Our role

From tackling health inequalities to commissioning with confidence, our information ensures decision makers deliver the very best services and patient care.

Our information is of value to commissioners, public health analysts, clinicians and informatics professionals in health and social care, as well as the public via the NHS.

We are uniquely positioned to deliver a wide range of credible information resources to support the transformation of the NHS including:

• Population health analysis and surveys.
• Health screening.
• Clinical quality.
• Prescribing.
• Adult social care.
• NHS workforce.

Our strategy and objectives 2010/11

We have a pivotal role to play in delivering:

• Trusted information critical to decision making and public accountability
• Standardised measures and national comparisons which are key to improvement
• Savings through the rationalisation of information services from other parts of the system

Objectives

1. Improving information quality & data standards
   Ensuring the right quality information is provided, using clear governance and standards in data and data collections
2. Improving access to and interpretation of data through better presentation and reporting
   Ensuring fair and equal access to information
3. Providing relevant information services
   Delivering the information that frontline services need to meet their priorities and acting as the core source for official statistics published by DH, CQC and other bodies for the purposes of accountability

How we support quality, efficiency and productivity

Through the provision of tools and analyses such as the Indicators for Quality Improvement (IQI) and NHS Comparators with costs and benchmarking data, we are enabling organisations to make evidence based decisions on local activity, costs and outcomes, supporting the continued transformational efficiency of local services.

We are also joining up sources of data and syndicating this to provide a more comprehensive picture of health and social care.

Our information helps encourage quality, innovation, productivity and prevention.