This leaflet discusses who we are and what we do. Read to find out more about: - Health and Lifestyles Knowledge - Indicators - Data Services

1. Information to support
public health
specialists

2. 2 Copyright © 2013 Health and Social Care Information Centre
Health and lifestyles
knowledge
Through our population survey programme and other
National Statistics publications, we are the leading
provider of information on key lifestyles behaviours
such as diet, smoking and drinking and public
health data on screening. Our resources can help
identify which groups might be most at risk, monitor
inequalities, compare outcomes and highlight where
there may be pressure points on services.
Population Surveys
We run a wide range of national surveys that provide
a broad picture of local populations and cover all
aspects of the population’s health including:
• Health Survey for England (HSE)
• Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Amongst
Young People
• Adult and Children’s Dental Health (separate reports)
• Infant Feeding Survey
• Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey
• Survey of Carers in Households
• What About Youth?
Our analysts and data experts have the expertise and
experience of running complex health surveys. We
can carry out surveys on behalf of other organisations,
both local and national. We can:
• offer advice on running and commissioning surveys
• commission and manage whole surveys on your
behalf
• include additional questions in existing surveys on
your behalf
• include additional sample boosts in existing surveys
on your behalf (e.g. for a certain geographical area
or a certain demographic group).
Contact us to discuss your survey requirements
enquiries@hscic.gov.uk
Information to support public health specialists
Who we are and
what we do
We are the Health and Social Care Information
Centre (HSCIC). Created as an Executive Non
Departmental Public Body (ENDPB) in April 2013, we
employ over 2,000 staff working in 19 locations across
the UK and we oversee the implementation of health
and care programmes and services that have a value
in excess of £1bn.
Our statutory functions and duties are set out in Part
9, Chapter 2 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 -
sections 252 to 275 - and in Schedule 18.
For more details on our statutory role go to
www.hscic.gov.uk/whoweare
Our work includes:
• setting standards that protect patients’
confidential information, reduce bureaucracy and
improve data quality
• delivering essential technology systems
and services that support health and care
organisations
• collecting, analysing and publishing national
data and statistical information that helps inform
decision making
• providing services that support the life-science
industry and develop the UK’s health informatics
skills base
Providing information to support better care

3. 3
Information to support public health specialists
National Statistics publications
• Smoking: Annual publications covering general
smoking prevalence, smoking during pregnancy
and use of NHS stop smoking services.
• Drinking: This yearly report is a reference point for
health issues relating to alcohol use and misuse,
providing information obtained from a number of
sources in a user-friendly format. It covers topics
such as drinking habits and behaviours among
adults and school children, drinking-related ill
health and mortality, affordability, alcohol related
hospital admissions and alcohol-related costs.
• Diet: Annual statistics on Obesity, Physical
Activity and Diet; understand how trends in
physical activity and diet are contributing to NHS
activity and health outcomes.
• Screening: These yearly publications give
information on the national breast and cervical
screening programmes. Our breast screening
publication includes information on coverage,
uptake of invitations, outcomes of screening
and cancers detected. Our cervical screening
publication includes information on coverage,
women invited and tested, as well as screening
samples examined in pathology laboratories and
referrals to colposcopy clinics.
• Immunisation: This gives information on
the coverage of national vaccination and
immunisation programmes for children and
persons aged 65 and over.
• National Child Measurement Programme:
Publishing height, weight and Body Mass Index
data from over 1 million schoolchildren, this
report summarises the key findings from the
Government’s National Child Measurement
Programme (NCMP) for England every year.
Indicators
The Francis Report highlighted the role indicators
and other comparative statistics play in measuring
performance and outcomes and reinforced the HSCIC’s
role in producing, assuring and publishing indicators.
As the national source of indicators we produce and
publish the NHS Outcomes Framework, Clinical
Commissioning Group Outcomes Indicator Set (CCG
OIS) and Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework
(ASCOF) indicators. We also provide a service for the
testing and assurance of indicators, to make sure that
the methods they use are robust.
Clinical Commissioning Group
Outcomes Indicator Set (CCG OIS)
The CCG OIS measures outcomes to help inform
priority setting and drive local improvement.
Our work supports NHS England and NICE by
developing, testing and assuring the methods for
each indicator. Much of the data used is drawn from
our existing data sources from which we calculate the
indicators and publish the data.
Download CCG OIS data on our Indicator
Portal https://indicators.ic.nhs.uk
or manipulate in our iView tool
www.hscic.gov.uk/iview
Indicator Assurance Service
Our Indicator Assurance Service supports anyone
looking to develop a new national indicator by
providing an open and transparent way of assuring
indicator methodologies. The service gives you:
• advice on how robust a proposed methodology is
• the opportunity to check for similar indicators -
saving duplication of effort
• assurance that the indicator answers the question
being posed and is suitable for intended audience
• recognition for your indicator, with the
opportunity to register it in a national library of
assured indicators
• periodic review of the methodology
Find out more about this service
www.hscic.gov.uk/services
“The NCMP shows us which
ethnic groups, area of the
borough and schools had the
highest levels of obesity.
We used it to inform where we
needed to target most of our
finite resources”
Anna D’Arcy, Wandsworth

4. Information to support public health specialists
Data Services
Primary Care Mortality Database
Public Health analysts in Local Authorities (LA) and
some NHS organisations can apply to have access
to the Primary Care Mortality Database (PCMD)
for public health statistical purposes. Role based
access enables authorised users to extract data for
the deaths of patients who lived in their LA or in
their Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area. In
addition they can extract deaths by GP practice for
their CCG irrespective of where the patient lived and
the total number of patients at each practice.
Find out more
www.hscic.gov.uk/pcmdatabase
Data Linkage and Extract Service
Information about patients is collected in lots of
different care settings. Linking this data together has
the power to inform better decisions about care,
improve quality and safety standards, and identify
developing trends in population health.
The Data Linkage and Extract Service can provide
extracts from a range of individual and linked data
sets and can add significant value to individual sets of
data by combining and matching them at individual
record level in a secure environment.
Data can only be made available to those who meet
our robust information governance standards to
protect and control how data is managed.
Find out more
www.hscic.gov.uk/dles
Data Service for Commissioners
NHS England has commissioned the HSCIC to
deliver the Data Service for Commissioners (DSC)
which processes data to support commissioning
organisations, whilst protecting patient
confidentiality. The service is delivered by staff
seconded into the HSCIC from Commissioning
Support Units (CSUs). The seconded staff constitute
a HSCIC DSC Regional Office but continue to work
from their regional locations using HSCIC approved
processing centres. Customers of the service include
Public Health England and Local Authority Public
Health organisations as well as CCGs and the NHS
England Area Teams, with services generally being
provided through the CSUs.
The service receives and processes personal
confidential data (PCD), and provides data in a form
that is legally acceptable for the registered purposes
by the Commissioner. This reduces or removes the
need for these organisations to handle PCD and
allows them to focus on their core commissioning
functions.
For further information about how the Data
Service for Commissioners can support your
organisation:
www.hscic.gov.uk/
dataserviceforcommissioners
www.hscic.gov.uk 0845 300 6016 enquiries@hscic.gov.uk
We are the trusted national provider of high-quality information,
data and IT systems for health and social care
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