Health and social care - data strategy: 2025 update - progress and priorities

Creating Insights from Data

We want to work in partnership with health and social care to adopt a whole system approach to creating insight from data that allow us to improve services. This includes the creation of insight to: inform communities, inform policy, identify, measure, and monitor differential outcomes, experiences and access to services for different population groups, target interventions and support, improve services and improve partnership working.

Progress so far:

• Near Real Time Data for Insights – The Near Time Data Service has developed and established a dashboard with coverage across health and social care to support strategic understanding of the whole system. Initiated using a Minimum Viable Product model, this product is now transitioning into a Business-as-Usual state. Following a programme of user engagement, efficiencies and improvements have been achieved throughout the year. These include expansions and refinements to presented data and visualisations to best meet user needs, as well as efficiencies to dashboard delivery and management. This tool enables collaborative working and facilitates analysis of data to ensure that near real-time data can be used to inform decision making to deliver the best care possible.
• Analytical Tooling – The principles for the selection and adoption of analytical tools across health and social care have been further refined. Through the Creating Insights from Data programme, we are supporting the adoption of common toolsets and patterns and skills, aligned to these principles. We are working to rationalise and reduce the number of different tools and products that are used to create insights from data, aligned to the principles. In doing so we will aim to empower our workforce by building capability around a core set of tools and creating shared skills across specialists, so they are able to deliver the greatest possible insight.

Planned activity 2025:

• Near Real Time Data Service – We will further engage with users to understand if the improvements made to the service are satisfactory and identify areas for further improvement and establish priorities for developing new datasets. Key areas of focus include:
• » Continuing work with NSS and PHS to drive improvements in data, data gaps and administrative data, which includes exploring the automation of data collection, analysis and use of AI.
• Continuing to drive alignment between official statistics relating to performance and Service Renewal Framework priorities, following the outcome of the PHS statistics consultation.
• Begin scoping work with RDS to improve safe access to health and social care data for research and innovation. This includes expanding the availability of data which can be accessed via the Researcher Access Service, streamlining approvals processes for accessing data and continuing to engage the public on the safe use of data for research.
• Continuing to support scoping and develop of a nationally coordinated approach to the capture and use of patient-reported outcomes and experiences to drive improved services.
• This is key to ensuring that data can be used to better understand population health and support targeted intervention, to support the shift towards a whole system approach to prevention as set out in the Service Renewal Framework. Our work to improve data for insight is also key to supporting population-based approaches to planning of health and care services which is a key priority in the Service Renewal Framework.
• Future Pandemic Preparedness – In response to the recommendations from the UK COVID-19 Inquiry and the Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness, Scottish Government established a Data Delivery Group to bring together analysts to plan and co-ordinate cross-government analytical work to enable effective and rapid analytical response in a future crisis. The group will develop an analytical framework to support pandemic preparedness and co-ordination of cross-government analytical response to the UKI recommendations by Summer 2025. The primary function of the analytical framework will be to support us to rapidly redeploy analytical resource as needed in response to a future pandemic, and ensure robust mechanisms and processes are in place to support the timely collection, analysis, sharing and use of data.