Data sources
This is a selection of data sources that may be useful for commissioners. This is not an exhaustive list and the full list of resources contained in the library can be found here. We have also created a key topic on data management which can be found here.
Area Profiles provide a wide range of data and assessments about your area and how it compares to others. Helps local public service providers to identify where improvement is most needed locally.
Census - summary data.
Children's services mapping - one of its aims is to support commissioning of services by providing a description of service provision. Information is kept up to date through an annual data collection exercise that records change over time.
CHKS - Independent consultancy providing comparative data services. Has special section on commissioning.
Clinical and Health Outcomes Knowledge Base - includes comparative data for 700 health and local government organisations in England plus advice on how to measure health and the impact of health care.
Connecting for Health - Secondary Uses Service (SUS). Also see the SUS fortnightly bulletin. This is a source of comprehensive data to enable a range of reporting and analysis.The SUS provides a range of software services and functionality which enable users to analyse, report and present this data. It is an authoritative and comprehensive source of high quality data. It provides commissioning data sets covering NHS commissioned admitted patient care, outpatient and accident and emergency activity at patient level.
Connecting for Health - Data Services.
Data for Neighbourhood Renewal - identifies and signposts the datasets available for targeting, monitoring, priority setting and performance management at a neighbourhood level. This website does not hold the actual datasets.
Department of Health - statistics - page with information on statistical work areas, statistical development, collection, statements of compliance etcetera.
Dr Foster Intelligence - a FESC site, Dr Foster offers web based tools (not free) which enable both managers and the frontline providers of health and social care to understand performance, forumlate strategies, monitor implementation and track improvements.
Economic and Social Data Service [health] - is a national data archiving and dissemination service.
Electronic Prescribing & Financial Information for Practices (ePFIP) - this is a service that provides you with information on your practice’s prescribing habits and costs, which enables you to compare and manage your prescribing performance against national and PCT comparators. Non NHS organisations (Practice Based Commissioning Groups etc) can also request access by sending the request to the relevant PCT who will then forward this to the NHS Prescription Services together with a letter of authorisation.
ePACT - a service for pharmaceutical and prescribing advisors which allows real time on-line analysis of the previous sixty months prescribing data held on the NHS Prescription Services Prescribing Database.
Health Profiles - from APHO. Shows the health of people in local authorities across England using key health indicators, which enables comparison locally, regionally and over time. They are designed to help local councils and the NHS decide where to target resources and tackle health inequalities in their local area.
Health and Social Care Information Centre - statistics and data collections.
Hospital Episode Statistics - national statistical data warehouse for England of the care provided by NHS hospitals and for NHS hospital patients treated elsewhere.
The Information Centre - England's central source of health and social care information. Acts as a hub for high quality, national, comparative data for secondary uses; delivers information for local decision makers to improve the quality and efficiency of frontline care. They have recently updated their search facility which allows you to customise your search and discover information from nearly 200 carefully selected health and social care sources.
MHMDS: Mental Health Minimum Dataset : experimental statistics 2003 - 2008 - contains record level data about NHS services delivefeed to over a million people with severe and enduring mental health problems each year between 2003-2008.
NHS Comparators - NHS Comparators is a national resource, initially focused on supporting Practice Based Commissioning (PBC). It supports comparisons at GP practice, PCT, SHA and national levels, enabling users to investigate aspects of local commissioning activity, costs and outcomes.
NHS Data Model and Dictionary - provides a reference point for assured information standards to support health care activities within the NHS in England.
NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement - NHS Better Care, Better Value Indicators.
Office for National Statistics - Provides health statistics on a UK basis rather than just England. Covers mainly primary care - dental services, drink & drug abuse, smoking, diet, mental health, unit health costs, health expectancy, health awareness, health visitors, pay, work-related illness, health of prisoners, general health, nursing.
ONS Neighbourhood Statistics.
Opportunity Locator - The Opportunity Locator is a data tool to support the commissioning priorities of local health communities. This data tool has been designed to give you and your community relevant and useful data in an easily accessible format to support the 'care closer to home' agenda.
PbR benchmarking - from the Audit Commission. Online tool which provides direct access to the Audit Commission's PbR benchmarking.
Performance data - from the Department of Health. Statistics and performance indicators in healthcare, social services, complaints handling and waiting times.
Primis + - free service to primary care organisations to help them improve patient care through the effective use of their clinical computer systems. It provides training and assistance to information/data quality facilitators employed by PCTs or local Health Informatics Services.
Publication hub: gateway to national statistics: health and social care - statistics relating to information gathered on public health, health services provided by the NHS, social care, and health and safety at work.
Quality and Outcomes Framework Database - site devoted to publishing the data produced from the QOF Framework of the GP contact in the UK. The site includes all of the data from all four countries for the years 2004/5, 2005/6, 2006/7 and 2007/8.
Statistical work areas - from the Department of Health. Helps you find data on the main statistical work areas in the DH - healthcare, workforce, public health, expenditure and social care.
WHO - data and statistics - you can search data by categories, including mortality and health status, risk factors and diseases. Databases include:
WHO Statistical Information System - national statistics for 70 core indicators on mortality, morbidity, risk factors, service coverage and health systems.
WHO Global InfoBase Online - data on chronic diseases and their risk factors for all WHO member states.
Global Health Atlas - standardized data and statistics for infectious diseases aat country, regional and global levels.
Regional statistics - statistical information from WHO regional offices.
World class commissioning: assurance toolkit - Assurance framework containing data pack for use in strategic planning.
World class commissioning data packs - This online resource brings together data from multiple sources to provide a profile of your organisation and national averages to help monitor trends and make comparisons. With the ability to manipulate data for local requirements and benchmarking for national, regional and most comparable PCT activity.
