Statistical competencies in the NHS

摘要

A new pay scheme, Agenda for Change, was launched in the NHS throughout the UK in autumn 2004, with implementation originally scheduled for 2005 and 2006. The organizations that must implement this scheme include NHS Scotland Information Services Division (ISD), which is a major employer of statisticians and other information professionals. Agenda for Change introduces a single salary scale for almost all NHS staff, based on job evaluation, with the intention of establishing clearer links between pay progression and the attainment of knowledge and skills. The aim of the research project described in this thesis was to assist NHS ISD Scotland with implementing the Agenda for Change project specifically for statisticians, by working with the organisation to profile the current competency of staff, developing a training needs assessment, identifying the educational and training provision currently available to ISD staff, and highlighting gaps in this provision. Chapter One gives an introduction to NHS ISD Scotland, along with a breakdown of the way Agenda for Change is being implemented within the NHS. It also outlines the scope of this MSc research project. Chapter Two works through defining the skills that practicing statisticians (not solely those employed by NHS ISD Scotland) should be able to carry out or pick up as their career progresses. It brings together evidence from a range of diverse sources, including the aims and learning outcomes of current undergraduate and postgraduate taught degree programs in Statistics, the Government Statistical Service, and the Royal Statistical Society. Chapter Three describes the construction, implementation and analysis of data from a survey instrument used to determine the current skills base of ISD statisticians, and to identify the areas where they believe further training is required. It looks at the relationships between skills and other factors such as respondents' ages and education levels. There is also a short discussion of problems caused by having small sample sizes when carrying out formal statistical procedures. Chapter Four looks in further detail at the Training Needs within NHS ISD Scotland and details the development of a portfolio of almost 1,200 specialised training courses currently available in the UK. This portfolio will be presented to the organisation to assist them with their professional training in the future. Chapter Five considers the mapping of some of the highlighted skills to the pay bands within ISD Scotland. Chapter Six sums up the conclusions of the project and aims to provide suitable recommendations to NHS ISD for the future. The Appendices include hard copies of the survey instrument used in chapter three, and various pieces of information relating to the analysis of this survey. Additionally included with the thesis is the portfolio of skills and the Knowledge and Skills Framework mapping. There are presented electronically as EXCEL spreadsheets. All statistical procedures carried out in this project have been completed on Minitab version 14 and / or SPSS version 12.