outcome of this consultation, due consideration will be given to the public sector equality duty and any related impact of changes to statistics on the availability of statistics for protected groups.

General feedback on health and social care statistics

Before you answer any questions on your chosen topic areas, we would like to ask your views on health and social care statistics overall.

Statistical products on health and social care are published by a range of different organisations. This consultation covers statistics produced by:

• Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) - including smaller arm’s length bodies such as NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA)
• UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
• Office for National Statistics (ONS)
• NHS England (NHSE)

Statistics published by these organisations are presented in a range of different formats including:

• data dashboards
• interactive tools
• statistical bulletins
• data tables
• data downloads

We are interested in your feedback on how you find the health and care statistical system as a whole and what types of products are most useful to you.

Question

How do you find the process of finding the health and social care statistics that you need?

• Very easy
• Easy
• Neither easy nor difficult
• Difficult
• Very difficult

Please explain your answer. For example, if you think it could be improved, please provide suggestions on what would make it easier.

Question

Statistics can be presented in different formats including: 

• short statistical commentary, highlighting key points
• longer statistical reports, with chapters on specific topics
• data provided in formatted spreadsheets, with metadata and explanatory footnotes
• downloadable aggregated data, typically in CSV format, with metadata or explanatory footnotes
• data dashboards and other interactive tools

If you have any feedback on the format that health and social care data and statistics are provided in, please provide it here.

Question

ONS, DHSC, NHS England and UKHSA are all exploring the proposal to publish a higher proportion of outputs in a dashboard or interactive tool format. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please explain your answer.

Question

ONS, DHSC and NHS England are all exploring the proposal to:

• reduce the level of detailed commentary provided alongside statistical outputs
• reduce how frequently commentary is provided alongside statistical outputs

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please explain your answer.

Question

Given the complexities of data collection, validation and analysis in health and social care statistics, it is not always possible to prioritise all of the following quality dimensions:

• relevance of health and social care statistics to meet user needs in terms of content and coverage
• accuracy and reliability: how close the estimated result in health and social care statistics is to the true result
• timeliness and punctuality of health and social care statistics
• accessibility and clarity of health and social care statistics - including quality of metadata and accompanying advice, accessible data sets and visual content
• coherence and comparability of health and social care statistics over time and geography (as health and social care is devolved, coherence of statistics across the UK can be challenging. Where statistics are not comparable, explanations of different methodologies are recommended)
• availability of health and social care data at local level geographies

Please add any comments about which of these quality dimensions should be prioritised.

Please add any further comments on the health and social care statistical landscape.

Feedback on statistical topic areas

Through this consultation, we are seeking feedback on the entire health and social care statistical system. However, we recognise that not every user is interested in statistics on every aspect of health and social care, so we have structured the consultation into broad topic areas.

For each topic area, the consultation is structured in a similar way. We will outline proposals for how the statistical outputs in that topic area might change in future and ask you to provide your views on this. Where there are no current proposals listed in a topic area section of the consultation, we have still provided an opportunity to give feedback on statistics on that topic area, as we will use the information gathered through this consultation to consider whether changes are needed to all of our statistical products.

For details of the statistical products in scope for this consultation and the topic areas that they are covered by, see the directory of statistics at ‘Annex A: product directory’ below.

The survey is divided into topic areas. At the start of the survey, you will be asked to select all of the topic areas you want to answer questions on. At the end of the survey, there will be an option to review your answers and select additional topic areas to answer questions on.

The topic areas are:

• adult social care
• cancer
• child, maternal and reproductive health
• COVID-19 and COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations
• disability, learning disabilities and autism
• elective activity
• end of life care
• health inequalities
• major conditions (including musculoskeletal, dementia, cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases)
• mental health
• mortality
• obesity, physical activity and diet
• overarching health and social care outputs
• primary care, community health and oral health
• smoking, drugs and alcohol
• urgent, emergency and acute care
• workforce and estates
• any other topic area

For each topic area you want to respond to, we will ask the following questions to help us understand how you use the publications:

• Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

• What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Then there will be additional questions on specific proposals for each topic area.

1. Adult social care

The adult social care data landscape has changed in recent years. We have seen improved timeliness and accessibility of data, but there are still many limitations.

The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) highlighted in its 2020 Report on adult social care statistics that the sector was hindered by the lack of good quality data and identified 3 key areas of focus:

• lack of leadership and collaboration
• significant gaps in data that is collected
• lack of accessibility, coherence, quality, timeliness and granularity of existing data

In early 2023, the government set out its roadmap for improving adult social care data in Care data matters: a roadmap for better data for adult social care. To help address gaps in adult social care data, the ambition over the next few years is to increasingly move away from collecting aggregate data to using (anonymised) client-level data. This will bring social care collections more into line with person-level NHS collections, using patient NHS number to enable data to be accurately and appropriately linked. It will help address known data gaps, such as on:

• personal outcomes
• waiting times for assessments and services
• care hours provided
• discharge from primary and secondary care settings into community and social care

Furthermore, this will help to understand how people move between the health and social care systems so that we can gain new and better insights into care outcomes, which interventions work best and how local system partners work together to provide the right care in the right place at the right time - see the ‘Providing the right care in the right place at the right time’ chapter of the People at the Heart of Care: adult social care reform white paper.

Some statistics on adult social care may be covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

For a number of publications, we are proposing to reduce supporting commentary. Relevant background and contextual information will still be provided, along with information to allow users to understand data quality. Analysis summarising the findings will not be available - however, users will still be able to conduct their own analysis from the published data.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Our proposals to stop or significantly change publications

Question

Personal social services adult social care survey

Personal social services adult social care survey - annual report produced by NHS England.

Proposal

NHS England proposes to reduce the frequency of data collection and publication from annual to biennial (every other year).

This is in line with the final recommendations and conclusions of ‘Annex C: ASCS and SACE discovery report’ of Care data matters: a roadmap for better adult social care data.

NHS England also proposes to reduce commentary in this publication.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section we present all other statistical products on this topic area, including any other proposals to change products. These proposals may include:

• merging statistical products
• reducing the frequency of statistical products
• reducing commentary around statistical products

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current frequency	Current organisation	Proposal
Adult social care activity and finance report, England	Annual	NHSE	Incorporate the ‘Deferred payment agreements’ publication and reduce supporting commentary
Adult social care in England, monthly statistics	Monthly	DHSC	No current proposal
Adult social care statistics in England: an overview	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Care homes and estimating the self-funding population (England)	Annual	ONS	No current proposal
Deferred payment agreements	Annual	NHSE	Publish as part of the ‘Adult social care activity and finance report’ and reduce supporting commentary
Estimating the size of the self-funding population in the community, England	Annual	ONS	No current proposal
Guardianship under the Mental Health Act, 1983	Biennial	NHSE	Reduce supporting commentary
Life expectancy in care homes (England and Wales)	Annual	ONS	To explore alternative data sources to census to identify care homes residents and consider biennial publication frequency if feasible data sources found
Measures from the adult social care outcomes framework, England	Annual	NHSE	Proposed to align with any change to the ‘Personal social services adult social care survey’. Many indicators are sourced from this survey alone (8 in the current framework, 5 in the refreshed framework). Should the Personal social services adult social care survey move to biennial, these indicators will also move from an annual to a biennial refresh
Mental Capacity Act 2005, deprivation of liberty safeguards	Annual	NHSE	Reduce supporting commentary
Registered blind and partially sighted people	Triennial	NHSE	Explore alternative data sources for this publication to reduce the data collection burden on providers and reduce supporting commentary
Safeguarding adults	Annual	NHSE	Reduce supporting commentary
Survey of adult carers in England	Biennial	NHSE	Reduce supporting commentary

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

2. Cancer

There are several organisations producing cancer statistics across government, including NHS England, DHSC and ONS, as well as many equivalent statistics produced by the devolved nations. These statistics exist for various reasons, including operational service delivery, public health monitoring and informing policy.

Note: publications on waiting times for diagnosed and suspected cancer patients are not included in this consultation as we have recently concluded a public consultation on cancer waiting times.

Some statistics on cancer may be covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

There are no current proposals to stop or significantly change publications.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section, we present all other statistical products on this topic area, including any other proposals to change products. These proposals may include:

• merging statistical products
• reducing the frequency of statistical products
• reducing commentary around statistical products

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Questions

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current frequency	Current organisation	Proposal
Cancer registration statistics	Annual	NHSE	Merge publication with ‘Case-mix adjusted percentage of cancers diagnosed at stages 1 and 2’ to improve coherence
Cancer survival in England	Annual	NHSE	Merge publication with ‘Index of cancer survival’ to improve coherence
Case-mix adjusted percentage of cancers diagnosed at stages 1 and 2	Annual	NHSE	Merge publication with ‘Cancer registration statistics’ to improve coherence
Emergency presentations of cancer: quarterly data	Quarterly	NHSE	No current proposal
Index of cancer survival	Annual	NHSE	Merge publication with ‘Cancer survival in England’ to improve coherence
National cancer patient experience survey	Annual	NHSE	Reporting suite to be reviewed to assess whether any elements are no longer required
Routes to diagnosis	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Under 16 cancer patient experience survey	Annual	NHSE	Reporting suite to be reviewed to assess whether any elements are no longer required

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

3. Child, maternal and reproductive health

This section covers statistical products on the topic of child, maternal and reproductive health. This includes statistics on reproductive health and conceptions, live and stillbirths through to child and maternal behaviours, activity, and health and mortality outcomes.

Many of these statistics have been developed in the context of the national Maternity Transformation Programme, and a number of more recent independent reviews of maternity and neonatal services, which set out recommendations for improving care and outcomes, and reducing disparities, along with the metrics to measure progress towards these objectives.

To meet the needs for more frequent data on births, ONS is already planning to publish new quarterly provisional births data. These changes do not form part of the proposals below as they have already been agreed prior to this consultation.

Some statistics on child, maternal and reproductive health may be covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

Question

Child and infant mortality

Child and infant mortality - annual report produced by ONS.

Proposal

This annual publication includes both birth cohort data tables and death cohort data tables. ONS proposes to reduce the frequency of the analysis and publication of birth cohort data tables only to biennial. The death cohort data tables would continue to be released on an annual basis.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

Female genital mutilation

Female genital mutilation - quarterly report produced by NHS England.

Proposal

NHS England proposes to discontinue the quarterly report on female genital mutilation. Quarterly data would continue to be released in the existing dashboard and CSV file. The annual report would continue under this proposal.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

Unexplained deaths in infancy

Unexplained deaths in infancy - annual report produced by ONS.

Proposal

ONS proposes to reduce the frequency of this publication from annual to biennial. Under this proposal, this release would no longer be published as a statistical bulletin and would be released as a data set only.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section, we present all other statistical products on this topic area, including any other proposals to change products. These proposals may include:

• merging statistical products
• reducing the frequency of statistical products
• reducing commentary around statistical products

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current frequency	Current organisation	Proposal
Abortion statistics for England and Wales: 2021	Annual	DHSC	No current proposal
Admissions for children with long-term conditions	Annual	DHSC	Merge with ‘Child health profiles’
Baby names in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	No current proposal
Birth characteristics in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	Move priority tables to the ‘Births in England and Wales’ release. Release as a data set only, stopping the statistical bulletin. The ‘Births in England and Wales’ release will include a statistical bulletin containing the priority data usually covered in the births characteristics bulletin
Births by parents’ characteristics in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	Move priority tables to the ‘Births in England and Wales’ release
Births by parents’ country of birth	Annual	ONS	No current proposal
Births in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	No current proposal
Breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks after birth	Quarterly	DHSC	Proposal to change the data source to the Community Services Data Set and reduce frequency to annual
Child development outcomes at 2 to 2 and a half years	Quarterly	DHSC	Proposal to change the data source to the Community Services Data Set and reduce frequency to annual
Child education	Annual	DHSC	Merge with ‘Child health profiles’
Child health profiles	Annual	DHSC	Merge with ‘Admissions for children with long-term conditions’ and ‘Child education’. Publication will be reviewed and lesser-used indicators could be discontinued
Childhood vaccination coverage statistics - England	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Conceptions in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	No current proposal
Health visitor services delivery metrics	Quarterly	DHSC	No current proposal
Influenza vaccine uptake in school-age children	Monthly	UKHSA	No current proposal
Influenza vaccine uptake in school-age children	Annual	UKHSA	No current proposal
Maternity services monthly statistics	Monthly	NHSE	No current proposal
NCARDRS congenital anomaly statistics: annual data	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
NHS maternity statistics, England	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Quarterly conceptions of women under 18 years, England and Wales	Quarterly	ONS	No current proposal
Reproductive health: annual update	Annual	DHSC	Publication will be reviewed and lesser-used indicators could be discontinued
Sexual and reproductive health services, England (contraception)	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

4. COVID-19 and COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations

Statistics on the prevalence and impact of COVID-19 have been published since 2020 and have evolved over time alongside our understanding of the disease. Recent developments in these statistics include:

• the launch of the Winter COVID-19 Infection Study (WCIS), which will run from November 2023 to March 2024
• the launch of the UKHSA data dashboard which contains statistics on a range of data related to COVID-19 and the will replace the COVID-19 dashboard

Future plans for publication on this topic in winter 2023 to 2024 include expanding the range of statistics on COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations to include statistics for healthcare workers and for care home residents and staff.

We are using this consultation as an opportunity to take views on the current suite of COVID-19 statistics and a suite of publications providing detail on seasonal vaccine uptake for both COVID-19 and influenza.

Some statistics on COVID-19 may be covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

There are no current proposals to stop or significantly change publications.

Other proposals for this topic

Note: there are other publications included in other sections of this consultation that contain data related to COVID-19 and COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations, such as the ONS publication Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales.

We would welcome any feedback you wish to provide on a publication not listed below.

NHS England products not classified as official statistics are not included below.

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current Frequency	Current Organisation	Proposal
Coronavirus as recorded in primary care	Paused	NHSE	Proposal to formally discontinue
National flu and COVID 19 surveillance reports	Weekly	UKHSA	No current proposal
Seasonal flu and COVID 19 vaccination uptake in frontline healthcare workers	Up to weekly in winter	UKHSA	No current proposal
UK coronavirus dashboard	Weekly	UKHSA	No current proposal. In the process of being replaced by UKHSA data dashboard
UKHSA data dashboard	Weekly	UKHSA	No current proposal

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

5. Disability, learning disability and autism

This section covers statistics on disability and outcomes for disabled people, learning disabilities and autism. Data on disability is produced across government, while this consultation only covers those produced by the member organisations of the HSCSLF.

Some statistics on health outcomes and care use of disabled people may be covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

Question

Learning disability profiles

Learning disability profiles - currently paused, produced by DHSC.

Proposal

This Fingertips profile had already been paused and it is proposed to be formally discontinued.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

Outcomes for disabled people in the UK

Outcomes for disabled people in the UK - irregular report produced by ONS.

Proposal

This publication is currently paused while methods, data sources and efficiency are reviewed. It is proposed that publication move to biennial following conclusion of this review.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section, we present all other statistical products on this topic area.

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current Frequency	Current Organisation	Proposal
Autism statistics	Quarterly	NHSE	No current proposal
Learning disability services monthly statistics	Monthly	NHSE	No current proposal

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

6. Elective activity

There are a range of statistical publications on this topic area that are generally published by NHS England.

Some statistics on elective activity may be covered by other topic areas (for example, cancer waiting times are generally covered under cancer). If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

Question

Cancelled elective operations

Cancelled elective operations - quarterly report produced by NHS England.

Proposal

NHS England proposes stopping this publication and alternatively publishing information on cancelled operations derived from the Theatres data collection.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

Consultant-led outpatient referrals

Consultant-led outpatient referrals - monthly report produced by NHS England.

Proposal

NHS England proposes stopping this publication. There is no constitutional or operational standard applying to referrals for outpatients. Alternative data sources in this area are available as follows:

• information on the demand for elective services in the form of new clock starts for consultant-led treatment is available as part of Consultant-led referral to treatment waiting times publications (or its successor - see the next proposal)

• information on referrals made through the e-Referral Service is available as open data

• information on the number of outpatient first attendances that occur each month are published via the Hospital Episode Statistics, which can be used to derive numbers broken down by referral source

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

Consultant-led referral to treatment waiting times

Consultant-led referral to treatment waiting times - monthly report produced by NHS England.

Proposal

NHS England proposes to stop this product once the ‘Waiting list minimum data set’ is of sufficient coverage and quality for the range of information collected through the aggregate ‘Referral to treatment’ monthly return to be derived from this.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

Direct access audiology waiting times

Direct access audiology waiting times - monthly report produced by NHS England.

Proposal

NHS England proposes to stop this publication as it has been paused since March 2023 and these alternative data sources can be used for community audiology waiting times and waiting times for audiology diagnostics.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section, we present all other statistical products on this topic area, including any other proposals to change products. These proposals may include:

• merging statistical products
• reducing the frequency of statistical products
• reducing commentary around statistical products

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current frequency	Current organisation	Proposal
Breast screening programme, England	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Cervical screening programme	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Diagnostic imaging dataset	Annual and monthly	NHSE	No current proposal
Diagnostics waiting times and activity data	Monthly	NHSE	No current proposal
Hospital admitted patient care activity	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Hospital outpatient activity	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Mixed sex accommodation breaches	Monthly	NHSE	No current proposal
Provisional monthly Hospital Episode Statistics for admitted patient care, outpatient and accident and emergency data	Monthly	NHSE	Reduce frequency from monthly to quarterly

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

7. End of life care

NHS, ONS and DHSC all publish data that can be used to support understanding of this area.

These include statistics published on:

• place of death
• hospital admissions near end of life
• deaths of temporary care home residents
• percentage of patients in need of palliative care and support as recorded on practice disease registers

There are also other key products produced on end of life care outside of the scope of this consultation such as audits.

Through reviewing the statistics produced on end of life care, ONS has stopped publication of Rolling annual death registrations by place of occurrence, as this publication covers the same data published in the Place of death factsheet produced by DHSC.

Some statistics on end of life care may be covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

There are no current proposals to stop or significantly change publications.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section, we present all other statistical products on this topic area.

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current frequency	Current organisation	Proposal
Palliative and end of life care factsheet	Quarterly	DHSC	No current proposal
Palliative and end of life care profiles	Annual	DHSC	No current proposal
Patterns of care factsheet	Annual	DHSC	No current proposal
Place of death factsheets	Quarterly	DHSC	No current proposal

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

8. Health inequalities

There are numerous tools and ad hoc publications produced by DHSC, ONS and NHS England with health inequalities as the focus. However, sociodemographic information (and therefore the potential for assessing health inequalities) are present in many health statistics publications.

Health inequalities can be assessed from many different dimensions such as sex, ethnicity, economic background, geography and so on. This means as a topic it’s very broad and, consequently, the current consultation has considered publications with health inequalities as a focus - however, we welcome feedback on health inequalities in publications more generally.

Some statistics on health inequalities may be covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

Question

COVID-19 health inequalities monitoring in England tool

COVID-19 health inequalities monitoring in England tool (CHIME) - currently paused, produced by DHSC.

Proposal

The CHIME tool has already been paused - however, we propose to formally stop this, with some indicators that continue to be relevant moving to other tools, including the Health inequalities dashboard.

The CHIME tool was developed to regularly report on inequalities during the pandemic for factors such as confirmed cases of COVID-19, mortality rates, hospital admissions and vaccination uptake. User feedback has indicated that it is now appropriate for the tool to be discontinued.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section, we present all other statistical products on this topic area, including any other proposals to change products. These proposals may include:

• merging statistical products
• reducing the frequency of statistical products
• reducing commentary around statistical products

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current frequency	Current organisation	Proposal
Avoidable mortality in the UK	Annual	ONS	Merge with ‘Socioeconomic inequalities in avoidable mortality in England’ and ‘Socioeconomic inequalities in avoidable mortality in Wales’, and move frequency of output to biennial
Health inequalities dashboard	Annual	DHSC	Merge with the segment tool. Merging would rationalise the number of inequality tools produced by DHSC and help users effectively navigate between the sources of data
Health state life expectancies by national deprivation deciles, England	Annual	ONS	Merge with Wales and UK publications and ‘Life expectancy for local areas of the UK’ - consolidate into one biennial life expectancy publication
Health state life expectancies by national deprivation deciles, Wales	Annual	ONS	Merge with England and UK publications and ‘Life expectancy for local areas of the UK’ - consolidate into one biennial life expectancy publication
Health state life expectancies, UK	Annual	ONS	Merge with England and Wales publications on ‘Life expectancy for local areas of the UK’ - consolidate into one biennial life expectancy publication
Life expectancy for local areas of the UK	Annual	ONS	Merge with ‘Health state life expectancy’ publications, consolidating into one biennial life expectancy publication
Segment tool	Annual	DHSC	Merge with the health inequalities dashboard. Merging would rationalise the number of inequality tools produced by DHSC and help users effectively navigate between the sources of data
Socioeconomic inequalities in avoidable mortality in England	Annual	ONS	Merge with Wales publication and ‘Avoidable mortality in the UK’, and move frequency to biennial
Socioeconomic inequalities in avoidable mortality in Wales	Annual	ONS	Merge with England publication and ‘Avoidable mortality in the UK’, and move frequency to biennial
Spotlight dashboard	Irregular	DHSC	No current proposal
Trend in life expectancy by socioeconomic classification, England and Wales	Irregular	ONS	No current proposal

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

9. Major conditions

DHSC have published the case for change and strategic framework for its forthcoming major conditions strategy, which looks at 6 groups of conditions:

• cancers
• cardiovascular disease (CVD) (including stroke and diabetes)
• musculoskeletal disorders (MSK)
• mental ill health
• dementia
• chronic respiratory disease (CRD)

Together, these 6 groups of conditions drive over 60% of mortality and morbidity in England, and it is increasingly common for patients to experience 2 or more of these conditions at the same time.

Both mental health and cancer are covered separately in standalone sections within this consultation, due to the breadth of published statistical products on those areas.

There are a range of statistical outputs published on the other ‘major conditions’ areas - almost all published by DHSC.

On musculoskeletal health, the Musculoskeletal health: trends, risk factors and disparities in England report, published by DHSC, has been paused. DHSC would welcome views on the future of this report.

DHSC will be publishing an online tool alongside the major conditions strategy that will enable users to explore prevalence of a number of key conditions and risk factors (over time, by deprivation decile and by local area) as well as their health impacts and costs. DHSC Fingertips profiles already contain a range of information on prevalence, admissions, mortality and risk factors for the major conditions.

Some statistics on major conditions may be covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

There are no current proposals to stop or significantly change publications.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section, we present all other statistical products on this topic area, including any other proposals to change products. These proposals may include:

• merging statistical products
• reducing the frequency of statistical products
• reducing commentary around statistical products

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current frequency	Current organisation	Proposal
Cardiovascular disease, diabetes and kidney profiles	Irregular	DHSC	Publication will be reviewed and lesser-used indicators could be discontinued
CVD prevention packs	Annual	DHSC	Publication will be reviewed and lesser-used indicators could be discontinued
CVDPREVENT - national audit of GP records to understand cardiovascular disease and risk	Quarterly	DHSC	No current proposal
Dementia profile report	Paused	DHSC	Report is currently paused, and will resume as a quarterly publication rather than monthly. Monthly data will be available in Fingertips
Inequalities in mortality involving common physical health conditions	One-off	ONS and DHSC	ONS and DHSC are exploring the feasibility of producing more regular statistics on mortality rates for a range of conditions across socioeconomic characteristics. ONS recently published a one-off article to inform the major conditions strategy, presenting mortality rates for a range of conditions across socioeconomic characteristics. ONS and DHSC are exploring the possibility of increasing the regularity of these statistics in future and extending the analysis, pending availability of resources
Interactive health atlas of lung conditions in England (INHALE)	Irregular, approximately twice a year	DHSC	Publication will be reviewed and lesser-used indicators could be discontinued
Musculoskeletal health local profiles	Annual	DHSC	Publication will be reviewed and lesser-used indicators could be discontinued
NHS Health Check	Quarterly	DHSC	No current proposal

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

10. Mental health

A selection of these products feed data into the Fingertips profiles published by DHSC. Other products are published by NHS England and ONS.

Some statistics on mental health are covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

Question

All statistical products produced by NHS England

All statistical products on mental health produced by NHS England will be reviewed to focus on metrics that are current national priorities.

Proposal

NHS England statistical products include over 100 different statistical measures broken down in multiple ways leading to very large data files and multiple dashboards. The metrics were introduced to align with new national priorities; these were added cumulatively over time, which means that many metrics relate to out-of-date national priorities.

The proposal is to conduct a review of the metrics included in all mental health statistical products produced by NHS England, with a view to reduce the quantity of data provided and focus on current national priorities only.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

Mental Health Act, annual report

Mental Health Act, annual report - produced by NHS England.

Proposal

NHS England proposes to discontinue the annual report on the Mental Health Act due to the continued development of the Mental health services monthly statistics, which now covers more content.

Depending on feedback from the consultation, the proposal could include changes to the monthly statistics to add more measures such as rolling 12-month data points to reduce the need for an annual publication.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

Mental health bulletin, annual report

Mental health bulletin, annual report - produced by NHS England.

Proposal

NHS England proposes to discontinue the annual report on mental health due to the continued development of the Mental health services monthly statistics, which now covers more content.

Depending on feedback from the consultation, the proposal could include changes to the monthly statistics to add more measures such as rolling 12-month data points to reduce the need for an annual publication.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section, we present all other statistical products on this topic area, including any other proposals to change products. These proposals may include:

• merging statistical products
• reducing the frequency of statistical products
• reducing commentary around statistical products

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current frequency	Current organisation	Proposal
Adult psychiatric morbidity survey	Septennial (every 7 years)	NHSE	No current proposal
Children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing profile	Irregular	DHSC	Consolidate and streamline mental health publications produced by DHSC
Children living with parents in emotional distress	Currently paused	DHSC	Consolidate and streamline mental health publications produced by DHSC
Excess under 75 mortality rates in adults with serious mental illness	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Mental health and wellbeing JSNA profile	Annual	DHSC	Consolidate and streamline mental health publications produced by DHSC
Mental health of children and young people in England	Septennial (every 7 years)	NHSE	No current proposal
Mental health services monthly statistics	Monthly	NHSE	Potential added measures to monthly statistics in line with main proposals on ‘Mental Health Act statistics, annual report’ and ‘Mental health bulletin, annual report’
NHS talking therapies monthly statistics including employment advisors	Monthly	NHSE	No current proposal
Out of area placements in mental health services	Monthly	NHSE	Change of data sources to mental health services data set to reduce burden on data providers
Perinatal mental health profile	Twice yearly	DHSC	Consolidate and streamline mental health publications produced by DHSC
Physical health checks for people with serious mental illness (SMI)	Quarterly	NHSE	Change of data source to primary care data to reduce burden on data providers
Premature and excess premature mortality in adults with severe mental illness	Annual	DHSC	Consolidate and streamline mental health publications produced by DHSC
Psychological therapies, annual report on the use of IAPT services	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Severe mental illness (SMI) profile	Twice yearly	DHSC	Consolidate and streamline mental health publications produced by DHSC
Suicide prevention profile	Twice yearly	DHSC	Consolidate and streamline mental health publications produced by DHSC

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

11. Mortality

The number and frequency of mortality data published across the statistical system expanded significantly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many regular mortality statistics are published by ONS, who has recently reviewed both its statistical development programme and schedule of statistics and analysis.

As a result of this review, ONS discontinued its Monthly mortality analysis. This publication was created during the pandemic to answer important questions around mortality in a timely manner. Mortality data for England and Wales continues to be updated weekly, and the Deaths registered monthly in England and Wales dataset continues to provide number of monthly deaths by local authority.

A cross-government technical working group is currently reviewing methods used to produce statistics on excess mortality, with the aim of improving coherence in statistics across government. Additionally, this section proposes a specific review into Winter mortality for England and Wales, published annually by ONS, to improve its methodology and timeliness. To enable this review to be completed in collaboration with stakeholders, this publication has been paused.

Some statistics on mortality are covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

Question

Deaths of care home residents for England and Wales

Deaths of care home residents for England and Wales - annual report produced by ONS.

Proposal

These statistics are experimental and further development work would be required to bring them up to national statistics status. ONS proposes to cease these experimental statistics but is open to re-establishing them in future, and would value users’ views on the relative importance of these statistics over other health and social care statistics.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

Deaths of homeless people in England and Wales

Deaths of homeless people in England and Wales - annual report produced by ONS.

Proposal

These statistics are experimental and further development work would be required to bring them up to national statistics status. ONS proposes to cease these experimental statistics but is open to re-establishing them in future, and would value users’ views on the relative importance of these statistics over other health and social care statistics.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

Winter mortality in England and Wales

Winter mortality in England and Wales - annual report produced by ONS.

Proposal

ONS proposes to undergo a review, with particular focus on methodology and timeliness of the statistics. To enable this review to take place, this publication has been paused, which means the release covering the winter 2022 to 2023 containing provisional deaths and 2021 to 2022 using final deaths will not be published. A proposal on the future status on this publication will be determined following this review and the outcome of the cross-government technical working group who are currently reviewing methods for excess deaths statistics.

ONS will review this publication for a number of reasons, including:

• the COVID-19 pandemic brought into focus the sensitivity of the current method of measuring winter mortality, given a large number of respiratory deaths also occurring in non-winter months. There is additional sensitivity to climate change factors such as heatwaves and cold temperatures occurring in the control period, which further supports a review of methodology
• effective surveillance of winter mortality, including quantifying the contributions of various health risks posed by winter, in addition to describing the trends, is essential. Consequently, the timeliness and content of this statistical publication will also be reviewed, with a cross-reference to other statistics produced by UKHSA, DHSC and other organisations to improve coherence on the topic

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section, we present all other statistical products on this topic area, including any other proposals to change products. These proposals may include:

• merging statistical products
• reducing the frequency of statistical products
• reducing commentary around statistical products

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current frequency	Current organisation	Proposal
Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK	Annual	ONS	No current proposal
Climate-related mortality, England and Wales: 1988 to 2022	Ad hoc	ONS	Develop methodology to understand causes of death and broader health implications associated with extreme heat and extreme cold. This is part of a 4-year development project with global partners to improve statistics on climate and health, supported by the Wellcome Trust
Death registration summary statistics	Annual	ONS	No current proposal
Deaths registered by area of usual residence, UK	Annual	ONS	Merge with ‘Vital statistics in the UK’ to streamline the number of publications
Deaths registered in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	Remove additional 21st century mortality data tables, as published elsewhere via the NOMIS service
Deaths registered monthly in England and Wales by area of usual residence	Monthly	ONS	No current proposal
Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales	Weekly	ONS	Reduce to data only to streamline the publication
Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	No current proposal
Excess mortality during heat-periods: 1 June to 31 August 2022	Ad hoc	UKHSA and ONS	No current proposal
Excess mortality in England and English regions	Monthly	DHSC	These statistics will use an updated version of DHSC’s existing modelling approach. The baseline period will be updated and data will be presented by month instead of week. Excess mortality methods are currently subject to review
Heat mortality monitoring report	Annual	UKHSA	No current proposal
Impact of registration delays on mortality statistics in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	No current proposal
Mortality profile	Annual	DHSC	This will be expanded to incorporate some indicators currently reported in NHS England’s Compendium: mortality publication. This will increase the number of causes of death for which mortality rates are available at local authority level via DHSC’s Fingertips platform
Quarterly suicide death registrations	Quarterly	ONS	Reduce to data only to streamline the publication
Suicides in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	No current proposal
Summary hospital-level mortality indicator (SHMI)	Monthly	NHSE	No current proposal
Vital statistics in the UK: births, deaths and marriages	Annual	ONS	Merge with ‘Deaths registered by area of usual residence, UK’ to reduce the number of publications
Weekly all-cause mortality surveillance	Weekly	UKHSA	No current proposal - excess mortality methods are currently subject to review

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

12. Obesity, physical activity and diet

Obesity, physical activity and diet is a broad area with statistical products produced by a range of organisations, some of which are out of scope for this consultation such as those by Sport England.

There are 2 different data sources for childhood obesity:

• National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP), which measures the height and weight of children in reception class (aged 4 to 5) and year 6 (aged 10 to 11) to assess overweight and obesity levels in children within primary schools
• Health Survey for England (HSE), which monitors trends in the nation’s health and social care, providing information about adults aged 16 and over and children aged 0 to 15 living in private households - each survey includes measurements such as height, weight and blood pressure

There are 3 main outputs published each year using NCMP data:

• National Child Measurement Programme headline report is published by NHS England in mid-October, containing the first release of data for the previous academic year
• Obesity profile updates are published by OHID in early November following the release of data from NHS England, via an interactive tool with a written summary
• National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP): changes in the prevalence of child obesity is published in the winter or spring following the release of the above reports and is a more in-depth report looking at changes over a longer time at national level by inequalities

Some statistics on obesity, physical activity and diet are covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

Question

Physical activity data tool, Obesity profile and updates, and NCMP headline report and changes in the prevalence of child obesity

Physical activity data tool and Obesity profile produced by DHSC.

National Child Measurement Programme headline report, annual report produced by NHS England.

National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP): changes in the prevalence of child obesity, annual report produced by DHSC.

Proposal

1. Merge and consolidate content in the ‘Physical activity data tool’ and ‘Obesity profile’ and expand to include key indicators on diet as well.

2. Update the ‘National Child Measurement Programme headline report’ and ‘Obesity profile’, and publish together with the ‘National child measurement programme (NCMP): changes in the prevalence of child obesity’ report in approximately November or December each year.

These 3 NCMP reports above are currently released at different times. We are keen to understand the benefits to users if the information in all these reports were released concurrently so a more a coherent story can be told in terms of demographic trends and local level trends. However, this would mean that the new year of data would be published a month or so later than currently. We are also keen to streamline these products and bring in relevant indicators on diet, nutrition and physical activity into a new-look profile.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with these proposals?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section, we present all other statistical products on this topic area.

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current frequency	Current organisation	Proposal
Changes in the weight status of children between the first and final years of primary school	Irregular	DHSC	No current proposal
National Diet and Nutrition Survey	4-year cycle	DHSC	No current proposal
Statistics on obesity, physical activity and diet, England	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

13. Overarching health and social care outputs

There are a number of statistical outputs that look across either the whole of the health and social care system or multiple parts of it, and therefore wouldn’t make sense to include in a more specific topic-based section of this consultation - these statistical outputs are discussed in this section.

Examples of overarching health and social care outputs include the Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF), the NHS Outcomes Framework, Health index and others (see below for a list of products considered, where there are no current proposals for changes).

PHOF was established in 2012. It sets out a high-level overview of public health outcomes, at national and local level, supported by a broad set of indicators. The indicators cover the full spectrum of what is understood as public health and what can currently be measured. The PHOF is published under Section 73B of the National Health Service Act 2006 as guidance to which local authorities must have regard.

Indicators in PHOF are reviewed approximately every 3 years and were last reviewed in 2019. OHID is in the process of assessing the current indicators to ensure that they continue to be relevant and meet the needs of users. Further details will be published on the PHOF collection page.

Other recent changes to overarching health and social care outputs include:

• the Innovation Scorecard will transfer from NHS England to NHSBSA from April 2024. The data available to users is not expected to be impacted
• following a review of priorities, the Health index and associated projections project published by the ONS have been paused. At present, improvements to the latest version of the Health index and future iterations (including Health index for England 2022) will not be published. Development and releases of these statistics could continue pending available resources and capacity to deliver this project alongside prioritised activities
• the Health profile for England reports previously published by Public Health England (PHE) have been paused
• the Local authority health profiles previously published by PHE have been paused
• the Public health dashboard previously published by PHE has been paused
• the Productive healthy ageing profile has been paused
• the Clinical commissioning group outcomes indicator set (CCG OIS) was stopped in 2022 following the abolition of CCGs

DHSC is also exploring a new ‘Health trends in England’ product, which would bring together high-level public health trend data in one place in a dashboard-style product and will, over time, replace the paused products above.

Some cross-cutting statistical outputs may be covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

Question

Health Survey for England

Health Survey for England - annual report produced by NHS England.

Proposal

The pandemic has led to a decrease in response rates and a reduction in the availability of fieldwork resource to deliver face-to-face surveys. NHS England is considering options for the future of the Health Survey for England, so that it continues to be meaningful to users and adapts to these changes so that it is sustainable.

One of the options is to change the survey mode from face to face to either online or a combination of online and telephone - note that nurse visits would still be carried out face to face. These changes may impact trend data and overall content due to time limitations. 

Alongside changes to survey mode, NHS England is also considering the frequency of the Health Survey for England. NHS England is proposing to change the frequency of the Health Survey for England from annual to every other year. This change may be implemented alongside or instead of the change to survey mode.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

NHS Outcomes Framework indicators

NHS Outcomes Framework indicators - produced by NHS England.

Proposal

NHS England proposes to streamline this publication.

The NHS Outcomes Framework is a set of indicators developed by DHSC to monitor the health outcomes of adults and children in England, and provides an overview of how the NHS is performing.

The proposal is that this publication will focus mostly on indicators derived from Hospital Episode Statistics and move to signposting rather than duplicating indicators that are produced elsewhere or duplicated in PHOF or the adult social care outcomes framework. Further details are available on the March 2022 release of the NHS Outcomes Framework indicators.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

Wider Determinants of Health

Wider Determinants of Health - produced by DHSC.

Proposal

The number of indicators in this profile will be streamlined to prioritise key PHOF indicators, cost of living health indicators and other indicators around access to ‘unhealthy’ premises - for example, alcohol and fast food.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

Wider impacts of COVID-19 on health tool (WICH)

Wider impacts of COVID-19 on health tool (WICH) - produced by DHSC.

Proposal

The WICH tool has already been paused - however, we propose to formally stop this, with some indicators that continue to be relevant moving to other Fingertips profiles.

The WICH tool was developed to regularly report on the wider impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. User feedback has indicated that it is now appropriate for the tool to be discontinued.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section, we present all other statistical products on this topic area, including any other proposals to change products. These proposals may include:

• merging statistical products
• reducing the frequency of statistical products
• reducing commentary around statistical products

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current frequency	Current organisation	Proposal
Local health	Irregular	DHSC	Review and streamline content and functionality of this publication. Close down GeoClip tool and ensure essential functionality is maintained in Fingertips
NICE technology appraisals in the NHS in England (Innovation Scorecard)	Biannually	NHSE	No current proposal
Public Health Outcomes Framework	Annual	DHSC	No current proposal

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

14. Primary care, community health and oral health

NHS England, DHSC, UKHSA and NHSBSA all produce statistics around primary care, community and oral health, which have been considered as part of this consultation.

Dental commissioning statistics, produced by NHS England, has already been stopped. However, NHSBSA, an arm’s length body of DHSC, has begun to publish regular dental statistics that will continue to be developed to cover the data previously published by NHS England. Alongside this, NHS England is also working with NHSBSA to transfer NHS dental statistics to NHSBSA from August 2024.

A new publication within this topic area is Submissions via online consultation systems in general practice produced by NHS England. We welcome feedback on this.

Some primary care, community health and oral health statistical outputs may be covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

Question

New dental profile

A new DHSC dental Fingertips profile is being developed by DHSC.

Proposal

A new dental Fingertips profile is being developed to provide a similar set of indicators to the GP profiles for patients and also draw in wider key oral health metrics. We will regularly review this new dental profile, and seek to add new indicators and data where useful and appropriate.

The initial release of indicators provides an overview of data that is important to dentistry professionals, commissioners and patients, such as:

• how many adults have been seen in the last 24 months
• how many children have been seen in the last 12 months
• how much of commissioned dental activity has been delivered in the local area

Users are able to compare the outcomes of indicators to other local areas and view how the indicators are changing over time.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

Appointments in general practice

Appointments in general practice - produced by NHS England.

Proposal

We will consolidate the 2 existing Excel documents into a single Excel summary, with breakdowns from national level down to general practice level of all measures.

We will look to reduce the number of different CSV files while having minimal impact on available cross-tabulations. A mapping file will be provided that will allow aggregations up to primary care network, sub-integrated care board, integrated care board, regional and national when joined with the CSV spreadsheets. 

Finally, we will be removing breakdowns of GP appointments at a daily level and only presenting the figures at a monthly level. 

This will make the process more efficient without reducing the quality or quantity of data available to users and improve the usefulness of the outputs.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

GP patient survey

GP patient survey - produced by NHS England.

Proposal

NHS England proposes to review the survey and streamline where elements are no longer required. It will be reviewed alongside other NHS England surveys on other topic areas and is currently being redeveloped with new survey questions being designed.

One proposed change to improve coherence is for the dental section of the GP patient survey to be published alongside the main survey, rather than separately.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section, we present all other statistical products on this topic area, including any other proposals to change products. These proposals may include:

• merging statistical products
• reducing the frequency of statistical products
• reducing commentary around statistical products

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current frequency	Current organisation	Proposal
Adult oral health survey	Ad hoc	DHSC	No current proposal
Community services statistics	Monthly	NHSE	No current proposal
Dependency forming medicines - England	Annual	NHSBSA	No current proposal
Fit notes issued by GP practices, England	Quarterly	NHSE	No current proposal
General pharmaceutical services - England	Annual	NHSBSA	No current proposal
GP in-hours syndromic surveillance	Weekly	UKHSA	No current proposal
GP out-of-hours syndromic surveillance	Weekly	UKHSA	No current proposal
GP profiles for patients	Monthly	DHSC	Review and streamline DHSC GP products
Health and care of people with learning disabilities	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Hormone replacement therapy - England	Annual	NHSBSA	No current proposal
Hospital tooth extractions in 0 to 19 year olds	Annual	DHSC	No current proposal
Medicine used in mental health - England	Quarterly	NHSBSA	No current proposal
National general practice profiles	Annual	DHSC	Review and streamline DHSC GP products
NHS dental statistics	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
NHS payments to general practice	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Oral health survey of 5 year old children	Biennial	DHSC	No current proposal
Patients registered at a general practice	Monthly	NHSE	No current proposal
Prescribing costs in hospitals and the community - England	Annual	NHSBSA	No current proposal
Prescribing for diabetes - England	Annual	NHSBSA	No current proposal
Prescription cost analysis - England	Annual	NHSBSA	No current proposal
Primary care dementia data	Monthly	NHSE	No current proposal
Quality and Outcomes Framework	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

15. Smoking, drugs and alcohol

In some instances, consolidation of statistics has already been considered. Following a consultation in 2022, on lifestyles compendia reports (PDF, 591KB), the following 4 statistical products produced by NHS England have been merged into a single publication called Statistics on public health:

• Statistics on alcohol, England
• Statistics on drug misuse, England
• Statistics on smoking, England
• Statistics on obesity, physical activity and diet, England

Reproducible analytical pipelines are also in production for this product. This represents a recent example of improving efficiency on these topics.

A separate survey collecting detailed feedback on specific statistics on substance misuse treatment for adults and young people, and in secure settings is being planned by DHSC.

Other proposals and statistics on smoking, drugs and alcohol are included in this section for your feedback.

Some statistics on smoking, drugs and alcohol are covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

Question

Statistics on women’s smoking status at time of delivery: England

Statistics on women’s smoking status at time of delivery: England - produced by NHS England.

Proposal

The data source for this publication will be changed to the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS).

This proposal has been driven by the need to reduce burden on data collection. The proposal is to decommission the original data collection and merge the publication into the Maternity services monthly statistics publication. This will increase the potential for additional breakdowns to be included.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section, we present all other statistical products on this topic area, including any other proposals to change products. These proposals may include:

• merging statistical products
• reducing the frequency of statistical products
• reducing commentary around statistical products

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current frequency	Current organisation	Proposal
Adult smoking habits in the UK	Annual	ONS	No current proposal
Local alcohol profiles for England (LAPE)	Biannual	DHSC	Publication will be reviewed and lesser-used indicators could be discontinued
Local tobacco control profiles	Biannual	DHSC	Publication will be reviewed and lesser-used indicators could be discontinued
Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England	Approximately every 2 years	NHSE	No current proposal
Statistics on NHS stop smoking services in England	Quarterly	NHSE	No current proposal
Statistics on public health	Annual	NHSE	Remove charts that use OHID data and continue to signpost to the OHID Fingertips tool where the admissions relating to alcohol data is published. There will be no change in the data available
Substance misuse treatment for adults	Annual	DHSC	No current proposal
Substance misuse treatment for young people	Annual	DHSC	No current proposal
Substance misuse treatment in secure settings	Annual	DHSC	No current proposal

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

16. Urgent, emergency and acute care

This section incorporates a wide range of work areas covering urgent and emergency care (UEC) and diagnostics.

Data is published to monitor various constitutional standards (such as 111 call answer times, ambulance response times, A&E 4-hour performance and diagnostic waiting times), and to provide information on acute bed availability and occupancy, and wider hospital activity (across UEC, diagnostic, and inpatient and outpatient settings).

Future plans for UEC publications include consolidating publication sources and a move towards more record-level information, allowing additional granularity of information to be published to meet user needs.

Recent policy reviews in the UEC area have included the clinical review of access standards (CRS) and a focus on UEC performance with recovery targets for A&E (76%) and Category 2 ambulance response time (30 minutes).

Some statistics on this area may be covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

Question

Critical care bed capacity and urgent operations cancelled

Critical care bed capacity and urgent operations cancelled - produced by NHS England.

Proposal

NHS England proposes to discontinue this publication as most data items have an equivalent in the Urgent and emergency care daily situation reports.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

Patient level activity and costing

Patient level activity and costing - produced by NHS England.

Proposal

NHS England proposes to discontinue this publication as the content will be merged into the National cost collection for the NHS data publication.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section, we present all other statistical products on this topic area.

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current frequency	Current organisation	Proposal
A&E attendances and emergency admissions	Weekly	NHSE	No current proposal
Ambulance quality indicators	Monthly	NHSE	No current proposal
Bed availability and occupancy	Various	NHSE	No current proposal
Compendium: emergency readmissions to hospital within 30 days of discharge	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Emergency department syndromic surveillance	Weekly	UKHSA	No current proposal
Hospital accident and emergency activity	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Integrated urgent care aggregate data collection (IUC ADC)	Monthly	NHSE	No current proposal
National ambulance syndromic surveillance	Weekly	UKHSA	No current proposal
NHS 111 patient experience survey	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Provisional accident and emergency quality indicators for England	Monthly	NHSE	No current proposal
Remote health advice syndromic surveillance	Weekly	UKHSA	No current proposal
Virtual ward capacity and occupancy	Monthly	NHSE	No current proposal

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

17. Workforce and estates

There are a large number of publications produced by NHS England to varying frequencies in this domain. Products in this area are continually reviewed, production processes updated and content changes made with incremental changes introduced where appropriate to ensure that key information is available in the public domain.

There are several changes to statistical outputs for workforce and estates-related publications produced by NHS England that are proposed in this consultation. Most are related to ensuring production processes are efficient while still providing the data users need.

Some statistics on this area may be covered by other topic areas. If you are unable to find a publication you are interested in, refer to the directory at Annex A, which outlines which topics publications have been allocated to for the consultation.

How you use these publications

Questions

Please explain which statistics you use on this topic area and summarise how you use them.

What changes to statistics on this topic area might be beneficial for you in the future and why?

Proposals to stop or significantly change publications

Question

General practitioner workforce in alternative settings

General practitioner workforce in alternative settings - ad hoc publication produced by NHS England.

Proposal

NHS England proposes to formally discontinue this series, which has only been published twice in 2019 as experimental statistics. The data is no longer collected.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Question

Independent healthcare provider workforce statistics

Independent healthcare provider workforce statistics - biannual report produced by NHS England.

Proposal

NHS England proposes to discontinue this biannual report. Publication was paused in 2021 because the report does not provide an accurate view of the workforce in these settings as not all providers submit data.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Please add any additional feedback on this proposed change.

Other proposals for this topic

In this section, we present all other statistical products on this topic area, including any other proposals to change products. These proposals may include:

• merging statistical products
• reducing the frequency of statistical products
• reducing commentary around statistical products

Note: for publications in this table with no current proposal, we will still be reviewing aspects such as their continued publication and their length, format and frequency over the coming months.

Question

Please highlight if any proposals or changes to any of the products in the table below would have a large impact on you.

Please explain why and make it clear which publications your comments relate to.

Publication	Current frequency	Current organisation	Proposal
Data on written complaints	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
Dental earnings and expenses	Annual	NHSE	Reduce some of the data-specific pages in the publication and make available in CSV format or Power BI dashboard instead. Merge and restructure the 4 time series Excel data files into one
Dentists’ working patterns, motivation and morale	Biannually	NHSE	Reduce supporting commentary
Estates returns information collection	Annual	NHSE	No current proposal
General practice workforce	Monthly	NHSE	Merge publication with ‘Primary care network workforce’ series. Turn the published timeseries tables into rolling series, with earlier periods removed at each release. This is to improve coherence and create efficiencies
GP earnings and expenses estimates	Annual	NHSE	Reduce supporting commentary
National NHS staff survey	Annual	NHSE	Review to assess whether any elements are no longer required
NHS sickness absence rates	Monthly	NHSE	No current proposal
NHS staff earnings estimates	Quarterly	NHSE	No current proposal
NHS surplus land	Quarterly	NHSE	Review approach to data quality-related outputs, moving them to HTML format and including static information
NHS vacancy statistics, England	Quarterly	NHSE	Remove statistics that are based on the Trac and Electronic Staff Record (ESR) data. We would like to understand if or how users make use of the Trac and ESR data sources within this publication and invite feedback
NHS workforce statistics	Monthly	NHSE	Remove Excel pivot tables but continue to provide the underlying data in CSV format. Reduce duplication where identical data is provided in different formats: retire the ‘Redundancies table’ from the ‘Reason for leaving’ series, retire ‘National time series in NHS and core orgs’ summary tables. This is to reduce overlaps and improve efficiency where data is duplicated. Reduce the ‘Equality and diversity in trust and core orgs’ to every 6 months (currently quarterly), on the basis that this only changes slowly over time
Patient-led assessments of the care environment (PLACE)	Annual	NHSE	Review data quality statement, simplify and provide in HTML format. Remove the PowerPoint presentation and replace with limited additional Power BI pages.
Primary care network workforce	Monthly	NHSE	Merge publication with ‘General practice workforce’ series to improve coherence and create efficiencies by combining publications covering related topics
Primary care workforce quarterly update	Quarterly	NHSE	Review the need for GP locum data lag

Question

Please add any additional feedback around these proposals or statistics.

18. Any other topic area

We understand that there may be statistical products not captured in the topic areas listed in this consultation that users wish to provide feedback on.

Question

If you have any feedback on statistical products not covered elsewhere, please outline it here.

How to respond

ONS, DHSC, UKHSA, NHSBSA and NHS England invite responses on these proposals and any wider feedback on the health and social care statistical landscape.

Respond through our online consultation survey.

If you have any queries on this consultation or require an alternative format, email statistics@dhsc.gov.uk. Do not send your consultation answers or any personal information to this email address.

The consultation is open for 12 weeks. Submit your responses to the questions by 11:59pm on 5 March 2024.

Annex A: product directory

Publication	Current frequency	Organisation	Topic
A&E attendances and emergency admissions	Weekly	NHSE	Urgent and emergency care
Abortion statistics for England and Wales: 2021	Annual	DHSC	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Admissions for children with long-term conditions	Annual	DHSC	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Adult oral health survey	Ad hoc	DHSC	Primary care, community health and oral health
Adult psychiatric morbidity survey	Septennial	NHSE	Mental health
Adult smoking habits in the UK	Annual	ONS	Smoking, drugs and alcohol
Adult social care activity and Finance Report, England	Annual	NHSE	Adult social care
Adult social care in England, monthly statistics	Monthly	DHSC	Adult social care
Adult social care statistics in England: an overview	Annual	NHSE	Adult social care
Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK	Annual	ONS	Mortality
Ambulance quality indicators	Monthly	NHSE	Urgent and emergency care
Appointments in general practice	Monthly	NHSE	Primary care, community health and oral health
Autism statistics	Quarterly	NHSE	Disability, learning disabilities and autism
Avoidable mortality in the UK	Annual	ONS	Health inequalities
Baby names in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Bed availability and occupancy	Quarterly	NHSE	Urgent and emergency care
Birth characteristics in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Births by parents’ characteristics in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Births by parents’ country of birth	Annual	ONS	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Births in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Breast screening programme, England	Annual	NHSE	Elective activity
Breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks after birth	Quarterly	DHSC	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Cancelled elective operations	Quarterly	NHSE	Elective activity
Cancer registration statistics	Annual	NHSE	Cancer
Cancer survival in England	Annual	NHSE	Cancer
Cardiovascular disease, diabetes and kidney profiles	Irregular	DHSC	Major conditions
Care homes and estimating the self-funding population (England)	Annual	ONS	Adult social care
Case-mix adjusted percentage of cancers diagnosed at stages 1 and 2	Annual	NHSE	Cancer
CCG outcomes indicator set	Quarterly	NHSE	Overarching health and social care outputs
Cervical screening programme	Annual	NHSE	Elective activity
Changes in the weight status of children between the first and final years of primary school	Irregular	DHSC	Obesity, physical activity and diet
Child and infant mortality	Annual	ONS	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Child development outcomes at 2 to 2 and a half years	Quarterly	DHSC	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Child education	Annual	DHSC	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Child health profiles	Annual	DHSC	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Childhood vaccination coverage statistics - England	Annual	NHSE	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing profile	Irregular	DHSC	Mental health
Children living with parents in emotional distress	Currently paused	DHSC	Mental health
Climate-related mortality, England and Wales: 1988 to 2022	Ad hoc	ONS	Mortality
Community services statistics	Monthly	NHSE	Primary care, community health and oral health
Compendium: emergency readmissions to hospital within 30 days of discharge	Annual	NHSE	Urgent and emergency care
Conceptions in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Consultant-led outpatient referrals	Monthly	NHSE	Elective activity
Consultant-led referral to treatment waiting times	Monthly	NHSE	Elective activity
Coronavirus as recorded in primary care	Ad hoc	NHSE	COVID-19
COVID-19 health inequalities monitoring in England tool (CHIME)	Currently paused	DHSC	Health inequalities
Critical care bed capacity and urgent operations cancelled	Currently paused	NHSE	Urgent and emergency care
CVD prevention packs	Annual	DHSC	Major conditions
CVDPREVENT - national audit of GP records to understand cardiovascular disease and risk	Quarterly	DHSC	Major conditions
Data on written complaints	Annual	NHSE	Workforce and estates
Death registration summary statistics	Annual	ONS	Mortality
Deaths of care home residents, England and Wales	Annual	ONS	Mortality
Deaths of homeless people	Annual	ONS	Mortality
Deaths registered by area of usual residence, UK	Annual	ONS	Mortality
Deaths registered in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	Mortality
Deaths registered monthly in England and Wales by area of usual residence	Monthly	ONS	Mortality
Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales	Weekly	ONS	Mortality
Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	Mortality
Deferred payment agreements	Annual	NHSE	Adult social care
Dementia profile report	Currently paused	DHSC	Major conditions
Dental earnings and expenses	Annual	NHSE	Workforce and estates
Dentists’ working patterns, motivation and morale	Biannual	NHSE	Workforce and estates
Dependency forming medicines - England	Annual	NHSBSA	Primary care, community health and oral health
Diagnostic imaging dataset	Annual and monthly	NHSE	Elective activity
Diagnostics waiting times and activity data	Monthly	NHSE	Elective activity
Direct access audiology waiting times	Monthly	NHSE	Elective activity
Emergency department syndromic surveillance	Weekly	UKHSA	Urgent and emergency care
Emergency presentations of cancer: quarterly data	Quarterly	NHSE	Cancer
Estates returns information collection	Annual	NHSE	Workforce and estates
Estimating the size of the self-funding population in the community, England	Annual	ONS	Adult social care
Excess mortality during heat-periods: 1 June to 31 August 2022	Ad hoc	UKHSA and ONS	Mortality
Excess mortality in England and English regions	Monthly	DHSC	Mortality
Excess under 75 mortality rates in adults with serious mental illness	Annual	NHSE	Mental health
Female genital mutilation	Quarterly	NHSE	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Fit notes issued by GP practices, England	Quarterly	NHSE	Primary care, community health and oral health
General pharmaceutical services - England	Annual	NHSBSA	Primary care, community health and oral health
General practice workforce	Monthly	NHSE	Workforce and estates
General practitioner workforce in alternative settings	Ad hoc	NHSE	Workforce and estates
GP earnings and expenses estimates	Annual	NHSE	Workforce and estates
GP in-hours syndromic surveillance	Weekly	UKHSA	Primary care, community health and oral health
GP out-of-hours syndromic surveillance	Weekly	UKHSA	Primary care, community health and oral health
GP patient survey	Annual	NHSE	Primary care, community health and oral health
GP profiles for patients	Monthly	DHSC	Primary care, community health and oral health
Guardianship under the Mental Health Act, 1983	Biennial	NHSE	Adult social care
Health and care of people with learning disabilities	Annual	NHSE	Primary care, community health and oral health
Health index in England	Annual	ONS	Overarching health and social care outputs
Health inequalities dashboard	Annual	DHSC	Health inequalities
Health state life expectancies by national deprivation deciles, England	Annual	ONS	Health inequalities
Health state life expectancies by national deprivation deciles, Wales	Annual	ONS	Health inequalities
Health state life expectancies, UK	Annual	ONS	Health inequalities
Health Survey for England	Annual	NHSE	Overarching health and social care outputs
Health visitor services delivery metrics	Quarterly	DHSC	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Heat mortality monitoring report	Annual	UKHSA	Mortality
Hormone replacement therapy - England	Annual	NHSBSA	Primary care, community health and oral health
Hospital accident and emergency activity	Annual	NHSE	Urgent and emergency care
Hospital admitted patient care activity	Annual	NHSE	Elective activity
Hospital outpatient activity	Annual	NHSE	Elective activity
Hospital tooth extractions in 0 to 19 year olds	Annual	DHSC	Primary care, community health and oral health
Impact of registration delays on mortality statistics in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	Mortality
Independent healthcare provider workforce statistics	Biannual	NHSE	Workforce and estates
Index of cancer survival	Annual	NHSE	Cancer
Inequalities in mortality involving common physical health conditions	One-off	ONS and DHSC	Major conditions
Influenza vaccine uptake in school-age children	Monthly	UKHSA	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Influenza vaccine uptake in school-age children	Annual	UKHSA	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Integrated urgent care aggregate data collection (IUC ADC)	Monthly	NHSE	Urgent and emergency care
Interactive health atlas of lung conditions in England (INHALE)	Irregular (approximately biennial)	DHSC	Major conditions
Learning disability profiles	Currently paused	DHSC	Disability, learning disabilities and autism
Learning disability services monthly statistics	Monthly	NHSE	Disability, learning disabilities and autism
Life expectancy for local areas of the UK	Annual	ONS	Health inequalities
Life expectancy in care homes (England and Wales)	Annual	ONS	Adult social care
Local alcohol profiles for England (LAPE)	Biannual	DHSC	Smoking, drugs and alcohol
Local health	Irregular	DHSC	Overarching health and social care outputs
Local tobacco control profiles	Biannual	DHSC	Smoking, drugs and alcohol
Maternity services monthly statistics	Monthly	NHSE	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Measures from the adult social care outcomes framework, England	Annual	NHSE	Adult social care
Medicine used in mental health - England	Quarterly	NHSBSA	Primary care, community health and oral health
Mental Capacity Act 2005, deprivation of liberty safeguards	Annual	NHSE	Adult social care
Mental Health Act statistics	Annual	NHSE	Mental health
Mental health and wellbeing JSNA profile	Annual	DHSC	Mental health
Mental health bulletin	Annual	NHSE	Mental health
Mental health of children and young people in England	Septennial	NHSE	Mental health
Mental health services monthly statistics	Monthly	NHSE	Mental health
Mixed sex accommodation breaches	Monthly	NHSE	Elective activity
Monthly mortality analysis, England and Wales	Monthly	ONS	Mortality
Mortality profile	Annual	DHSC	Mortality
Musculoskeletal health local profiles	Annual	DHSC	Major conditions
Musculoskeletal health: trends, risk factors and disparities in England	Currently paused	DHSC	Major conditions
National ambulance syndromic surveillance	Weekly	UKHSA	Urgent and emergency care
National cancer patient experience survey	Annual	NHSE	Cancer
National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP): changes in the prevalence of child obesity	Annual	DHSC	Obesity, physical activity and diet
National Child Measurement Programme, England	Annual	NHSE	Obesity, physical activity and diet
National diet and nutrition survey	Quadrennial	DHSC	Obesity, physical activity and diet
National flu and COVID-19 surveillance reports	Weekly	UKHSA	COVID-19
National general practice profiles	Annual	DHSC	Primary care, community health and oral health
National NHS staff survey	Annual	NHSE	Workforce and estates
NCARDRS congenital anomaly statistics	Annual	NHSE	Child, maternal and reproductive health
NHS 111 patient experience survey	Annual	NHSE	Urgent and emergency care
NHS dental statistics	Annual	NHSE	Primary care, community health and oral health
NHS Health Check	Quarterly	DHSC	Major conditions
NHS maternity statistics, England	Annual	NHSE	Child, maternal and reproductive health
NHS outcomes framework indicators	Annual	NHSE	Overarching health and social care outputs
NHS payments to general practice	Annual	NHSE	Primary care, community health and oral health
NHS sickness absence rates	Monthly	NHSE	Workforce and estates
NHS staff earnings estimates	Quarterly	NHSE	Workforce and estates
NHS surplus land	Quarterly	NHSE	Workforce and estates
NHS talking therapies monthly statistics including employment advisors	Monthly	NHSE	Mental health
NHS vacancy statistics, England	Quarterly	NHSE	Workforce and estates
NHS workforce statistics	Monthly	NHSE	Workforce and estates
NICE technology appraisals in the NHS in England (Innovation Scorecard)	Biannual	NHSE	Overarching health and social care outputs
Obesity profile	Irregular	DHSC	Obesity, physical activity and diet
Oral health survey of 5 year old children	Biennial	DHSC	Primary care, community health and oral health
Out of area placements in mental health Services	Monthly	NHSE	Mental health
Outcomes for disabled people in the UK	Irregular	ONS	Disability, learning disabilities and autism
Palliative and end of life care factsheet	Quarterly	DHSC	End of life care
Palliative and end of life care profiles	Annual	DHSC	End of life care
Patient level activity and costing	Annual	NHSE	Overarching health and social care outputs
Patient-led assessments of the care environment (PLACE)	Annual	NHSE	Workforce and estates
Patients registered at a GP practice	Monthly	NHSE	Primary care, community health and oral health
Patterns of care factsheet	Annual	DHSC	End of life care
Perinatal mental health profile	Biannual	DHSC	Mental health
Personal social services adult social care survey, England	Annual	NHSE	Adult social care
Physical activity data tool	Irregular	DHSC	Obesity, physical activity and diet
Physical health checks for people with serious mental illness (SMI)	Quarterly	NHSE	Mental health
Place of death factsheets	Quarterly	DHSC	End of life care
Premature and excess premature mortality in adults with severe mental illness	Annual	DHSC	Mental health
Prescribing costs in hospitals and the community - England	Annual	NHSBSA	Primary care, community health and oral health
Prescribing for diabetes - England	Annual	NHSBSA	Primary care, community health and oral health
Prescription cost analysis - England	Annual	NHSBSA	Primary care, community health and oral health
Primary care dementia data	Monthly	NHSE	Primary care, community health and oral health
Primary care network workforce	Monthly	NHSE	Workforce and estates
Primary care workforce quarterly update	Quarterly	NHSE	Workforce and estates
Provisional accident and emergency quality indicators for England	Monthly	NHSE	Urgent and emergency care
Provisional monthly Hospital Episode Statistics for admitted patient care, outpatient and accident and emergency data	Monthly	NHSE	Elective activity
Psychological therapies, annual report on the use of IAPT services	Annual	NHSE	Mental health
Public Health Outcomes Framework	Annual	DHSC	Overarching health and social care outputs
Quality and Outcomes Framework	Annual	NHSE	Primary care, community health and oral health
Quarterly conceptions of women under 18 years, England and Wales	Quarterly	ONS	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Quarterly suicide death registrations	Quarterly	ONS	Mortality
Registered blind and partially sighted people	Triennial	NHSE	Adult social care
Remote health advice syndromic surveillance	Weekly	UKHSA	Urgent and emergency care
Reproductive health: annual update	Annual	DHSC	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Routes to diagnosis	Annual	NHSE	Cancer
Safeguarding adults	Annual	NHSE	Adult social care
Seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccination uptake in frontline healthcare workers	Up to weekly in winter	UKHSA	COVID-19
Segment tool	Annual	DHSC	Health inequalities
Severe mental illness (SMI) profile	Biannual	DHSC	Mental health
Sexual and reproductive health services, England (contraception)	Annual	NHSE	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Smoking, drinking and drug use among young People in England	Biennial (approximately)	NHSE	Smoking, drugs and alcohol
Socioeconomic inequalities in avoidable mortality in England	Annual	ONS	Health inequalities
Socioeconomic inequalities in avoidable mortality in Wales	Annual	ONS	Health inequalities
Spotlight dashboard	Irregular	DHSC	Health inequalities
Statistics on NHS stop smoking services in England	Quarterly	NHSE	Smoking, drugs and alcohol
Statistics on obesity, physical activity and diet, England	Annual	NHSE	Obesity, physical activity and diet
Statistics on public health	Annual	NHSE	Smoking, drugs and alcohol
Statistics on women’s smoking status at time of delivery: England	Quarterly	NHSE	Smoking, drugs and alcohol
Substance misuse treatment for adults	Annual	DHSC	Smoking, drugs and alcohol
Substance misuse treatment for young people	Annual	DHSC	Smoking, drugs and alcohol
Substance misuse treatment in secure settings:	Annual	DHSC	Smoking, drugs and alcohol
Suicide prevention profile	Biannual	DHSC	Mental health
Suicides in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	Mortality
Summary hospital-level mortality indicator (SHMI)	Monthly	NHSE	Mortality
Survey of adult carers in England	Biennial	NHSE	Adult social care
Trend in life expectancy by socioeconomic classification, England and Wales	Irregular	ONS	Health inequalities
UK coronavirus dashboard	Weekly	UKHSA	COVID-19
UKHSA data dashboard	Weekly	UKHSA	COVID-19
Under 16 cancer patient experience survey	Annual	NHSE	Cancer
Unexplained deaths in infancy	Annual	ONS	Child, maternal and reproductive health
Virtual ward capacity and occupancy	Monthly	NHSE	Urgent and emergency care
Vital statistics in the UK: births deaths and marriages	Annual	ONS	Mortality
Weekly all-cause mortality surveillance	Weekly	UKHSA	Mortality
Wider determinants of health	Irregular	DHSC	Overarching health and social care outputs
Wider impacts of COVID-19 on health tool (WICH)	Currently paused	DHSC	Overarching health and social care outputs
Winter mortality in England and Wales	Annual	ONS	Mortality

Privacy notice

This notice sets out how we will use the information collected through this consultation, as well as your rights as a respondent under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Data controller

DHSC is the data controller.

What information we collect about you

When you respond to the consultation online, we will collect information on:

• whether you are responding as an individual member of the public or on behalf of an organisation
• the name of your organisation and where your organisation operates (if you are responding on behalf of an organisation)
• what sector you work in
• what the main focus of your work is

We also ask for some personal information, which we will collect if you choose to respond. This includes:

• your age
• where you live
• your email address
• your IP address

Do not include any other personal information in your responses to free text questions in the survey.

How we use your information

We collect your information as part of the consultation process:

• for statistical purposes, for example to understand how representative the results are and whether views and experiences vary across organisations, or areas of the UK
• so that DHSC can contact you for further information about your response
• to reduce the likelihood of individuals being able to submit multiple responses

If you have agreed, DHSC can contact you to allow you to amend or delete your response or to send you a reminder before the consultation closes, if you have not submitted your final response.

Legal basis for processing your information

The legal basis for processing your information is to perform a task carried out in the public interest. In this case asking the public to provide their views on the future of health and social care statistics.

Who your information may be shared with

Responses to the online consultation may be seen by:

• DHSC officials running the consultation process
• officials from other government departments and arm’s length bodies who will be reviewing and analysing the consultation responses. This includes NHS England, ONS, UKHSA and NHSBSA, who will be data processors. These organisations will not be given personally identifiable data
• DHSC’s third-party supplier (SocialOptic), who is responsible for running and hosting the online survey

International data transfers and storage locations

Storage of data by DHSC is provided via secure computing infrastructure on servers located in the European Economic Area. DHSC platforms are subject to extensive security protections and encryption measures.

Storage of data by SocialOptic is provided via secure servers located in the UK.

How long we keep your information

We will hold your personal information for up to one year after the online consultation closes. Anonymised information will be kept indefinitely.

We will ask SocialOptic to securely delete the information held on their system one year after the online consultation closes.

How we protect your information and keep it secure

DHSC uses a range of technical, organisational and administrative security measures to protect any information we hold in our records from:

• loss
• misuse
• unauthorised access
• disclosure
• alteration
• destruction

We have written procedures and policies that are regularly audited and reviewed at a senior level.

SocialOptic is Cyber Essentials certified. This is a government-backed scheme that helps organisations protect themselves against the most common cyber attacks.

Your rights

By law, you have a number of rights and processing your data does not take away or reduce these rights, under the UK GDPR and the UK Data Protection Act 2018.

You have the right to:

• ask for and receive copies of information about you
• get information about you corrected if you think it’s inaccurate
• limit how your information is used, for example you can ask for it to be restricted if you think it’s inaccurate
• object to your information being used
• get information deleted

Some of these rights might not apply when the information is being used for research. We will let you know if this is the case.

Contact us or make a complaint

We will always try to respond to concerns or queries that you have about your data.

If you are unhappy about how your information is being used, or if you want to complain about how your data is used as part of this consultation, you should email data_protection@dhsc.gov.uk or write to:

Data Protection Officer

39 Victoria Street

London

SW1H 0EU

If you are still not satisfied, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You can find out how to contact them at the ICO website. Their postal address is:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and we will update it if necessary. All updated versions will be marked by a change note on the consultation page.