Data quality background

The Digital Front Door programme is helping transform how people access health and social care information. Through MyCare.scot and related digital services, the programme aims to create easier and more joined up ways for people to access the information and support they need. Understanding how many people register for and use MyCare.scot helps us understand demand for the service, monitor its growth over time, and inform future service development.

The UK Statistics Authority defines management information as aggregate information that organisations collate and use in the normal course of business to inform operational delivery, policy development and the management of organisational performance.

The Digital Front Door programme is developing additional management information to help track how use of MyCare.scot changes over time and how people use it to access their health and social care information.

Although this MyCare.scot management information is not an official statistic, we follow the Office for Statistics Regulation's guidance in our approach to the Quality Assurance of Management Information (QAMI).

We also follow Public Services Delivery Scotland's Statistical Disclosure Control Protocol which sets out the risk considerations we apply when releasing data.

What are the potential uses of this management information?

This management information helps us understand demand for MyCare.scot and how use of the service changes over time. For example, it can show when key increases in registration happen, and show opportunities to increase awareness and use of MyCare.scot. 

Who are the potential users of this data?

Potential users of this management information could include:

• the people of Scotland as MyCare.scot is publicly funded;
• the media as MyCare.scot is of public interest; and;
• researchers or health and social ccare statisticians as MyCare.scot is a new approach to giving people  access to information about their own health and social care.

The Digital Front Door programme also uses this management information internally to manage and improve the growth of MyCare.scot.

What data do we publish?

Initially, we publish a single metric: the total number of people registered to use MyCare.scot.

We will review and expand the data we publish based on the feedback we receive from this publication, and what is useful, feasible and viable to publish.

How do we assure data quality?

We fully comply with the Office for Statistics Regulation’s guidance on Quality Assurance of Management Information. We can provide more information on how we meet these guidelines.

In summary:

• we automatically collect data from the operational systems that provide access to MyCare.scot.
• We work closely within the same organisation as the data supply partners (the National Digital Platform).
• The National Digital Platform team (data supply partner) applies the same high quality standards to management information as it does to MyCare.scot health and care data.
• The management information producer (the MyCare.scot Reporting and Analytics team) follows a similar independent quality assurance process as the data supply partner.

Comparisons with other available data

This MyCare.scot data quality background document aligns strongly with similar work across the UK and within NHS Scotland:

• NHS England publishes similar management information for its app: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-app-statistics
• NHS Wales publishes app usage metrics intermittently through ministerial statements and updates, giving high-level figures such as registrations, logins and feature use: https://www.gov.wales/written-statement-nhs-wales-app-update.
• Northern Ireland takes a similar approach to Wales, however they do share occasional headline figures: https://dhcni.hscni.net/news/my-care-achieves-over-100000-active-users-in-northern-ireland/.
• This approach to quality assurance and documentation aligns with official NHS Scotland workforce statistics: https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/about-our-data-and-reports/nhs-and-primary-care-workforce-in-scotland-technical-document

Contact details

• Author: MyCare.scot Reporting and Analytics team, Public Services Delivery Scotland
• Email: nes.mycarereporting@nhs.scot