NHS Digital

NHS Digital is the national provider of information, data and IT systems in the National Health Service.

It is a is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health.

It was formerly known as the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), which was set up in 2013. It was rebranded 'NHS Digital: Information and technology for better health and care’ in August 2016 to 'build public recognition, confidence and trust'.

It has an operating budget of £250 million and a team of 2,500 staff.

Purpose

NHS Digital's statutory duties include:

• collecting and publishing health and care information
• providing national technology for health and care services
• producing information standards
• improving the quality of health and care information and data
• publishing national indicators for health and care
• giving advice and support to health and care organisations on information and cyber security
• providing the Information Governance Toolkit for care organisations to assess how well they are handling information and data

People

Leadership

• Rob Shaw, interim CEO (to 2017)
• Sarah Wilkinson, incoming CEO (in 2017), former Chief Digital, Data and Technology Officer Home Office
• Rachael Allsop, Director of Workforce
• Beverley Bryant, Director of Digital Transformation; previously director of digital technology NHS England until May 2016.
• Professor David Hughes, Director of Information and Analytics
• Carl Vincent, Director of Finance and Corporate Services

The register of interests for NHS Digital's board members is only available by written request. It doesn't publish it on its website like most normal government bodies.

Board of Directors

• Noel Gordon, Chair; described as having spent most of his career in the banking industry, Gordon spent the previous 16 years with consultancy Accenture where he ran the global banking practice; he is still a shareholder in Accenture. He is described as having 'extensive practical experience of driving fundamental innovations in transforming industries, and of big data, analytics, mobile and digital technologies.' He is currently a senior advisor to consultancy Aleron, which provides consultancy services to the health tech sector (among others). Gordon is also a non executive director of NHS England and chair of Healthcare UK's Advisory Board (Healthcare UK is a joint initiative of the Department of Health, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and NHS England to drive UK health exports). He is a member of the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy Board of the Department of Health, a non-executive director of the Payments Systems Regulator, and chair of Uservoice.org. He is also a member of the Audit and Risk Committee of the University of Warwick and a member of the development of Age UK.
• Dr Sarah Blackburn, CEO of a network of consultants called the Wayside Network. Blackburn also serves on the board of the Institute of Internal Auditors Global (IIA Global). She is also a board director, RAC Pension Fund Trustee. According to the register of interests, Wayside Network has in the last 2 years held a contract with Avon and Wiltshire NHS Partnership.
• Ian Andrews, former second permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, interested in cyber security. He is a partner in IMA Partners, which provides 'legal and management consultancy services to government, academia and Transparency International UK.
• Professor Sudhesh Kumar, Dean of the Warwick Medical School and Director of the Institute of Digital Healthcare at University of Warwick. He is a non exec director of University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust.
• Dr Marko Balabanovic, CTO at Digital Catapult, leads for 'innovation, emerging technologies, partnerships and technology transfer'.
• Daniel Benton, spent most of his career to 2015 at Accenture where he was global head of the Technology Strategy and Digital Strategy practices; described as having 'extensive experience both of setting and implementing the technology agendas for large organisations through periods of transformational change, including the implementation of advanced consumer facing technologies'. He now describes himself as a self-employed 'Senior Advisor Technology and Digital Strategy', although it is not known who his clients are. He is a shareholder in Accenture and Supercarers
• Rob Tinlin, leads for integrated care, digitising social care, change management and organisational development. Former CEO of Southend-on-Sea Council. He established a consultancy firm, Towler Tinlin Associates, in January 2017.
• Professor Soraya Dhillon, non exec director of the Hillingdon Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; former Chair of Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; former member of the General Pharmaceutical Council and former Board Director for Eastern Academic Health Science Network.

Ex officio members

• Tamara Finkelstein, Department of Health, director general for community care.
• Prof. Keith McNeill, chief clinical information officer, NHS England and non exec director of Eastern Academic Health Science Network.
• Martin Severs, NHS Digital Medical Director and Caldicott Guardian

Others

Other members of the Executive Management Team (may attend the Board at the discretion of the Chair):

• Tom Denwood, Director of Provider Support and Integration; he works on delivering Electronic Patient Record systems, as well as leading the ‘futures’ work on apps and assistive devices. He is Vice Chair of Strategy and Policy at the British Computer Society Health, a voluntary role.
• James Hawkins, Director of Programmes
• Sean Walsh, Interim Director of Operations & Assurance Services and Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO)

Contact

Website:https://digital.nhs.uk