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We do this by ensuring that commissioning decisions and the insights that support them are based upon robust, standardised data that has been processed efficiently and is accessed legally.
Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and the Care Act 2014, Commissioning Support Units (CSUs) are not allowed to access patient identifiable data because they are not providing direct patient care.
DSfC teams act as an intermediary, run by staff from CSUs seconded into NHS Digital. This enables us to access, analyse and process patient identifiable data, which is then used by Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to improve their commissioning.
We aim to reduce regional variability and ensure that all local commissioners conform to the same standards when applying for data from us. We do this by encouraging them to use standard data application models.