From December 2023 to March 2024, the ONS with our partners in health statistics jointly ran the health and social care statistical outputs consultation. The aim was to gather valuable user feedback, to help shape health and social care data in the future. The consultation looked at the health statistical system as a whole and invited comments on outputs published by key health data producers. As the results of the consultation are published, Greg Ceely explains how this feedback will drive improvements to our health statistics.
Health and social care statistics shine a light on some of the biggest challenges facing our population. They provide evidence for policies and health interventions at a local and national level, as well as informing a breadth of other users, including charities, local authorities, academic researchers and more. Never was this more the case than at the height of the pandemic when organisations producing health statistics expanded their publications and analyses to inform the response to the growing health emergency.
Taking stock
The end of the pandemic marked an appropriate time to take stock of the health statistical system and its outputs. Some statistics which had served a key purpose at the peak of Covid-19 became less relevant, while new interest areas in the post-pandemic world emerged. User needs and interest in health data, heightened by the pandemic, continued to evolve. The consultation was launched to help ensure health statistics add the greatest possible value to our understanding of health. This aim aligns with the recently published Sudlow Review, commissioned by the National Statistician, Sir Ian Diamond, the Chief Medical Officer for England, and NHS England’s National Director for Transformation. The review acknowledged the central part health data plays in the health of the nation, but also highlighted the need to do more to drive forward the value of health statistical outputs.
Gathering feedback
During the three-month consultation, responses were sought on important questions such as how easily people can find the statistics they need, and how much they agree with an increase in use of interactive dashboards to present outputs. Users were asked for feedback on potential changes to outputs released by the Department of Health and Social Care (including the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities), NHS Business Services Authority, UK Health Security Agency, ONS and NHS England. ONS outputs were included in the consultation topics of adult social care, child, maternal and reproductive health, disability, learning disability and autism, end of life care, health inequalities, major conditions, mortality, smoking, drugs and alcohol. We also sought feedback on overarching health and social care outputs such as the Health Index.
Proposals included merging some outputs, changing their frequency, changing their scope, pausing or stopping them, and launching new statistics.
Feedback on ONS deaths of homeless people outputs:
“This is an important output not only for people working at (government organisation) in health equity but also non-profit organisations, for whom this is their only data source in this area. Stopping this output would impede third sector work for this vulnerable group.”
Feedback on ONS births in England and Wales outputs:
“As long as the range of included statistics is unaffected, we would agree with this proposal as streamlining the sources of statistics is likely to improve efficiency for all interested parties.”
Feedback on ONS child and infant mortality outputs:
“Reducing the frequency of this data reporting would pose a direct risk to the local work we do to identify issues and improve services to reduce child mortality.”
What happens next?
This consultation has been vast, covering all health and social care statistical outputs produced by all producers of regular official statistics. Hundreds of users had their say, from the worlds of academia, health and patient organisations, local government, charities, and ‘enquiring citizens’. As a result of feedback received, we, and our partners in other health statistics providers, will consider changes and improvements to some of our health data outputs. The changes will simplify the data for users on a wide range of important topics, making it easier to navigate and interpret the most relevant information. The extent of changes differs between outputs, so improvements will be completed to different timescales. The full consultation response details the timeline for each action ONS and other organisations are taking forward.
How will ONS health outputs change?
Many of our outputs are being streamlined in some form, making it easier for users to find all of the information on a topic and more efficient for us to produce the data. Where users disagreed with suggestions, those proposals are not being actioned. Here are some examples of specific actions we are taking:
Following feedback from users, our Deaths of homeless people in England and Wales publication will continue, with work to develop the methodology to ensure more robust data.
Several births publications – Births in England and Wales, Birth characteristics in England and Wales and Births by parents’ characteristics in England and Wales – were proposed to combine into a single annual release, keeping all datasets from Births in England and Wales and key datasets from the other releases. We have already begun this work with the recent Births in England and Wales: 2023 bulletin and datasets, which included the content which was previously separate in Birth characteristics in England and Wales.
Three annual avoidable mortality publications by ONS – Avoidable mortality in the UK, and Socioeconomic inequalities in avoidable mortality in England and Socioeconomic inequalities in avoidable mortality in Wales, will be combined into a single annual release.
These, and other steps, will make our outputs more accessible and sustainable than before. You can read the full response to the consultation, including details of any changes to publications, by ONS and others, on the health and social care statistical outputs page. We are always working to improve our statistics and welcome further feedback; this can be provided on any outputs or in general to health.data@ons.gov.uk.
Greg Ceely, Head of Population Health Monitoring at the ONS