Data Quality & Sources

Workforce information is sourced from NHS Board HR and payroll systems. These are dynamic operational systems in which the data can change over time due to their live status and potential additional updates made by NHS Boards.

It is recognised that the published information does not always reflect the data used at board and regional level when planning and presenting the workforce. Accuracy of coding is crucial to the quality and credibility of the data and NES seeks to minimise such data inaccuracies. However, responsibility for data accuracy lies with the NHS Boards providing the data.

Workforce information may change slightly over time when NHS Boards make updates to their live operational systems to resolve issues that have been identified. Changes will not be made to previously published data, as part of the regular publication process, where there is little impact on the figures at a national level.

The NES workforce team continue to work with stakeholders on a number of data quality improvement projects and the published information will change over time to reflect these changes.

A variety of information on staff employed in NHSScotland is collected centrally, an overview of which can be found in the dashboards and tables available on this website. The information collected and presented within this section is used by NES and NHS Boards to support local, regional and national workforce planning, and will only be used and disclosed in connection with these purposes.

Since the publication of workforce statistics on 3 December 2019, NES has been named in legislation as a producer of official statistics. For the December 2019 publication NES voluntarily applied the UK Statistics Authority's Code of Practice for Statistics and worked to ensure full continuity in producing the NHS Workforce statistics according to the three pillars of the code of practice.

Trustworthiness

Having confidence in the people and organisations that produce statistics and data.

• NES has a strong background in producing workforce statistics and has recently expanded its team of analysts. Several members of the new NES data team have previously worked either in the ISD Workforce Intelligence team or in other ISD teams responsible for producing National Statistics. They have brought knowledge and experience of the data and a firm grasp of the requirements for producing official and national statistics.
• Throughout the transition period, NES has maintained contact with key NSS and ISD colleagues involved in workforce intelligence and workforce information systems.
• The Head of Profession for Statistics for NHS NSS, NHS24 and the Scottish Ambulance Service is now also Head of Profession for NES.
• NES receives support and training from the NSS ISD Statistical Governance Team

Quality

Using data and methods that produce assured statistics.

Throughout these early stages of the transfer of responsibilities, NES has worked closely with colleagues in ISD in order to:

• Shadow colleagues in the ISD Workforce Intelligence team
• Study and discuss the standard operating procedures relating to each aspect of data processing and analysis
• Understand and continue to apply the quality assurance processes to the input and output data
• Become familiar with data systems and the data processing codebase

NES has used the same data sources used by ISD for publishing workforce statistics prior to the transfer of responsibilities. The ISD Standard Operating processes have also been adhered to, and the existing codebase and processing tools have been used and only modified to improve performance or to implement ongoing, operational improvements.

Value

Producing statistics that support society’s need for information.

NES has produced all the quarterly statistics updates expected by stakeholders and in the established reporting formats. NES has begun to work with various stakeholders and project groups who would previously have been supported by ISD. This will ensure NES remains informed about stakeholder interests and priorities and can be responsive to changes and new requirements, as well as leading innovation and improvement in close consultation with current and potential users.