Standards assurance activity - NHS England Digital

Assurance of national information standards and data collections (including extractions) for health and adult social care in England, known collectively as ISCE, is undertaken by a dedicated team within NHS Digital (the Data Standards Assurance Service - DSAS).

Scrutiny of the DSAS assurance is carried out by the Data Alliance Partnership Board (DAPB). The Board meets on a monthly basis to review and approve assurance of ISCE (both new and changes) at:

Initial stage: an initial stage assessment report provides an overview of a proposal for a new, or change to an existing ISCE, and requests DAPB approval to proceed with assurance of the ISCE
Final stage: a final stage assessment report summarises the assurance and appraisal activity that has been carried out against the ISCE and requests DAPB final approval.

Upcoming DAPB meetings

The information below shows upcoming Data Alliance Partnership Board meeting dates and the ISCE in the ‘Final’ stage of assurance that are due to submitted to the Board at each date.

Note that this information represents live assurance activity and although these items are currently scheduled for future Boards, target meeting dates may change during assurance.

DAPB, 22 February 2024

Please note that January does not have any ISCEs scheduled for final approval.

Reference	Title	ISCE	ISCE type	Summary
DAPB4108	Digital Maturity Assessment - Secondary Care	Collection	New	The Digital Maturity Assessment will allow respondents from provider organisations and ICS to self-assess their relative maturity levels against the What Good Looks Like Framework digital capabilities.
DAPB4095	NHS Volunteers Data Collection	Collection	New	Proposal for a new collection to provide a comprehensive and standardised data capture on volunteer numbers in secondary care providers (NHS trusts) across England for the first time.
DAPB2143	The Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS)	Collection	Change	Proposal for an update to the existing collection. New voluntary questions to be added.

DAPB, 28 March 2024

Reference	Title	ISCE	ISCE type	Summary
DAPB3129	Acute Trust COVID-19 Situation Report	Collection	Change	Proposal to amend existing collection. This will include revised discharge delay reason codes, updated discharge pathway codes, and will remove codes that are no longer required.
DAPB4102	Adult Social Care Digital Social Care Record (DSCR): Minimum Operational Data Specification	Standard	New	A new information standard to ensure the consistent recording of data for direct care by social care providers and enable interoperability across systems.
DAPB4110	Digital Maturity Assessment - Primary Care	Collection	New	The Digital Maturity Assessment will allow respondents from GP practices and Primary Care Networks in Primary Care settings to self-assess their relative maturity levels against the What Good Looks Like Framework digital capabilities.
DAPB2083	Estates Return Information Collection (ERIC)	Collection	Change	Annual uplift to a long-running collection.
DAPB3031	Integrated Urgent Care Aggregate Data Collection (IUCADC)	Collection	Change	Proposal to extend the scope of the existing collection to include call handling performance data directly from mental health service providers.
DAPB1067	National Workforce Data Set (NWD)	Standard	Change	Regular update to existing standard to ensure that the NWD and Electronic Staff Record (ESR) remain aligned and best reflect the changing Health and Care workforce.
DAPB4030	Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services (NEPTS) data collection	Collection	Change	Proposal to include additional vehicle-level data
DAPB4101	Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Reporting Information Standard	Standard	New	New standard to facilitate implementation of pathology reporting using SNOMED CT and FHIR. This will replace Pathology Test and Results Standard (DAPB4017) and EDIFACT Pathology Messaging Standard (ISB 1557).
DAPB4106	Venous Thrombo Embolism (VTE) Risk Assessment	Collection	New	Proposal for all acute providers to submit data on the proportion of patients risk assessed for venous thromboembolism.

DAPB, 25 April 2024

Please note that April does not yet have any ISCEs scheduled for final approval.

Reference

Title

ISCE

ISCE type

Summary

Publication activity

Following DAPB approval of an item at 'Final' stage, publication documents for the ISCE will be issued.

You can view recent publication activity on our publication pages or if you would like to be kept informed of our publication activity you can join our mailing list.

Contact us

This page is updated on a monthly basis following each DAPB meeting. If you have any queries and would like to speak to one of our assurance advisors about any of the information on this page please contact us at [email protected].