Analytics ICS

Recommendations for advancing the analytical capability of the NHS and its ICS partners #

This document is still under review by NHSEI but I have permission from the Strategy Unit to reproduce it here. Please note that the work is not being reproduced with an open licence and if you wish to share or remix this document you should contact the authors yourselves to seek their permission.

The executive summary is a pretty powerful statement and is worth reproducing in full (note again that these conclusions are currently under review at NHSEI).

  • Adopt a vision for strategic analysis that places it as the heart of strategic decision making in health and care and is based on a clear national description of what strategic analysis covers, what a high functioning strategic analytics team should look like and the skills that are associated with that.
  • Each system should establish a strategic analytics team, separate from BI delivery - they require different skills and different working practices – and these analytical teams, drawn from across the system, should be led by skilled analysts.
  • These teams should be actively networked at a regional level. The network should be supported/coordinated by an expert team that can offer analytical leadership, structured education and systematic knowledge exchange focussed on advancing the capability of the ICS teams. The network members should ‘own’ the network and resource this development function. The network learning programme should embrace (and help analysts to navigate) the training offers already available from ‘the market’ but supplement that with network delivered, context-specific learning focussed on the craft of analysis in pursuit of advancing ‘decision quality’. The regional networks should be recognised as the lead for coordinating and providing analytical development in their areas, working collaboratively as necessary. Any national resources to support analytical development should have a direct impact on ICSs with an expectation that they are deployed through the regional networks, where there is such a desire and capability exists, with governance secured through the proposed membership model.
  • We would advocate the promulgation of national communities of practice. Existing examples that may be drawn upon include the NHS-R Community; AnalystX, and the NHS Python Community.
  • All training offers should be accredited by a credible national body (we suggest AphA), but this needs to be done on a phased basis to avoid disruption.
  • A national competency framework for analysts should be agreed before the end of 2021/2, one that introduces much-needed consistency in role descriptions and grading. By April 2023, all NHS recruitment and promotion to analyst roles will be dependent on applicants meeting the required standard.
  • Protected learning time for all analysts should be built into job descriptions and a national minimum expectation should be set of at least 10 per cent of analysts’ time per week protected for learning. Additionally, 1 week per annum should be identified nationally as a dedicated learning week. Regional networks should coordinate activity in this week.
  • The principles and practical implications (e.g. for tools needed) of open-source analysis and replicability should be actively promoted and widely understood across NHS leadership.
  • Set an expectation that ICS leaders should be analytically confident/capable and should be actively engaged in analytical development. Analytical competencies should feature in person specifications for key NHS leadership positions. Position regional networks as the prime support for this aspect of leadership development.

There are several points from the executive summary that are particularly relevant for the present task and which will be discussed in more detail following.

All training offers should be accredited by a credible national body #

A national competency framework for analysts should be agreed before the end of 2021/2, one that introduces much-needed consistency in role descriptions and grading #

Protected learning time for all analysts should be built into job descriptions #

…a national minimum expectation should be set of at least 10 per cent of analysts’ time per week protected for learning. Additionally, 1 week per annum should be identified nationally as a dedicated learning week

Further, the following points of note are also raised in the report

We must also acknowledge that a common failure of learning programmes can be the recipient returns to a context that makes no use of what they’ve learned #

Recommendations for individual analysts and their teams #

  • To use the descriptions of high performing, strategic analytics teams, the typology of strategic analytics and career pathways to identify their learning needs and meet these needs via available learning opportunities which includes the “art and craft” of strategic analysis
  • Analytical teams should develop a team learning strategy in conjunction with their regional network (as proposed) which maps out a coherent plan that combines individual development with team development
  • Connect with regional and national analysts and decision support networks

flowchart LR subgraph Analytics leader AL end subgraph Data science DS1(Data Scientist- entry level)-->DS2(Data Scientist- experienced)-->DS3(Data Scientist- advanced) end subgraph Analyst DA1(Data Analyst- entry level)-->DA2(Data Analyst- experienced)-->AL(Analytics leader) end DA2-->DS2 DS2-->AL