Publication outputs are released to key stakeholders in NHS Boards HR and Workforce directorates ahead of their release to the public. This early release occurs two weeks before the public release of the data and is to support quality assurance. Outputs are made available to a restricted list of people via Turas Data Intelligence (TDI). This list is verified a week before Early Release goes live.
NES works with data providers at NHS Boards prior to this point to understand any data quality issues or significant changes in figures. Therefore, it is unlikely that any unknown issues would arise during the Early Release period. Since NES have been responsible for the official statistics publications (December 2019), there have been no issues reported via Early Release. If a data quality issue was to be made known to NES, we would work with the NHS Board to annotate this within the publication output if it were not possible to update the figures.
We also make data available two weeks before the publication’s release to named contacts in Scottish Government for management information purposes only and under strict embargo ahead of the release.
The NHS Scotland workforce official statistics publication includes workforce data over a rolling ten-year period. To support some stakeholder groups who wish to take a longer view of the available data, we have developed a dashboard which covers a longer period, from 2007 and, in some cases, from 2006. This dashboard uses a combination of the same data that is used to produce the official statistics and data previously published by ISD.
This dashboard does not form part of the publication, but is available one week before the publication’s release to all users who currently receive Pre-release Access. When the latest statistics are published, the dashboard will be available on the National workforce planning and analysis area on TDI for the same users and others with a role in workforce planning.
Under the terms of the Pre release Access to Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008, NES is obliged to publish information on those receiving pre release Access. Pre release access refers to statistics in their final form prior to publication. The standard maximum pre release access is five working days.
Named individuals in the following organisations are approved to receive standard pre release access:
This list is verified a week before Pre Release goes live.