Role of the Health and Social Care Information Centre
The Information Centre should continue to develop and maintain learning, standards and consensus with regard to information methodologies, with particular reference to comparative performance statistics.
- NHS Digital (now part of NHS England) developed and maintained standards for healthcare information methodology, including the Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator (SHMI), Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data quality standards, and reference data standards for NHS organisations. These methodologies are published with technical specifications enabling scrutiny and comparison.
- NHS England continues to maintain and develop information methodology standards following the merger with NHS Digital. Published methodologies include SHMI (with regular methodological reviews), clinical coding standards (maintained by the NHS Classifications Service), and data quality dashboards enabling trusts to assess their own data quality.
- The NHS Data Model and Dictionary provides a standardised reference for NHS information, maintained by NHS England, establishing common definitions and standards for data collection across the service.
- The Office for Statistics Regulation (part of the UK Statistics Authority) designates NHS statistics as National Statistics or Official Statistics where they meet the required standards, providing independent oversight of the quality of healthcare statistical methodology.
How was this evidence gathered?
Response
Accepted
Response
AcceptedThe government published "Hard Truths: the Journey to Putting Patients First" (Cm 8777) on 19 November 2013, responding to all 290 recommendations of the Francis Report. This followed an initial response "Patients First and Foremost" in March 2013. Key reforms included a new Chief Inspector of Hospitals, strengthened Care Quality Commission inspection regime, a statutory duty of candour, and the fit and proper person test for NHS directors. Volume 2 (Cm 8754) contains the government's detailed responses to each of the 290 recommendations. See: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7cd486ed915d63cc65d167/34658_Cm_8777_Vol_1_accessible.pdf
Published Evidence
Published assessments of progress from inspectorates, select committees, official progress reports, and other sources. Source type badge indicates whether each assessment is independent or government self-reported.
Research published 2023 marking ten years since the Francis Report found mixed results. Structural and legislative changes largely delivered (duty of candour, FPPR, CQC overhaul, revalidation, Freedom to Speak Up Guardians). However, cultural change not fully embedded; understaffing, fear of speaking up, and poor complaint handling persist in parts of the NHS.
Government published "Culture Change in the NHS" (Cm 9009) reporting progress on all 290 recommendations. Key achievements: 19 hospitals placed in special measures; those trusts recruited 109 additional doctors and 1,805 additional nurses; 129 board-level changes made; excess avoidable deaths fell by 450 in less than a year.
Government published "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (Cm 8777) in two volumes. Vol 1 set out new actions; Vol 2 provided detailed response to each of the 290 recommendations. Approximately 204 of 290 recommendations were fully accepted.