Data and analytics
TPHC’s Data and Analytics directorate helps NHS organisations make better use of their data, build analytical capability, and navigate the technical and governance challenges that make data-driven decision-making difficult in health and care.
The team spans two complementary areas. Analytical consultants and data specialists work directly with NHS clients to improve how data is collected, managed and used: building local capacity, designing reporting infrastructure, and translating information into insight that decision-makers can act on.
Digital and innovation consultants support NHS organisations from initial scoping through to implementation and evaluation, drawing on expertise in product management, information governance, clinical risk and Agile delivery.
Both draw on deep familiarity with NHS data environments and clinical priorities. In practice, that means analytical findings that clinicians trust enough to act on, and digital solutions that are designed around how NHS organisations actually work.
National tools to reduce and prevent violence against NHS staff
Violence against NHS staff is widespread. In the 2025 NHS Staff Survey, 14.47% of staff reported physical violence from patients or the public, and 25.25% reported harassment, bullying or abuse. The estimated cost of violence, harassment and abuse against NHS staff is £1.36bn in England (2021/22). This affects retention, increases sickness absence, and reduces productivity. Yet NHS-funded organisations across England had no standardised approach to preventing or reporting violence and abuse against their staff.
What we did
NHS England commissioned TPHC to create a standardised data reporting framework and guidance for organisations and staff on safe working practices. We worked with experts – violence prevention and reduction clinical and managerial leads, frontline staff with lived experience, equality leads, unions, and national bodies – to co-design these tools.
Enabling consistent data and better action
The new data reporting framework supports more consistent and reliable collection of information on violence and abuse across England, including experiences linked to protected characteristics. This will enable stronger national oversight, meaningful benchmarking, and sharing of learning between organisations, helping the NHS identify risks earlier and take more effective, targeted action.
Improving staff experience and wellbeing
The safe working practices guidance takes a trauma-informed, public health approach to preventing and reducing violence and abuse. It identifies priority actions for organisations, leaders and frontline staff, including implementation of a culture where staff feel safe to report incidents and organisations visibly act on learning. Training for staff in how to respond to stressed or frustrated patients is part of this wider compassionate culture.
Delivering nationally aligned, locally usable solutions
The guidance and framework have enough flexibility to be usable by organisations in different circumstances (for example, GP practices and acute trusts) and with different levels of data maturity. This work will create a more consistent approach to staff safety, with clearer guidance and better reporting. It will help organisations learn from each other, spot patterns and inequalities, and take earlier action to prevent harm.
Client feedback
“This is a comprehensive, high-quality piece of work. Both sets of guidance look excellent and go well beyond what we originally envisaged.”
Wazir Muhammad, National Staff Violence Prevention and Reduction Programme Lead, NHS England
Strengthening blood cancer diagnostic pathways at Royal Free London
The 28-day Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS) is an NHS target guaranteeing that patients urgently referred by their GP for suspected cancer receive a diagnosis or have cancer ruled out within 28 days. Royal Free London’s (RFL) haematological malignancy service, England’s highest-volume FDS provider, had seen performance against this standard fall below the required level. The principal constraint was not initial referral, but the complex diagnostic phase, which requires timely investigation, clinical review, MDT coordination and communication across a multi-site service.
What we did
TPHC carried out the first detailed demand and capacity analysis of the service, mapping 148 clinical and administrative activities across 11 pathways. Clinicians saw their own data drive the findings, which built genuine ownership of the evidence base. The analysis made visible variation in patient access, experience and coordination between sites serving markedly different demographic profiles and identified substantial hidden administrative and coordination work absorbed by the multidisciplinary team alongside their core clinical roles.
With active input from clinical, administrative and operational colleagues, who drew on their detailed understanding of day-to-day delivery to prioritise and shape practical solutions, some of it building on work already underway, we developed a clear action plan to improve diagnostic timelines, pathway coordination and patient experience. Recommendations included geriatric-oncology pathway considerations and providing more care closer to home, including local treatment and medication collection, particularly reducing the travel burden for frail older patients who currently need to travel to central London.
Releasing time for clinical care
We identified five tactical interventions that could remove around 111 hours of avoidable administrative and coordination time each week, roughly 3 whole-time equivalents of unpaid extra hours currently absorbed by the multidisciplinary team. Releasing this time would allow staff to focus more consistently on clinical decision-making, patient communication and progression through the diagnostic pathway.
Protecting patient access
Up to 70 clinic slots each week were identified as dependent on consistent consultant cover, adding pressure to the FDS pathway through its effect on capacity for urgent referrals, diagnostic follow-up and treatment decisions. Substantiating the case for consistent medical cover would protect both patient access and diagnostic throughput, while mitigating around £183,000 a year of risk to Elective Recovery Fund income.
Driving service efficiency through evidence and collaboration
Our methodology, triangulating quantitative capacity modelling with qualitative discovery, is directly transferable to other complex, multi-site clinical reviews. While TPHC identified the opportunities for improvement, the clinical, administrative and operational team has been central to finding solutions that are credible, deliverable and sustainable in day-to-day practice.
Curious to see how we can make a difference?
Interested in hearing more about how we have helped tackle health inequalities? Contact us for an informal chat.
[icon name=”envelope-open-text” prefix=”fas”] email us at:rf-tr.tphc-communication@nhs.net
