NEW
We have just (27 March 2012) published our mid 2011-12 report on suspensions and exclusions from work. This takes the data to 30 September 2011 and reports new episodes in April-September 2011, active episodes at 30 September 2011 and duration of concluded episodes. Earlier reports can be found on the publications page.
Evaluation and research programme
NCAS work is informed by a comprehensive programme of evaluation, research and development. For example, commissioned research by the Office of Health Economics and the Health Economics Research Unit, published June 2010, used a discrete choice experiment with senior NHS managers to explore the packages of NCAS services which are most highly valued by the NHS. This and other research is guiding NCAS as it works towards becoming a self-funding organisation.
Evaluation and research activity seeks to ensure that NCAS has the right information available at the right time to assess and demonstrate its achievements, to learn about and improve its work and to generate knowledge which will assist the NHS to respond effectively to performance concerns. Our E, R & D work can be found in Publications.
Alongside, NCAS operational statistics report referral numbers, user numbers, measures of NCAS operational performance, use of suspension and exclusion, and the likelihood of referral to NCAS in groups defined by age, gender, grade, specialty, place of qualification and ethnicity. Our statistical reports can also be found on our Publications page.
Publication plan for NCAS statistics
We are planning to release the following statistical publications during the following twelve months:
Casework activity reports
2011/12 end year report - publication planned for June 2012
2012/13 mid year report - publication planned for December 2012
Suspensions and exclusions
2011/12 end year report - publication planned for September 2012
2012/13 mid year report - publication planned for March 2013
Monitoring diversity
2010/11 report - looking at how concerns about professional practice are associated with age, gender, place of qualification and ethnicity. Publication planned for April 26 (postponed from February for technical reasons).
NCAS is guided by the Code of Practice for Official Statistics in its production and release of operational and other statistics. To maintain confidentiality, NCAS has a policy for external release of NCAS statistics which bars release of statistics which risk deductive disclosure of referred practitioners’ identities or identify referring organisations.
Additional analyses
Where researchers would like to see further analyses of reported statistics, it may be possible for NCAS to supply them, provided that resource implications are not excessive. Release will also depend on the following conditions being met:
-
Release must not breach NCAS’ policy on external release of statistics
-
Analysis must be of a dataset already reported on. The results of the new analysis can then be seen as consistent with other published analyses
-
It is the user’s responsibility to interpret the data provided and consider issues such as statistical significance testing.
To discuss possible additional analyses, contact ncas@ncas.npsa.nhs.uk
