Quality Assurance Process Guide
1 Background
The Data Group have a quality assurance process in place to ensure the data used for the quarterly official statistics NHS Scotland workforce publications are up to date. This process is an important part of the Data Group’s publication cycle, as the data is used to produce Official Statistics publications as well as provide an evidence base for workforce planning within NHS Scotland.
This document provides an overview of this process, including the purpose, what to look for and some potential exceptions where applicable. Please see the About our data and reports section on TDI for more information around Data sources and quality assurance, a Glossary of terms and definition, and the Methods used.
The data group access and report on the NHS Scotland workforce data via SWISS which is fed by e:ESS and payroll systems. As such, the fields referenced throughout this document - and within the exception report and early release content - are the field names in SWISS which may not match with their e:EES/payroll counterpart.
2 Overview
The quality assurance process is a two-step process that consists of:
- An Exception report run the month prior to the publication census; and
- Early release access to the publication two-weeks prior to the public release of the publication.
The exception report provides an opportunity to update any data before it is used to produce the quarterly official statistics publication. Any issues identified from early release access to the publication can be addressed with a publication note and/or revision, while updates to the source data at this point help to prevent the issue recurring in the next publication.
3 Exception Report
The exception report is a quarterly report, run the month prior to the publication census, to identify any issues with the nationally held data. The exception report provides the opportunity to update source data before data is extracted for the next official statistics publication. As such, the deadline for doing any updates related to the exception report is always the Thursday before the Tuesday we take the publication census’ extract. A list of these Tuesday extraction dates can be found in the Data provision timetable.
All data within the exception report is sourced from SWISS. Doctors and dentists in training are reported under board of placement within the report in line with where they would be reported in the official statistics publication based on the DiT employment data processing.
The exception report can be split into three categories of queries:
- Missing data - where there are blanks in SWISS in fields which are used to categorise staff in the publication.
- Anomalies - fields which raise some questions and require double checking.
- Data to be confirmed for publication - an overview of total headcounts that will be published.
The home page of the exception report shows the number of records with queries within each category and additional tabs in the report provide details of the individual records being queried so that the data can be checked. Each tab within the exception report provides a short explanation of the purpose of the query and the data source.
3.1 Missing data
The ‘Missing data’ section on the home page of the exception report details the number of records with missing information in SWISS in fields that are required for publication. Records with missing data are identified in two tabs:
- Missing specialty or medical grade
- Missing sub job family
For some of these fields, there may be legitimate reasons for them to be blank. In those cases, the Data Group will add the pay number to an exclusion list, alongside the reason, to prevent them being queried within the exception report again in the future. This does not exclude them from being included within publication figures.
3.1.1 Missing medical grade
Medical staff are reported by the ‘Medical grade’ field in SWISS. When this field is blank, the ‘Pay grade’ is used instead. If the Pay grade does not align with an existing Medical grade, then an individual would be reported under ‘Not known’ medical grade. As such, the ‘Medical grade’ field should be updated where possible.
3.1.2 Missing specialty
The ‘Specialty’ field in SWISS is used to identify a medical staff member’s specialty. If this field is blank then they will be reported under ‘Not known medical specialty’, which then reduces the accuracy of the published figures and the data available for workforce planning.
There are some staff who cannot be recorded with a specialty as none of the provided options in e:ESS are relevant - for example, non-clinical staff who are employed as researchers. Where this is the case, the Data Group should be notified.
3.1.3 Missing sub job family
The ‘Sub job family’ field in SWISS is used to identify non-medical staff member’s sub job families, e.g. Physiotherapy, Dental hygienist. If this field is blank, the staff will be reported under ‘Not assimilated/not known’ within the relevant Job family.
The e:ESS system only allows a sub job family to be assigned to those staff on an Agenda for Change band. As such, staff on TUPE contracts are unlikely to have a sub job family recorded. If this is the case, the Data Group should be notified.
3.2 Anomalies
The ‘Anomalies’ section on the home page of the exception report details the number of records where fields contain information that is different to what the Data Group would expect to see.
For each type of anomaly, there is a tab in the report that list the individual records with anomalies:
- Bank but not bank staff
- Excessive WTE
- Staff who appear to have left
- Mismatched medical director grades
3.2.1 Bank hours
Contracted bank staff are excluded from figures reported by the Data Group as official statistics. Bank staff are identified by having a ‘Contract Type’ of ‘Bank’, and they are typically reported as having ‘Contracted Hours’ of less than 0.33.
The ‘bank hours’ tab in the exception report highlights staff who have Contracted Hours of less than 0.33 but a Contract Type that is not equal to ‘Bank’ (or ‘Honorary’ for medical staff). Boards are asked to confirm if the contracted hours and the contract type are correct and where required to update. There are contract type fields in both e:ESS and the Payroll system - please make sure they are correct in both.
3.2.2 Excessive WTE
The ‘excessive WTE’ tab highlights staff who have a total WTE across all roles (excluding Non-Executive posts) in NHS Scotland of 1.3 or greater. It is possible that this is a result of multiple employments across NHS Boards.
Boards are asked to check the employments and confirm the WTE, making changes where relevant. If the post and hours are correct, then please let the Data Group know, otherwise the records should be updated.
From experience, some of the staff on this tab are included due to the timing of the extracts - one post has begun but the previous has not yet had a ‘Date left’ (this may be referred to as the ‘termination date’ in e:ESS) input to the system.
3.2.3 No leave date
When an employment comes to an end a ‘Date left’ (when the contract ends, this may be referred to as the ‘termination date’ in e:ESS) and ‘Leaving destination’ (where the employee goes after employment, such as ‘Retired’ or ‘Education Sector’) are added to the HR record. Records with a value entered under ‘Date left’ before the quarterly census date are excluded from employment figures in the official statistics.
The ‘no leave date’ tab queries those who have a ‘Leaving destination’ recorded but no ‘Date left’. Boards are asked to update the leaving date for these contracts so they will no longer be included in employment figures.
3.2.4 Medical director mismatch
In the official statistics, the Data Group report medical staff by their ‘Medical Grade’ where it is available, but if this is not completed they are reported by their ‘Pay Grade’ where a match can be made. The Data Group have become aware of cases where the ‘Medical grade’ has been completed but does not match what we would expect from their ‘Pay grade’.
This tab highlights those who have a Medical grade of ‘Medical Director’ but a Pay grade that’s not one of a Consultant. Boards are asked to check these records and update the ‘Medical grade’ if required.
3.2.5 Nursing Interns
There used to be a programme where staff were employed under an ‘Intern’ AfC band. When this programme ended, this band was discontinued. However there were staff still being recorded with an ‘Intern’ AfC band after this time. The Intern AfC band paid the same as a Band 5 post which may have caused the initial confusion. These instances were highlighted within the exception report and boards were asked to update the band information for these staff.
3.3 Data to be confirmed for publication
The ‘Data to be confirmed for publication’ section on the home page of the exception report provides employment headcount values for different staff groups.
To help Boards identify the source of any discrepancies in the headcount figures, the following tabs in the report provide lists of the staff that are counted in the following staff groups:
- All medical staff
- All non-medical staff
- National Treatment Centre staff (sub group of both medical and non-medical staff)
- Advanced nurse practitioners (sub group of non-medical staff)
- New MAPs sub job families (sub group of non-medical staff)
The ‘New MAPs sub job families’ tab was added in February 2024 to keep track of staff reported under the new Medical Associate Professions sub job families that were introduced from March 2024. This is a temporary measure to keep track of staff being transferred into these sub job families.
4 Early Release Access
Official statistics publications are produced quarterly, reporting workforce information as at 31 March, 30 June, 30 September, and 31 December each year. The dates of the public release for upcoming publications can be found in the Publication timetable.
Official statistics publication outputs are released to key stakeholders in NHS Boards’ HR and Workforce directorates ahead of their release to the public. This early release is to support quality assurance and it occurs two weeks before the public release of the data. Outputs are made available to a restricted list of people via Turas Data Intelligence (TDI) and each Board can only see their own data.
Early release consists of the following reports:
- NHS Scotland workforce official statistics dashboard
- Individual level report
- Pharmacy managed service dashboard (December only, with data as at 30 September)
- National Treatment Centre dashboard (June and December, with data as at 31 March and 30 September respectively)
Boards are asked to compare the figures in the official statistics dashboard to figures in local systems for:
- Employment
- Vacancies
- Bank and agency spend
- Turnover
- Sickness absence
The Individual level report provides a list of the staff that make up the data, so it can be used to help identify the source of any discrepancies identified.
If there is a discrepancy with the employment data: the Data Group can annotate the publication to explain any differences and Boards are asked to update source data to prevent any issues recurring in future.
If there is a discrepancy with the vacancies or bank and agency spend: depending on when these are raised and if it is warranted, the data can be revised before or after publication and/or a note can be added to the publication.