Information for Commissioning

The North East Public Health Observatory (NEPHO) provides information support to commissioners. Public Health Observatories have access to a wide variety of data sources such as Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), mortality data and primary care data. These are used for standard outputs such as the Health Profiles, GP practice profiles and smoking profiles as well as for individual information requests. Further to this NEPHO hosts and cooperates with a number of organisations which provide invaluable information on child and maternal health, cancer, drugs and alcohol, tobacco, obesity and learning disabilities. NEPHO also hosts a web-based tool which supports strategic planning and commissioning and enables specialists to communicate and exchange information through a regional networking platform.

Health Profiles

Health Profiles are produced by the Association of Health Observatories (APHO) to give an overview of health for each local authority and region in England. They are designed to help local government and health services make plans to improve people's health and reduce health inequalities. The profiles present a set of health indicators that show how the area compares to the national and regional average. The 2010 Regional Health Profiles are now available. They highlight the considerable variation in health between local authority areas and help to identify priorities for health improvement. The profiles show the 2010 data in a range if views including trend charts and maps, highlighting important issues for the area.

Practice Profiles

GP Practice Profiles are produced by the Association of Health Observatories to assist GPs, consortia and PCTs to ensure that they are providing and commissioning effective and appropriate healthcare services for their local population.

In addition to viewing individual practice profiles, you can draw together a cluster of practices and view the resulting profile. Each constituent practice can be compared with the cluster and the England average. Alternatively, practices can be compared with their PCT and England.

The indicators in the profiles include:

• local demographics
• estimated prevalence rates of common conditions
• Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) indicators
• patient satisfaction

all drawn from the latest data available at October 2010

The profiles do not provide an exhaustive list of primary care indicators - there are many other indicators that are collected and used at a local practice and PCT level. However, the APHO General Practice Profiles provide a consistent approach to comparing and benchmarking across England.

NEPHO Analytical Team

The NEPHO Analytical Team is responsible for maintaining data sets, exploring new resources, monitoring health trends and drawing together different types of information to help improve health and reduce inequalities.
NEPHO acts as a regional safe haven for HES data and provides an enquiry service for commissioners. More complex requests can be agreed individually.

Child and Maternal Health

The Regional Maternity Survey Office (RMSO) collects and analyses information from the North East on congenital abnormalities, cerebral palsy, perinatal mortality, multiple pregnancies and diabetic pregnancies. The information supports reviews of service provision, helps to identify priorities for service development and monitor inequalities in maternal and child health. The Child and Maternal Health Observatory (CHIMAT) provides information on child health and well-being for each area in England. Child Health Profiles provide an overview of the data for each local area in England, using key health and well-being indicators enabling comparison locally, regionally and nationally. Other CHIMAT profiles include Healthy Schools Profiles, Infant Mortality Profiles and Breastfeeding Profiles. By using the profiles, local organisations can work in partnership to plan and commission evidence-based services based on local need. The profiles also allow you to compare the outcomes in your local population with others in order to identify better performing areas from which you can learn.

Cancer

The Northern and Yorkshire Cancer Registry and Information Service NYCRIS is one of eleven UK Cancer Registries, which have a role in monitoring long term trends in the patterns of cancer in the population. Cancer registries in the UK have been collecting data for more than 40 years on every new diagnosis of cancer occurring in their populations. If you are looking for statistical information about cancer, it may already be available in the public domain. NYCRIS publishes regular regional reports and reference data and works closely with regional partner organisations. If you are unable to find the information you require from the published sources above, or require more specific cancer information on a regional basis, it is also possible to request ad hoc information from NYCRIS.

GP Practice Cancer Profiles bring together a range of outcomes and process information relevant to cancer in primary care. They provide readily available, comparative information for benchmarking and reviewing variations at a General Practice level. These profiles support the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative to improve early diagnosis of cancer and outcomes for cancer patients

Tobacco, Drugs and Alcohol

NEPHO acts as the regional hub for the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS). As part of the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System, comprehensive data about the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction is collected from over 2000 treatment providers. This data is analysed to determine how long individuals remain in treatment, the reasons for their discharge from treatment, and the journey they take through the treatment service. These analyses are used to form a set of monthly reports which provide an indication to the performance of treatment providers and the Drug Action Teams in dealing with addiction problems.

The local Alcohol Profiles for England, produced by the North West Public Health Observatory, give information at regional, local authority and PCT level about alcohol associated morbidity, mortality, hospital admission and other alcohol related indicators.

The Tobacco Profiles were developed by the Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO) led by the London Health Observatory (LHO). The tobacco profiles provide local data at PCT and Local Authority level and include trend charts, regional comparison charts and summaries as well as an option to enter additional local indicator values to compare against national or regional benchmarks.

Obesity

NEPHO collaborates with the National Obesity Observatory and hosts a regional Obesity Microsite, which provides a central regional obesity resource for practitioners and analysts working within the field. Information on the prevalence of obesity in adults and children is available at PCT and local authority level.

Learning Disabilities

The Learning Disabilities Observatory (LDO) is a partnership between the North East Public Health Observatory, the Centre for Disability Research at Lancaster University (CeDR) and the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTI). The Observatory aims to provide better, easier to understand, information on the health and wellbeing of people with learning disabilities. Gathering information from across England, it will help commissioners, hospitals and other providers of health and social care, to understand better the needs of people with learning disabilities, and their families and carers. This will help to identify quality improvements that will ensure the best possible outcomes for the health and lives of people with learning disabilities

Strategic Planning and Commissioning

Strategic Health Asset and Planning Evaluation ([SHAPE](http://www.nepho.org.uk/topics/SHAPE - Strategic Health Asset Planning and Evaluation)) is a web-based tool designed to support the strategic planning of services and physical assets across the whole health economy. SHAPE provides strategic and local analysis of current clinical activity and informs about the potential for operational savings within a health economy by bringing together health information (HES), estates information and GIS mapping.

Evidence based interventions

A new specialist evidence service to replace the Specialist Collections of NHS Evidence has been launched on May 2011.

As you know the National Library for Public Health provides access to specialised information on behalf of NICE (NHS Evidence). From May 2011, the National Library for Public Health content can be accessed from NHS Evidence website. Users will be able to browse new clinical and public health topic pages – developed by experts - which will bring together the latest guidelines, high quality patient information, ongoing trials and other selected information including access to NICE pathways.

The National Library for Public Health will continue to operate, resourced by the North East Public Health Observatory, (NEPHO). However, from May 2011 the National Library for Public Health web pages will no longer exist as the specialist resources for public health will be accessible via the redesigned NHS Evidence site. If you have added the National Library for Public Health web pages to your bookmarks and favourites then these links will work until early May 2011 but they will then be redirected to the main NHS Evidence site.

The National Library for Public Health publishes a monthly e-newsletter that you can subscribe to. See archived newsletters following the link bellow or subscribe to it here

Networking

PHINE is the public health intelligence network for the North East of England. It brings together all the health intelligence specialists working across the North East in primary care trusts (PCTs), local government and regional bodies such as the public health observatory (NEPHO), the health protection agency, public health group in the North East Government Office, and the cancer registry (NYCRIS). As well as providing support for intelligence analysts, PHINE provides a web-based platform for knowledge management and group networking.