Guidance

UKHSA statistical work plan, financial year 2023 to 2024

Published 30 June 2023

© Crown copyright 2023

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ukhsa-statistical-work-plan/ukhsa-statistical-work-plan-financial-year-2023-to-2024

Foreword

This is the first statistical work plan for the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). Our focus has been to ensure that UKHSA can release more of the right data and statistics in the right way and at the right time. This guiding principle helps illustrate a commitment to exhibit trustworthiness, openness and transparency with our statistics. We believe it is crucial for us to demonstrate these attributes in our interactions with decision makers and the public when we deliver public health advice and prepare for, prevent and respond to health security threats.

UKHSA became fully operational on 1 October 2021, with wide ranging responsibilities around securing the nation’s health. It brought together expertise and capabilities from a range of different predecessor organisations: Public Health England, NHS Test and Trace and the Joint Biosecurity Centre. Each predecessor organisation had its own data assets, platforms and statistical reporting. The variety of data sources, collection techniques, statistical measures and purposes for publishing statistics across UKHSA leads to a wide range of potential future developments. These developments could be across data storage, production processes, analytical techniques or dissemination and communication methods.

This publication sets out UKHSA’s statistical work plan for the financial year ending March 2024. It gives a high-level overview of priorities and anticipated developments for official statistics and other statistical publications. It outlines improvements made during 2022 to 2023 and the plans for further development during the next 12 months.

UKHSA official statistics are produced and published in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics. This statistical work plan is published in line with T4.2 of the Code of Practice for Statistics to ensure that we are open and transparent about our progress towards meeting our priorities and objectives, whilst ensuring users and stakeholders can help us prioritise our statistical plans.

Public interest and demand for data and statistics on health increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we expect this interest to continue to grow. The landscape covers a range of interconnected health topics making it imperative for UKHSA to work collaboratively with other health statistics bodies to ensure clear and coherent health statistics.

Victoria Obudulu

Head of Profession for Statistics, UK Health Security Agency

Contact email

Background

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is responsible for protecting every member of every community from the impact of infectious diseases, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents and other health threats. We provide intellectual, scientific and operational leadership at national and local level, as well as on the global stage, to make the nation’s health secure. We are an executive agency, sponsored by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

We publish a wide range of statistics to inform clinicians, decision makers, policy makers and the public about health threats. Where that remit overlaps with topics covered by other organisations, we work with them to ensure statistics are coherent, fit for purpose and are delivered for the public good.

Statistics at UKHSA

The agency currently releases around 30 official statistics series each year, as well as publications which voluntarily comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics, ad hoc publications, management information, research and analysis and technical reports. The agency also collaborates to support cross-government publications. A list of UKHSA statistical publications can be found on the Statistics at UKHSA page.

The agency disseminates its statistics in a variety of ways to suit the purpose of the publication and user needs, supporting transparency by adopting an open, clear and accessible approach to the use and release of statistics. Most publications are published as HTML reports with accompanying ODS datasets, which supports transparency and accessibility; some are published solely as datasets and others as PDF reports. The agency also created, and now regularly updates, the UK COVID-19 dashboard and is working on a new platform to cover a wider range of infectious diseases.

As well as producing and developing statistics, we provide comprehensive briefing for ministers and policy teams and draft responses to numerous parliamentary questions, Freedom of Information requests and ad hoc queries.

Within UKHSA, the core responsibility for producing statistical products lies with the teams that specialise in those particular pathogens. The teams have considerable experience and subject matter expertise in their area. They combine medical and epidemiological expertise with a range of other professions such as science, statistics and data science. They are supported by a central statistical team responsible for the interpretation and application of the Statistics Code of Practice, providing best practice guidance and support to statistics producers and building statistical capability and capacity within UKHSA. The central statistical team also leads on engagement with the wider government statistical system, working with other organisations that produce statistics related to public health matters to improve the overall coherence of messages for the public.

Our work from October 2021 to March 2023

In the period since UKHSA became fully operational, we have made improvements and developments in a number of different aspects of our statistics production and publication work.

On the publications themselves, we have:

Individual product teams made incremental changes and improvements to their publications.

Case study: The TB unit

During 2022 to 2023, the TB unit conducted a range of work to improve their statistical publications, including:

  • extensive rewriting and review of code to ensure accurate reporting from a new surveillance database with a different data structure and variables
  • improved automation of code for generating tables and figures, rather than doing this manually in Excel
  • transferring quarterly reports into HTML and meeting accessibility requirements
  • publishing their annual TB (tuberculosis) report in HTML and splitting it into smaller linked reports which meet accessibility requirements, with supplementary datasets published in ODS format
  • starting to share code with regions so that regional annual reports match up with the national annual report

This improvement journey is continuing into 2023 to 2024.

Developing policy, processes and guidance

In terms of developing policy, processes and guidance, we:

  • published UKHSA policies on pre-release access and revisions and corrections
  • developed internal guidance on statistical disclosure control, Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP), quality assurance (QA) and accessible spreadsheets, also providing advice to statistics teams on these areas
  • formalised our process for pre-announcing official statistics, and published a more comprehensive statistical release calendar including those not designated as official statistics
  • developed and implemented a process for publishing ad-hoc statistical releases

To build internal capacity and capability, we:

  • supported a range of colleagues across the agency towards professional badging in the GSG
  • formed an internal UKHSA RAP network to promote awareness and understanding of RAP across UKHSA
  • built a central statistics leadership team to support the UKHSA Statistics Head of Profession
  • developed plans for a review of all UKHSA statistics publications and carried out a pilot

Following the creation of our new organisation from a range of predecessor bodies, we undertook a census of the production teams to understand the structure of the UKHSA statistical community in the Government Statistical Service (GSS) and professional Government Statistician Group (GSG).

Case study: Team growth

In November 2021, the central statistics leadership team consisted of the Head of Profession supported by one statistician and one senior content designer. During 2022, a team was recruited from across government and beyond, bringing a range of relevant skills and experience to grow and strengthen the statistical governance and leadership within UKHSA. Team members have experience of publishing statistics and interactive statistical content in other government departments, of developing and embedding guidance, of working with teams to help them improve and of developing statistical capacity and capability more broadly. This gives a tremendous pool of experience to draw on for the future development of UKHSA statistics.

Our anticipated areas of focus between April 2023 and March 2024

In the financial year 2023 to 2024 we intend to make progress within the following 6 areas.

Undertake a comprehensive review of UKHSA statistics publications

We will undertake a full review of all UKHSA official statistics publications with the aim of improving the overall quality, presentation and consistency, ensuring products meet the highest standards of the Code of Practice. This project will include implementing action plans for publications by topic area as well as developing a recognisable and consistent UKHSA statistics brand.

We expect to conclude the review in 2024 but will continually implement improvements throughout the project timeline. Successful outcomes will include:

  • improved impact through our published statistics
  • a recognised brand for our statistics
  • improved efficiency in production processes and QA methods
  • improved accessibility

We welcome input and feedback on this from those who use our statistics, and you can do that by emailing us.

A report detailing the review and its outcomes will be published once the review has concluded.

Case study: Building on product reviews

To build on the work done in 2022 to 2023, the TB unit agreed to an internal review of their products and processes as a pilot for the broader review of statistical publications. The review was conducted between January and March 2023 and has identified a number of areas where work can be strengthened. Actions in 2023 to 2024 will include:

  • building QA into the analytical pipeline to give more robust and more efficient QA of outputs
  • using a QA template to ensure QA is recorded and auditable
  • further developing the production pipeline to automate as much processing and report production as possible
  • building on imputation techniques to improve how missing data is handled

Develop our understanding of our users

UKHSA users are a diverse group and depending on the product can include technical subject matter experts, other government departments, policy makers and interested members of the public. We intend to build a user engagement strategy to engage with users across a wide range of our statistical publications. Gaining feedback from our users will enable us to develop detailed user personas for use across the agency and ultimately ensure our statistical products can meet the varied needs of our users. To ensure our users can find the statistics they need we will improve the Statistics at UKHSA webpage to enhance the structure of the page and the user journey.

Promote statistical collaboration

Health statistics are produced by a number of other government departments and organisations such as DHSC, NHS England and the ONS. This presents a data-rich but complex statistical landscape covering a range of interconnected topics. It will therefore be important for us to work alongside these departments to ensure statistics are communicated clearly, coherently and with impact, enhancing trustworthiness, supporting appropriate usage and maintaining a dynamic and responsive health statistics ecosystem.

We intend to implement strategies to foster and support effective collaboration and facilitate the development of a joined-up statistical work programme and community for health statistics. We will continue as active members of the Health Statistics Leadership Forum, UK Health Statistics Steering Group and relevant theme groups to enhance efficiency, remove duplication and rationalise publications, which should provide a better experience for users.

Continually improve our processes and statistical outputs

We will continue to make improvements to our processes and outputs as part of business-as-usual activities. We will develop a business partnering approach to provide professional challenge and support to all teams producing statistical publications and to provide advice on interpretation and application of the Statistics Code of Practice. A key area of focus is to ensure that the correct products are designated as official statistics and to identify products which are suitable to pursue National Statistics designation from the Office for Statistics Regulation. We aim to increase the use of QA best practice across the agency and to work towards the use of Reproducible Analytical Pipelines in the production of regular statistical outputs (see RAP section below).

Individual product teams are also intending to develop their products throughout the year, including:

  • extending the descriptive trend analysis of previous TB incidence rates to give a clearer picture of changes over time, within specific geographical regions, and in sub-groups of the population, and subsequently developing a model of future TB incidence
  • publishing experimental STI statistics using new behavioural data sources

The division with responsibility for the UK COVID-19 dashboard will be looking to build on the success of the current dashboard to reflect the changing context following the end of the pandemic and subsequent user needs, as well as surfacing other relevant public health threats. The current dashboard will continue to evolve, particularly as other government organisations change the frequency and coverage of their data collections and publications.

Data platforms within UKHSA are developing and changing. We will ensure the new platform enables our outputs to continue meeting the standards set out in the Statistics Code of Practice and we will support production teams to minimise disruption to our outputs.

Develop our statistical community and profession

Building on the highly skilled analytical and scientific community we have within UKHSA, we aim to increase awareness of statistical best practice and the Statistics Code of Practice across the agency. We will design and deliver a series of seminars covering a range of topics including the Code of Practice for Statistics and best practice in the production and dissemination of official statistics. We will embed the guidance we have recently produced to improve consistency, quality and value of our statistics. We will continue to develop and disseminate guidance on key topics for development (for example best practice for data visualisation, handling missing data, communication of statistics, how to understand and meet user needs, dealing with changing geographies over time and communicating uncertainty).

Further develop our implementation of Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP)

Good analysis should be reproducible, transparent, trustworthy, auditable, efficient and high quality. RAP is a way of doing analysis in a way that meets these principles, making processes more open and robust, enabling better QA, and ultimately increasing the quality and trustworthiness of our analytical publications.

The Government Analysis Function published their Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP) strategy in June 2022, outlining their vision for the greater uptake of RAP across government over 4 years from 2022 to 2026. The strategy also gives more detail on what we mean by RAP and what the main benefits of it are.

The RAP strategy presents 3 main goals that each government department should work towards:

  1. having the right tools
  2. having the right capability
  3. having the right culture

We are committed to increasing the uptake of RAP across our analytical community and in meeting these goals. Work is ongoing, as referenced above, to develop and change our data platforms. These developments include ensuring appropriate tools are available to support the transparent development of code which can be shared. We will also focus on goals 2 and 3, promoting better awareness and understanding of RAP, and encouraging a greater readiness and motivation for the uptake of RAP across the agency. We will do this through a combination of written resources, awareness and training sessions, and by gauging current levels of implementation against our framework for RAP so that we can offer targeted support wherever it is needed.

Feedback

We welcome your views on our statistical work plan. We would encourage users to engage directly with the publication teams for any comments on specific publication. For any feedback on our cross-cutting developments and the statistical work plan more generally, please email us.

Back to top