Transforming Cancer Services Team for London access to National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set (NCWTMDS) from the Cancer Wait Times (CWT) System
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust · NHS Trust
In term In term in the September 2026 edition: the latest version runs to 8 July 2028.
- Reference
- DARS-NIC-228903-Z0F4V
- Current version
- v2.10
- Term of current version
- 9 July 2025 to 8 July 2028
- Start date
- 23 December 2019
- Data controller
- Sole Data Controller
- Commercial purposes
- No
- Sublicensing
- No
- Files released to date
- 0
Why the data was released
Objective for processing
This agreement is for The Transforming Cancer Services Team (TCST) London to access the National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set (NCWTMDS) via the Cancer Waiting Times system.
The Transforming Cancer Services programme was established April 2014 to provide strategic leadership, clinical advice, oversight, cohesion and guidance for implementing the National Cancer Strategy for London, Five Year Forward View and the Operational and Planning Guidance. This includes better cancer survival, expanded screening to improve prevention and early detection of cancer, introduction of primary HPV testing for cervical screening and faster tests, results and treatment for people with worrying symptoms.
The Transforming Cancer Services Team (London) aim to improve outcomes for patients through a pan-London clinically led, patient-centred collaborative approach.
The Transforming Cancer Services Team (TCST) in partnership with key stakeholder aims to deliver:
• Equity in access to treatment and reduced variation in outcomes, benchmarking and data;
• Sharing scarce expertise and capability;
• Sharing of good practice across London, prevents duplication of efforts, builds momentum, ensures co-ordinated approach;
• Working closely with the four cancer alliances in London and with NHS England specialist commissioning to deliver at scale across London
• Senior TCST team members linked with local STPs enabling local delivery and ensuring local ownership.
Workstreams in our programme include:
• In year delivery of cancer waits
• Diagnostics capacity, demand and optimisation
• Early Diagnosis
• Living With and Beyond Cancer
• Governance, Safety, Quality and Leadership
The Transforming Cancer Services Team (London) (TCST) vision is for all London residents to have access to world class care before and after a cancer diagnosis.
Delivery of cancer waiting time standards is a top priority for commissioners of healthcare services, NHS England and TCST. The Transforming Cancer Services Team (London) have supported systems across London to deliver improvements to cancer waits through provision of training and expertise, analytical tools to understand the 62 day pathway and sharing of good practice such as use of tools to right size a providers MDT coordinator/tracker workforce.
Cancer intelligence and analysis underpins the specialist expertise and targeted interventions provided by TCST. TCST is also able to support NHS England’s Cancer Transformation PMO in monitoring and reporting on pan-London cancer metrics through the work TCST undertakes. Design and decisions are undertaken by TCST.
The independent Cancer Taskforce set out an ambitious vision for improving services, care and outcomes for everyone with Cancer: fewer people getting Cancer, more people surviving Cancer, more people having a good experience of their treatment and care, whoever they are and wherever they live, and more people being supported to live as well as possible after treatment has finished.
The Transforming Cancer Services Team London are not a Cancer Alliance. They provide London-wide support for improving cancer services (i.e. much broader geographical reach than a Cancer Alliance) and, in terms of cancer waiting times, they provide all the pan-London analysis across London, supporting NHS England and Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs), and working with Cancer Alliances in improving cancer waiting times.
TCST receive funding from the five ICBS across London as well as external funding from two of the wider partnership organisations as mentioned below (Macmillan and Cancer Research UK).
The Cancer Transformation and Improvement Board for London (CTIBL) [Formerly called the London Cancer Commissioning Board (CCB)] is the group that sets a region wide direction for the transformation of cancer services in London. This board provides governance for the TCST work programme.
The board membership includes:
- NHS London (including Specialised Commissioning; Public Health Commissioning and Primary Care Commissioning)
- Clinical representation
- Health Education England
- Cancer Alliances
- ICB Cancer Leads
- Third sector (Macmillan, Cancer Research UK)
- Patient / user representatives
- Transforming Cancer Services Team
Data Controllership: The Transforming Cancer Services Team is hosted by the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust who are Data Controller.
The Transforming Cancer Services Team will be responsible for:
• A once-for-London approach to implementing the national strategy
• Providing subject matter expertise, evidence and intelligence for cancer commissioning support
• Working with partners to reduce variation and deliver improved cancer outcomes
• Primary care development and education
• Targeted service improvement in secondary care
• Monitoring breaches of the 62 day waiting time across London
The Transforming Cancer Services Team will analyse data to:
- Compare performance across London, by Cancer Alliance, Trust & commissioning health organisation.
- Benchmark
- Analyse breaches
- Support local clinical audits
- Support local service improvement
- Quantify treatment volumes
This is a holistic pan-London approach and will span 22 Trusts and 5 Integrated Care Board's - and their successor organisations over the lifetime of the agreement – although any outputs to these organisations would be aggregated with small number suppression
Processing activities
The Cancer Wait Times (CWT) system collects and validates the National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set (NCWTMDS), allowing performance to be measured against operational Cancer standards. Data is validated and records merged to the same pathway to cover the period from referral to first definitive treatment for Cancer and any additional subsequent treatments.
The CWT system then determines whether the operational standard(s) that apply were met or not for the patient and the accountable provider(s). The CWT system holds NCWTMDS in a series of pre-aggregated static reports. These reports are available monthly and quarterly data (aligned with the National Statistics for Cancer Waiting Times published by NHS England). Users can query the CWT system to generate reports to feedback on the progress towards meeting these targets.
TCST will have access to the Cancer Wait Times (CWT) System at the regional level. The TCST will use the data to produce a range of quantitative measures (counts, crude and standardised rates and ratios) that will form the basis for a range of statistical analyses of the fields contained in the supplied data as defined by TCST. This will enable TCST to offer support to enable discussions between, commissioners, acute providers and the four London Cancer Alliances.
Only the lead organisation Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust will directly access the Cancer Waiting Times system. Extracts can be downloaded and will be stored on the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust servers. Role Based Access Control prevents access to data downloads to employees outside of the analytical team responsible for producing outputs; the Transforming Cancer Services Team for London
Approved users will log into the system via an N3 connection and will use a Single Sign-On (users are prompted to create a unique username and password).
TCST Users are not permitted to upload data into the system.
Data must only be used for the purposes stipulated within this Data Sharing Agreement. Any additional disclosure / publication will require further approval from NHS England.
NHS England reminds all organisations party to this agreement of the need to comply with the Data Sharing Framework Contract requirements, including those regarding the use (and purposes of that use) by “Personnel” (as defined within the Data Sharing Framework Contract ie: employees, agents and contractors of the Data Recipient who may have access to that data)
The Transforming Cancer Services Team will have user access based on the Pan-London footprint, to the Cancer Waiting Times System. The user will be able to access the provider extracts from the portal for any provider where at least 1 patient for whom they are the registered within the geographic region under data minimisation (below) for that individual's GP practice appears in that setting.
Although the user may have access to pseudonymised patient information not related to the Pan-London footprint, users must only process and analyse data for which they have a legitimate relationship
Access within the Transforming Cancer Services Team is limited to those with a need to process the data for the purposes described in this agreement. The Transforming Cancer Services Team will have multiple Pan-London footprint access as defined within the Data Minimisation section below:
DATA MINIMISATION
Transforming Cancer Services Team based on the geographical region below subject to:
• Patients who are normally registered and/or resident within any of the acute providers, ICBs listed below (including historical activity where the patient was previously registered or resident in another commissioner).
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust works with health organisations across all of London (North Central London, North East London, South East London, South West London and North West London) including 22 acute providers, 5 ICBs.
Acute Providers
- RF4 BARKING, HAVERING AND REDBRIDGE UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS TRUST
- R1H BARTS HEALTH NHS TRUST
- RQX HOMERTON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
- RP4 GREAT ORMOND STREET HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
- RP6 MOORFIELDS EYE HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
- RAP NORTH MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL NHS TRUST
- RAL ROYAL FREE LONDON NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
- RAN ROYAL NATIONAL ORTHOPAEDIC HOSPITAL NHS TRUST
- RRV UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
- RKE THE WHITTINGTON HOSPITAL NHS TRUST
- RQM CHELSEA AND WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
- R1K LONDON NORTH WEST HEALTHCARE NHS TRUST
- RYJ IMPERIAL COLLEGE HEALTHCARE NHS TRUST
- RAS THE HILLINGDON HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
- RJ6 CROYDON HEALTH SERVICES NHS TRUST
- RVR EPSOM AND ST HELIER UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS TRUST
- RAX KINGSTON HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
- RJ7 ST GEORGE'S UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
- RPY THE ROYAL MARSDEN NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
- RJ1 GUY'S AND ST THOMAS' NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
- RJZ KING'S COLLEGE HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
- RJ2 LEWISHAM AND GREENWICH NHS TRUST
ICB’s:
NHS NORTH EAST LONDON
NHS NORTH CENTRAL LONDON
NHS NORTH WEST LONDON
NHS SOUTH WEST LONDON
NHS SOUTH EAST LONDON
TCST may access record level pseudonymised data which includes the system generated pseudo CWT patient ID and aggregate data with unsuppressed small numbers.
Any record level data extracted from the system will not be processed outside of the authorised users of the system.
Aggregated reports only with small number suppression can be shared externally
All access to data is auditable by NHS England.
Expected output
Outputs fall into the following categories:
1) Pan-London Analysis to support delivery of Cancer Waiting Times standards. This can be viewed at Trust, Cancer Alliance, ICB and regional level across London – identifying elements of good practice and variation, and supporting clinical/commissioning discussions to improve patient pathways
a. Comparative Cancer Waiting Times performance at tumour group and individual tumour site (i.e. ICD10 code) level.
b. Analysis of Cancer Waiting Times performance by treatment modality to identify areas of variation and inform discussions.
c. Grouping length of waits for standards to inform discussions on going beyond constitutional standards
d. Analysis of derived breach reason fields to identify trends in reasons for delays.
e. Analysis of flows of patients at local, alliance, regional and out of region level including analysis by provider trust site
f. Outlier identification including exceptionally long waits.
g. Longitudinal analysis of activity and performance to support commissioning discussions regarding flows between organisations.
h. modelling of future performance linked to regional service improvement work (local and regional).
2) Cancer Waits analysis (not directly linked to constitutional standards) for the aim of identifying variation which may impact Cancer patient’s outcomes or patient experience.
Previous work on this has included modelling effects of reallocation in secondary and tertiary centres, and comparisons of performance where intertrust transfer has been an element of their care pathway.
Expected measurable benefits
The Cancer Waiting Times standards are key operational standards for the NHS, which aim to reduce the waits for diagnosis and treatment for Cancer patients, which will support improvements to survival rates and improve patient experience.
In London a key enabler to achieve these standards, and thus improve survival and patient experience is the role of TCST to work with providers, commissioners and both local and national NHS bodies to understand and support the improvement of patient pathways. Access to the Cancer Waiting Times data as detailed in the above will enable TCST to have and support informed discussions with and between providers, commissioners, alliances and regional bodies, enabling the optimal allocation of resources to improve performance against these standards.
Improvement would be expected on an on-going basis with standards already in place for three standards:-
• Faster Diagnosis Standard - 75%
• 31 day treatment (combined) - 96%
• 62 day referral to 1st treatment (combined) – 85%
This access and the resulting outputs will enable TCST to undertake local analysis beyond the Cancer Waiting times operational standards, supporting improvements to Cancer patients pathways beyond those already achieved by improving performance against standard set. This could include reviewing times between treatments, or treatment rates.
The overarching aim of all future analysis/outputs is to inform priorities and support commissioning to improve Cancer pathways including reducing Cancer incidence and mortality, improving Cancer survival, improving patient experience, improving service efficiency and meeting national constitution standards relating to Cancer patients.
Additional benefits forecasted:
- The ability to re-design services, that will aid equity in access – The detailed analysis across all of London enables identification of which services are achieving rapid access for patients and enables us to share this good practice, both through London wide workshops and the established London wide working with cancer alliances, STPs and providers .
- Reduction variation in outcomes – This data enables identification of variation across London, for example where one part of London is achieving shorter waits for a particular cancer pathway where other parts of London are not. This is used to inform discussion in London wide meetings to understand why this is the case and what actions can be taken within London to reduce this variation .
- The ability to share expertise and capability across London and benchmark regionally – Benchmarking is a key reason for access to this data across London to provide ready comparisons across the region. Through close working with the four cancer alliances TCST undertakes once for London analysis that saves this being undertaken four times, and enables sharing of analytical expertise in cancer waits.
- Having a holistic pan-London view to enable closer working across STPs and Cancer Alliances – Pan London analysis underpins the strong working relationships we have across London and enables the Transforming Cancer Services team to provide the London wide support that ICB's and NHSE have commissioned TCST to provide.
Benefits reported so far
2025 Update-
The data is used for ongoing identification of good practice or challenge across London, for example the data is used to generate reports based around the 62-day intertrust referral pathways, identifying referral routes where the interprovider transfer is delayed either in referral using the 38-day interprovider transfer point as a marker, or treatment using the 24-day IPT to treatment point. This allows us to support recovery where specific challenges are identified, improving future patients experience.
TCST also provide breakdowns of treatment types and reports have been developed identifying completeness of the data as well as compliance with the 28-day faster diagnosis standard.
Comparative analysis of all CWT standards at a variety of granular levels has allowed for comparisons at regional, alliance, and local levels.
The ability to perform longitudinal analysis, demonstrating increases in referral activity and changes in treatment patterns. This data has also allowed us to track changes in cancer detection rate and the conversion rate to cancer over time. This has informed planning around Urgent Suspected Cancer referral forms and 28-day Faster diagnosis workshops in the region. It was useful to map activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, with monthly comparisons to pre-COVID activity. This informed recovery planning across the London region.
TCST have also been able to use the data at an aggregated level to produce estimates of "business as usual" activity pre COVID-19, and use them to identify capacity pressures within the London region, especially in the understanding of surgical activity.
The data has also allowed TCST to understand patient flows for rarer cancers at a London level (eg Sarcoma), which has supported a redesign of this pathway and tracking of performance and activity after changes were made.
Datasets on the current version
Legal basis for provision: Health and Social Care Act 2012 – s261(2)(a)
| Dataset | Type of data | Sensitivity | Frequency | Confidential data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring DataSet (NCWTMDS) | Anonymised - ICO Code Compliant | Non-Sensitive | System Access | Does not include the flow of confidential data |
Files released
Files released counts only files released externally by DARS. Access granted in NHS England's own systems, such as its Secure Data Environment, is not included.
No files recorded as released under this agreement.
Version history
The register lists each renewal of this agreement as a separate row. This site has 3 versions.
DARS-NIC-228903-Z0F4V-v2.10 9 July 2025 to 8 July 2028
- Title
- Transforming Cancer Services Team for London access to National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set (NCWTMDS) from the Cancer Wait Times (CWT) System
- Commercial
- No
- Sublicensing
- No
- Datasets
- 1
- Files released
- 0
Datasets: National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring DataSet (NCWTMDS)
What changed from DARS-NIC-228903-Z0F4V-v1.4
Text removed is struck through; text added is underlined. Unchanged paragraphs are summarised rather than repeated.
| Field | Was | Became |
|---|---|---|
| Applicant organisation | ROYAL FREE LONDON NHS FOUNDATION TRUST | |
| Organisation type | NHS Trust | |
| Data controller basis | Sole Data Controller | |
| Start date | 2025-07-09 | |
| End date | 2028-07-08 | |
| National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring DataSet (NCWTMDS): legal basis | Health and Social Care Act 2012 – s261(2)(a) |
Data controllers:
+ ROYAL FREE LONDON NHS FOUNDATION TRUST · − NHS ENGLAND; − NHS SOUTH EAST LONDON ICB
Objective for processing
[7 paragraphs unchanged]
• Working closely with the
three
four
cancer alliances in London and with NHS England specialist commissioning to deliver at scale across London
[11 paragraphs unchanged]
The Transforming Cancer Services Team London are not a Cancer Alliance. They
[21 words unchanged]
waiting times, they provide all the pan-London analysis across London, supporting NHS
England, NHS Improvement
England
and Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs), and working with Cancer Alliances in improving cancer waiting times.
Data Controllership
TCST receive funding from the five ICBS across London as well as external funding from two of the wider partnership organisations as mentioned below (Macmillan and Cancer Research UK).
TCST receive funding from the Healthy London Partnership (HLP) as well as external funding from several of the wider HLP partnership organisations as mentioned below. The HLP is a partnership of London’s NHS service (Clinical Commissioning Groups, Health Education England, NHS England, NHS Improvement, trusts and providers), the Greater London Authority, the Mayor of London, Public Health England and London Councils. NHS Digital were previously involved in HLP through their role in delivering the rollout of the e-Referral Service for London. This project has been concluded and NHS Digital are no longer involved in HLP.
The Cancer Transformation and Improvement Board for London (CTIBL) [Formerly called the London Cancer Commissioning Board (CCB)] is the group that sets a region wide direction for the transformation of cancer services in London. This board provides governance for the TCST work programme.
The aims of the Healthy London Partnership is to work toward the common goals set out in the Better Health for London, NHS Five Year Forward View and the Devolution agreement. HLP instruct TCST in line with the region wide direction as set out by the The Cancer Transformation and Improvement Board for London (CTIBL). HLP as an organisation/secretariat are hosted by NHS North and East London Commissioning Support Unit (NEL CSU). NEL CSU are also the substantive employer for all TCST staff.
The Cancer Transformation and Improvement Board for London (CTIBL) [Formerly called the London Cancer Commissioning Board (CCB)] is the group that sets a region wide direction for the transformation of cancer services in London.
[5 paragraphs unchanged]
-
STP
ICB
Cancer
Programmes
Leads
[3 paragraphs unchanged]
The CTIBL board is co-chaired by the NHS England's Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for Cancer for London and NHS South East London CCGs SRO for Cancer. Both co-chairs receive advice from other members of the board before deciding on the region wide direction. It is responsible for executive leadership and strategic decision making for delivering improvement in outcomes and experience of service users across the London cancer system. The Board has oversight of STP/Alliance integrated care system plans to deliver transformation and oversight of statutory functions e.g. cancer waiting times and service development funding. CTIBL, specifically the co-chairs of the board, have the final decision on the direction within the region, impacting the work of wider teams and member organisations.
Data Controllership: The Transforming Cancer Services Team is hosted by the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust who are Data Controller.
As a result, the two appointed co-chairs and their respective organisations, NHS England and NHS South East London CCG, are appointed as Data Controller's for this agreement as they dictate the purpose for which this data is processed.
[14 paragraphs unchanged]
This is a holistic pan-London approach and will span
24
22
Trusts and
19 Clinical Commissioning Groups
5 Integrated Care Board's
- and their successor organisations over the lifetime of the agreement – although any outputs to these organisations would be aggregated with small number
suppression.
suppression
Processing activities
[2 paragraphs unchanged]
TCST will have access to the Cancer Wait Times (CWT) System at
[50 words unchanged]
to offer support to enable discussions between, commissioners, acute providers and the
three
four
London Cancer Alliances.
Only
staff members of NEL CSU
the lead organisation Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
will directly access the Cancer Waiting Times system. Extracts can be downloaded and will be stored on
NEL CSU servers and/or
the Royal Free London
NHS
England based
Foundation Trust
servers. Role Based Access Control prevents access to data downloads to employees outside of the analytical team responsible for producing outputs; the
intelligence team of the TCST.
Transforming Cancer Services Team for London
The CWT system is hosted by NHS Digital, access to and usage of the system is fully auditable. Users must comply with the use of the data as specified in this agreement. The CWT system complies with the requirements of the Caldicott Principles and other relevant statutory requirements and guidance to protect confidentiality.
[2 paragraphs unchanged]
Access to the CWT system data is restricted to employees who are substantively employed by the NEL CSU in fulfilment of their public health function.
Data must only be used for the purposes stipulated within this Data Sharing Agreement. Any additional disclosure / publication will require further approval from NHS England.
Data must only be used for the purposes stipulated within this Data Sharing Agreement. Any additional disclosure / publication will require further approval from NHS Digital.
NHS England reminds all organisations party to this agreement of the need to comply with the Data Sharing Framework Contract requirements, including those regarding the use (and purposes of that use) by “Personnel” (as defined within the Data Sharing Framework Contract ie: employees, agents and contractors of the Data Recipient who may have access to that data)
NHS Digital reminds all organisations party to this agreement of the need to comply with the Data Sharing Framework Contract requirements, including those regarding the use (and purposes of that use) by “Personnel” (as defined within the Data Sharing Framework Contract ie: employees, agents and contractors of the Data Recipient who may have access to that data)
The Transforming Cancer Services Team will have user access based on the Pan-London footprint, to the Cancer Waiting Times System. The user will be able to access the provider extracts from the portal for any provider where at least 1 patient for whom they are the registered within the geographic region under data minimisation (below) for that individual's GP practice appears in that setting.
The Transforming Cancer Services Team will have user access based on the Pan-London footprint, (made up of CCGs listed under Data Minimisation below) to the Cancer Waiting Times System. The user will be able to access the provider extracts from the portal for any provider where at least 1 patient for whom they are the registered within the geographic region under data minimisation (below) for that individual's GP practice appears in that setting.
[4 paragraphs unchanged]
• Patients who are normally registered and/or resident within any of the
CCGs
acute providers, ICBs
listed below (including historical activity where the patient was previously registered or resident in another commissioner).
NHS Barking and Dagenham CCG
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust works with health organisations across all of London (North Central London, North East London, South East London, South West London and North West London) including 22 acute providers, 5 ICBs.
NHS Brent CCG
Acute Providers
NHS Central London (Westminster) CCG
- RF4 BARKING, HAVERING AND REDBRIDGE UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS TRUST
NHS City and Hackney CCG
- R1H BARTS HEALTH NHS TRUST
NHS Ealing CCG
- RQX HOMERTON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
NHS Hammersmith and Fulham CCG
- RP4 GREAT ORMOND STREET HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
NHS Harrow CCG
- RP6 MOORFIELDS EYE HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
NHS Havering CCG
- RAP NORTH MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL NHS TRUST
NHS Hillingdon CCG
- RAL ROYAL FREE LONDON NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
NHS Hounslow CCG
- RAN ROYAL NATIONAL ORTHOPAEDIC HOSPITAL NHS TRUST
NHS Newham CCG
- RRV UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
NHS North Central London CCG
- RKE THE WHITTINGTON HOSPITAL NHS TRUST
NHS Redbridge CCG
- RQM CHELSEA AND WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
NHS South East London CCG
- R1K LONDON NORTH WEST HEALTHCARE NHS TRUST
NHS South West London CCG
- RYJ IMPERIAL COLLEGE HEALTHCARE NHS TRUST
NHS Tower Hamlets CCG
- RAS THE HILLINGDON HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
NHS Waltham Forest CCG
- RJ6 CROYDON HEALTH SERVICES NHS TRUST
NHS West Essex CCG
- RVR EPSOM AND ST HELIER UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS TRUST
NHS West London CCG
- RAX KINGSTON HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
NHS North East London CCG
- RJ7 ST GEORGE'S UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
NHS North West London CCG
- RPY THE ROYAL MARSDEN NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
This list is subject to change taking into account mergers of CCGs expected within the lifetime of the agreement, newly formed organisations originating from those listed above would be processed in place.
- RJ1 GUY'S AND ST THOMAS' NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
- RJZ KING'S COLLEGE HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
- RJ2 LEWISHAM AND GREENWICH NHS TRUST
ICB’s:
NHS NORTH EAST LONDON
NHS NORTH CENTRAL LONDON
NHS NORTH WEST LONDON
NHS SOUTH WEST LONDON
NHS SOUTH EAST LONDON
[3 paragraphs unchanged]
All access to data is auditable by NHS
Digital.
England.
NHS North East London Commissioning Support Unit (NEL CSU) are listed as a Data Processor as they host TCST and TCST staff are substantively employed by the CSU. NHS North of England Commissioning Support Unit (NECS) are listed as a Data Processor due to the transition of responsibilities from NEL CSU to NECS whilst NECS takes on the services provided by NEL CSU. As the relationship between TCST and NEL CSU is based upon the employment of their staff and their location, processing and storage locations include NECS.
Expected output
[1 paragraph unchanged]
1) Pan-London Analysis to support delivery of Cancer Waiting Times standards. This can be viewed at Trust, Cancer Alliance,
CCG
ICB
and regional level across London – identifying elements of good practice and variation, and supporting clinical/commissioning discussions to improve patient pathways
[10 paragraphs unchanged]
The majority of these outputs will be repeated at monthly, quarterly or annual schedules depending on the reporting type.
Expected measurable benefits
The Cancer Waiting Times standards are key operational standards for the NHS,
[12 words unchanged]
patients, which will support improvements to survival rates and improve patient experience.
This includes the 28 day faster diagnosis standard on it's implementation.
[1 paragraph unchanged]
Improvement would be expected on an on-going basis with standards already in place for
nine
three
standards:-
• 2 week wait urgent GP referral – 93%
• Faster Diagnosis Standard - 75%
• 2 week wait breast symptomatic – 93%
• 31 day treatment (combined) - 96%
•
31
62
day
referral to
1st treatment
- 96%
(combined) – 85%
• 31 day subsequent surgery – 94%
• 31 day subsequent drugs – 98%
• 31 day subsequent radiotherapy – 94%
• 62 day (GP) referral to 1st treatment – 85%
• 62 day (screening ) referral to 1st treatment – 90%
• 62 day upgrade to 1st treatment – locally agreed standard
In addition this access and use of data will be key in delivering the new 28 day faster diagnosis standard being introduced, with reports showing both completeness and shadow compliance with the standard being used to support uptake and understanding.
[5 paragraphs unchanged]
- The ability to share expertise and capability across London and benchmark
[14 words unchanged]
to provide ready comparisons across the region. Through close working with the
three
four
cancer alliances TCST undertakes once for London analysis that saves this being undertaken
three
four
times, and enables sharing of analytical expertise in cancer waits.
- Having a holistic pan-London view to enable closer working across STPs
[18 words unchanged]
the Transforming Cancer Services team to provide the London wide support that
CCGs
ICB's
and NHSE have commissioned TCST to provide.
Benefits reported
The ongoing identification of elements of good practice or challenge, for example the data is used to generate reports based around the 62-day intertrust referral pathways, identifying referral routes where the interprovider transfer is delayed either in referral using the 38-day interprovider transfer point as a marker, or treatment using the 24-day IPT to treatment point. This allows us to support recovery where specific challenges are identified, improving future patients experience. TCST also provide breach analysis of the standards as well as breakdowns of treatment types and most recently reports have been developed demonstrating completeness and compliance with the 28-day faster diagnosis standard, giving the opportunity to target areas of challenge during implementation.
2025 Update-
Comparative analysis of all CWT standards at a variety of granular levels has allowed for comparisons at regional, alliance, and local levels, giving high quality support to TCSTs workstreams.
The data is used for ongoing identification of good practice or challenge across London, for example the data is used to generate reports based around the 62-day intertrust referral pathways, identifying referral routes where the interprovider transfer is delayed either in referral using the 38-day interprovider transfer point as a marker, or treatment using the 24-day IPT to treatment point. This allows us to support recovery where specific challenges are identified, improving future patients experience.
The ability to perform longitudinal analysis, demonstrating increases in referral activity and changes in treatment patterns. This has informed planning around 2-week wait referral forms and 28-day Faster diagnosis workshops in the region. It has also been useful to map activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, with monthly comparisons to pre-COVID activity. This has informed recovery planning across the London region.
TCST also provide breakdowns of treatment types and reports have been developed identifying completeness of the data as well as compliance with the 28-day faster diagnosis standard.
TCST have also been able to use the data at an aggregated level to produce general estimates of "business as usual" activity pre COVID-19, and use them to identify capacity pressures within the London region, especially in the understanding of surgical activity.
Comparative analysis of all CWT standards at a variety of granular levels has allowed for comparisons at regional, alliance, and local levels.
The ability to perform longitudinal analysis, demonstrating increases in referral activity and changes in treatment patterns. This data has also allowed us to track changes in cancer detection rate and the conversion rate to cancer over time. This has informed planning around Urgent Suspected Cancer referral forms and 28-day Faster diagnosis workshops in the region. It was useful to map activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, with monthly comparisons to pre-COVID activity. This informed recovery planning across the London region.
TCST have also been able to use the data at an aggregated level to produce estimates of "business as usual" activity pre COVID-19, and use them to identify capacity pressures within the London region, especially in the understanding of surgical activity.
The data has also allowed TCST to understand patient flows for rarer cancers at a London level (eg Sarcoma), which has supported a redesign of this pathway and tracking of performance and activity after changes were made.
DARS-NIC-228903-Z0F4V-v1.4 7 February 2022 to 6 February 2025
- Title
- Transforming Cancer Services Team for London access to National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set (NCWTMDS) from the Cancer Wait Times (CWT) System
- Commercial
- No
- Sublicensing
- No
- Datasets
- 1
- Files released
- 0
Datasets: National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring DataSet (NCWTMDS)
What changed from DARS-NIC-228903-Z0F4V-v0.6
Text removed is struck through; text added is underlined. Unchanged paragraphs are summarised rather than repeated.
| Field | Was | Became |
|---|---|---|
| Applicant organisation | NHS ENGLAND | |
| Organisation type | Agency/Public Body | |
| Data controller basis | Joint Data Controller | |
| Start date | 2022-02-07 | |
| End date | 2025-02-06 | |
| National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring DataSet (NCWTMDS): legal basis | Health and Social Care Act 2012 - s261 - 'Other dissemination of information' |
Data controllers:
+ NHS ENGLAND; + NHS SOUTH EAST LONDON ICB · − GUY'S AND ST THOMAS' NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
Objective for processing
This agreement is for
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust (Hosting the
The
Transforming Cancer Services Team (TCST)
London)
London
to access the National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set (NCWTMDS) via the Cancer Waiting Times system.
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust are the legal entity who host the Transforming Cancer Services Team London.
[15 paragraphs unchanged]
Delivery of cancer waiting time standards is a top priority for
CCGs, STPs,
commissioners of healthcare services,
NHS England and TCST. The Transforming Cancer Services Team (London) have supported
[29 words unchanged]
as use of tools to right size a providers MDT coordinator/tracker workforce.
[2 paragraphs unchanged]
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust are the substantive employer for all TCST staff. They are, therefore, the data controller who processes data.
[1 paragraph unchanged]
The Healthy London Partnership fund the Transforming Cancer Services Team. The Healthy London Partnership is a partnership of London’s NHS service (Clinical Commissioning Groups, Health Education England, NHS England, NHS Digital, NHS Improvement, trusts and providers), the Greater London Authority, the Mayor of London, Public Health England and London Councils. The aims of the Healthy London Partnership is to work toward the common goals set out in the Better Health for London, NHS Five Year Forward View and the Devolution agreement.
Data Controllership
The Healthy London Partnership fund the Transforming Cancer Services Team which is hosted within Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
TCST receive funding from the Healthy London Partnership (HLP) as well as external funding from several of the wider HLP partnership organisations as mentioned below. The HLP is a partnership of London’s NHS service (Clinical Commissioning Groups, Health Education England, NHS England, NHS Improvement, trusts and providers), the Greater London Authority, the Mayor of London, Public Health England and London Councils. NHS Digital were previously involved in HLP through their role in delivering the rollout of the e-Referral Service for London. This project has been concluded and NHS Digital are no longer involved in HLP.
The aims of the Healthy London Partnership is to work toward the common goals set out in the Better Health for London, NHS Five Year Forward View and the Devolution agreement. HLP instruct TCST in line with the region wide direction as set out by the The Cancer Transformation and Improvement Board for London (CTIBL). HLP as an organisation/secretariat are hosted by NHS North and East London Commissioning Support Unit (NEL CSU). NEL CSU are also the substantive employer for all TCST staff.
The Cancer Transformation and Improvement Board for London (CTIBL) [Formerly called the London Cancer Commissioning Board (CCB)] is the group that sets a region wide direction for the transformation of cancer services in London.
The board membership includes:
- NHS London (including Specialised Commissioning; Public Health Commissioning and Primary Care Commissioning)
- Clinical representation
- Health Education England
- Cancer Alliances
- STP Cancer Programmes
- Third sector (Macmillan, Cancer Research UK)
- Patient / user representatives
- Transforming Cancer Services Team
The CTIBL board is co-chaired by the NHS England's Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for Cancer for London and NHS South East London CCGs SRO for Cancer. Both co-chairs receive advice from other members of the board before deciding on the region wide direction. It is responsible for executive leadership and strategic decision making for delivering improvement in outcomes and experience of service users across the London cancer system. The Board has oversight of STP/Alliance integrated care system plans to deliver transformation and oversight of statutory functions e.g. cancer waiting times and service development funding. CTIBL, specifically the co-chairs of the board, have the final decision on the direction within the region, impacting the work of wider teams and member organisations.
As a result, the two appointed co-chairs and their respective organisations, NHS England and NHS South East London CCG, are appointed as Data Controller's for this agreement as they dictate the purpose for which this data is processed.
[8 paragraphs unchanged]
- Compare performance across London, by Cancer Alliance,
Trust, STP and CCG.
Trust & commissioning health organisation.
[5 paragraphs unchanged]
This is a holistic pan-London approach and will span 24 Trusts and
33
19
Clinical Commissioning Groups
- and their successor organisations over the lifetime of the agreement
– although any outputs to these organisations would be aggregated with small number suppression.
Processing activities
[3 paragraphs unchanged]
Only staff members of
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
NEL CSU
will directly access the Cancer Waiting Times system. Extracts can be downloaded and will be stored on
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
NEL CSU
servers and/or NHS England based
servers (back-up storage only is provided by NHS England via their server).
servers.
Role Based Access Control prevents access to data downloads to employees outside of the analytical team responsible for producing outputs; the intelligence team of the TCST.
The CWT system is hosted by NHS Digital, access to and usage
[16 words unchanged]
specified in this agreement. The CWT system complies with the requirements of
NHS Digital Code of Practice on Confidential Information,
the Caldicott Principles and other relevant statutory requirements and guidance to protect confidentiality.
[2 paragraphs unchanged]
Access to the CWT system data is restricted to employees who are substantively employed by the
TCST Hosts Data Controller (Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Trust)
NEL CSU
in fulfilment of their public health function.
[9 paragraphs unchanged]
NHS Barnet CCG
NHS Bexley CCG
[1 paragraph unchanged]
NHS Bromley CCG
NHS Camden CCG
[2 paragraphs unchanged]
NHS Croydon CCG
[1 paragraph unchanged]
NHS Enfield CCG
NHS Greenwich CCG
[1 paragraph unchanged]
NHS Haringey CCG
[4 paragraphs unchanged]
NHS Islington CCG
NHS Kingston CCG
NHS Lambeth CCG
NHS Lewisham CCG
NHS Merton CCG
[1 paragraph unchanged]
NHS North Central London CCG
[1 paragraph unchanged]
NHS
Richmond
South East London
CCG
NHS
Southwark
South West London
CCG
NHS Sutton CCG
[2 paragraphs unchanged]
NHS Wandsworth CCG
[2 paragraphs unchanged]
NHS North East London CCG
NHS North West London CCG
This list is subject to change taking into account mergers of CCGs expected within the lifetime of the agreement, newly formed organisations originating from those listed above would be processed in place.
[4 paragraphs unchanged]
NHS North East London Commissioning Support Unit (NEL CSU) are listed as a Data Processor as they host TCST and TCST staff are substantively employed by the CSU. NHS North of England Commissioning Support Unit (NECS) are listed as a Data Processor due to the transition of responsibilities from NEL CSU to NECS whilst NECS takes on the services provided by NEL CSU. As the relationship between TCST and NEL CSU is based upon the employment of their staff and their location, processing and storage locations include NECS.
Expected output
[5 paragraphs unchanged]
d. Analysis of
free text and
derived breach reason fields to identify trends in reasons for delays.
[6 paragraphs unchanged]
The overarching aim of all future analysis/outputs is to inform priorities and support commissioning to improve Cancer pathways including reducing Cancer incidence and mortality, improving Cancer survival, improving patient experience, improving service efficiency and meeting national constitution standards relating to Cancer patients.
[1 paragraph unchanged]
Expected measurable benefits
The Cancer Waiting Times standards are key operational standards for the NHS,
[15 words unchanged]
support improvements to survival rates and improve patient experience. This includes the
new
28 day faster diagnosis standard
being introduced as a standard from April 2020.
on it's implementation.
[11 paragraphs unchanged]
In addition this access and use of data will be key in delivering the new 28 day faster diagnosis standard being
introduced from 2020,
introduced,
with reports showing both completeness and shadow compliance with the standard being used to support uptake and understanding.
[1 paragraph unchanged]
The overall aim of this type of additional analysis would be to support improvements to Cancer patients survival and experience, as well as supporting of appropriate commissioning at the CCG, STP and specialist commissioner level.
The overarching aim of all future analysis/outputs is to inform priorities and support commissioning to improve Cancer pathways including reducing Cancer incidence and mortality, improving Cancer survival, improving patient experience, improving service efficiency and meeting national constitution standards relating to Cancer patients.
Additional benefits
include:
forecasted:
[4 paragraphs unchanged]
Benefits reported
Yielded Benefits is not a requirement for new applications.
The ongoing identification of elements of good practice or challenge, for example the data is used to generate reports based around the 62-day intertrust referral pathways, identifying referral routes where the interprovider transfer is delayed either in referral using the 38-day interprovider transfer point as a marker, or treatment using the 24-day IPT to treatment point. This allows us to support recovery where specific challenges are identified, improving future patients experience. TCST also provide breach analysis of the standards as well as breakdowns of treatment types and most recently reports have been developed demonstrating completeness and compliance with the 28-day faster diagnosis standard, giving the opportunity to target areas of challenge during implementation.
Comparative analysis of all CWT standards at a variety of granular levels has allowed for comparisons at regional, alliance, and local levels, giving high quality support to TCSTs workstreams.
The ability to perform longitudinal analysis, demonstrating increases in referral activity and changes in treatment patterns. This has informed planning around 2-week wait referral forms and 28-day Faster diagnosis workshops in the region. It has also been useful to map activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, with monthly comparisons to pre-COVID activity. This has informed recovery planning across the London region.
TCST have also been able to use the data at an aggregated level to produce general estimates of "business as usual" activity pre COVID-19, and use them to identify capacity pressures within the London region, especially in the understanding of surgical activity.
Objective for processing
This agreement is for The Transforming Cancer Services Team (TCST) London to access the National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set (NCWTMDS) via the Cancer Waiting Times system.
The Transforming Cancer Services programme was established April 2014 to provide strategic leadership, clinical advice, oversight, cohesion and guidance for implementing the National Cancer Strategy for London, Five Year Forward View and the Operational and Planning Guidance. This includes better cancer survival, expanded screening to improve prevention and early detection of cancer, introduction of primary HPV testing for cervical screening and faster tests, results and treatment for people with worrying symptoms.
The Transforming Cancer Services Team (London) aim to improve outcomes for patients through a pan-London clinically led, patient-centred collaborative approach.
The Transforming Cancer Services Team (TCST) in partnership with key stakeholder aims to deliver:
• Equity in access to treatment and reduced variation in outcomes, benchmarking and data;
• Sharing scarce expertise and capability;
• Sharing of good practice across London, prevents duplication of efforts, builds momentum, ensures co-ordinated approach;
• Working closely with the three cancer alliances in London and with NHS England specialist commissioning to deliver at scale across London
• Senior TCST team members linked with local STPs enabling local delivery and ensuring local ownership.
Workstreams in our programme include:
• In year delivery of cancer waits
• Diagnostics capacity, demand and optimisation
• Early Diagnosis
• Living With and Beyond Cancer
• Governance, Safety, Quality and Leadership
The Transforming Cancer Services Team (London) (TCST) vision is for all London residents to have access to world class care before and after a cancer diagnosis.
Delivery of cancer waiting time standards is a top priority for commissioners of healthcare services, NHS England and TCST. The Transforming Cancer Services Team (London) have supported systems across London to deliver improvements to cancer waits through provision of training and expertise, analytical tools to understand the 62 day pathway and sharing of good practice such as use of tools to right size a providers MDT coordinator/tracker workforce.
Cancer intelligence and analysis underpins the specialist expertise and targeted interventions provided by TCST. TCST is also able to support NHS England’s Cancer Transformation PMO in monitoring and reporting on pan-London cancer metrics through the work TCST undertakes. Design and decisions are undertaken by TCST.
The independent Cancer Taskforce set out an ambitious vision for improving services, care and outcomes for everyone with Cancer: fewer people getting Cancer, more people surviving Cancer, more people having a good experience of their treatment and care, whoever they are and wherever they live, and more people being supported to live as well as possible after treatment has finished.
The Transforming Cancer Services Team London are not a Cancer Alliance. They provide London-wide support for improving cancer services (i.e. much broader geographical reach than a Cancer Alliance) and, in terms of cancer waiting times, they provide all the pan-London analysis across London, supporting NHS England, NHS Improvement and Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs), and working with Cancer Alliances in improving cancer waiting times.
Data Controllership
TCST receive funding from the Healthy London Partnership (HLP) as well as external funding from several of the wider HLP partnership organisations as mentioned below. The HLP is a partnership of London’s NHS service (Clinical Commissioning Groups, Health Education England, NHS England, NHS Improvement, trusts and providers), the Greater London Authority, the Mayor of London, Public Health England and London Councils. NHS Digital were previously involved in HLP through their role in delivering the rollout of the e-Referral Service for London. This project has been concluded and NHS Digital are no longer involved in HLP.
The aims of the Healthy London Partnership is to work toward the common goals set out in the Better Health for London, NHS Five Year Forward View and the Devolution agreement. HLP instruct TCST in line with the region wide direction as set out by the The Cancer Transformation and Improvement Board for London (CTIBL). HLP as an organisation/secretariat are hosted by NHS North and East London Commissioning Support Unit (NEL CSU). NEL CSU are also the substantive employer for all TCST staff.
The Cancer Transformation and Improvement Board for London (CTIBL) [Formerly called the London Cancer Commissioning Board (CCB)] is the group that sets a region wide direction for the transformation of cancer services in London.
The board membership includes:
- NHS London (including Specialised Commissioning; Public Health Commissioning and Primary Care Commissioning)
- Clinical representation
- Health Education England
- Cancer Alliances
- STP Cancer Programmes
- Third sector (Macmillan, Cancer Research UK)
- Patient / user representatives
- Transforming Cancer Services Team
The CTIBL board is co-chaired by the NHS England's Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for Cancer for London and NHS South East London CCGs SRO for Cancer. Both co-chairs receive advice from other members of the board before deciding on the region wide direction. It is responsible for executive leadership and strategic decision making for delivering improvement in outcomes and experience of service users across the London cancer system. The Board has oversight of STP/Alliance integrated care system plans to deliver transformation and oversight of statutory functions e.g. cancer waiting times and service development funding. CTIBL, specifically the co-chairs of the board, have the final decision on the direction within the region, impacting the work of wider teams and member organisations.
As a result, the two appointed co-chairs and their respective organisations, NHS England and NHS South East London CCG, are appointed as Data Controller's for this agreement as they dictate the purpose for which this data is processed.
The Transforming Cancer Services Team will be responsible for:
• A once-for-London approach to implementing the national strategy
• Providing subject matter expertise, evidence and intelligence for cancer commissioning support
• Working with partners to reduce variation and deliver improved cancer outcomes
• Primary care development and education
• Targeted service improvement in secondary care
• Monitoring breaches of the 62 day waiting time across London
The Transforming Cancer Services Team will analyse data to:
- Compare performance across London, by Cancer Alliance, Trust & commissioning health organisation.
- Benchmark
- Analyse breaches
- Support local clinical audits
- Support local service improvement
- Quantify treatment volumes
This is a holistic pan-London approach and will span 24 Trusts and 19 Clinical Commissioning Groups - and their successor organisations over the lifetime of the agreement – although any outputs to these organisations would be aggregated with small number suppression.
Expected output
Outputs fall into the following categories:
1) Pan-London Analysis to support delivery of Cancer Waiting Times standards. This can be viewed at Trust, Cancer Alliance, CCG and regional level across London – identifying elements of good practice and variation, and supporting clinical/commissioning discussions to improve patient pathways
a. Comparative Cancer Waiting Times performance at tumour group and individual tumour site (i.e. ICD10 code) level.
b. Analysis of Cancer Waiting Times performance by treatment modality to identify areas of variation and inform discussions.
c. Grouping length of waits for standards to inform discussions on going beyond constitutional standards
d. Analysis of derived breach reason fields to identify trends in reasons for delays.
e. Analysis of flows of patients at local, alliance, regional and out of region level including analysis by provider trust site
f. Outlier identification including exceptionally long waits.
g. Longitudinal analysis of activity and performance to support commissioning discussions regarding flows between organisations.
h. modelling of future performance linked to regional service improvement work (local and regional).
2) Cancer Waits analysis (not directly linked to constitutional standards) for the aim of identifying variation which may impact Cancer patient’s outcomes or patient experience.
Previous work on this has included modelling effects of reallocation in secondary and tertiary centres, and comparisons of performance where intertrust transfer has been an element of their care pathway.
The majority of these outputs will be repeated at monthly, quarterly or annual schedules depending on the reporting type.
Benefits reported
The ongoing identification of elements of good practice or challenge, for example the data is used to generate reports based around the 62-day intertrust referral pathways, identifying referral routes where the interprovider transfer is delayed either in referral using the 38-day interprovider transfer point as a marker, or treatment using the 24-day IPT to treatment point. This allows us to support recovery where specific challenges are identified, improving future patients experience. TCST also provide breach analysis of the standards as well as breakdowns of treatment types and most recently reports have been developed demonstrating completeness and compliance with the 28-day faster diagnosis standard, giving the opportunity to target areas of challenge during implementation.
Comparative analysis of all CWT standards at a variety of granular levels has allowed for comparisons at regional, alliance, and local levels, giving high quality support to TCSTs workstreams.
The ability to perform longitudinal analysis, demonstrating increases in referral activity and changes in treatment patterns. This has informed planning around 2-week wait referral forms and 28-day Faster diagnosis workshops in the region. It has also been useful to map activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, with monthly comparisons to pre-COVID activity. This has informed recovery planning across the London region.
TCST have also been able to use the data at an aggregated level to produce general estimates of "business as usual" activity pre COVID-19, and use them to identify capacity pressures within the London region, especially in the understanding of surgical activity.
DARS-NIC-228903-Z0F4V-v0.6 23 December 2019 to 22 December 2020
- Title
- Transforming Cancer Services Team for London access to National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set (NCWTMDS) from the Cancer Wait Times (CWT) System
- Commercial
- No
- Sublicensing
- No
- Datasets
- 1
- Files released
- 0
Datasets: National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring DataSet (NCWTMDS)
Objective for processing
This agreement is for Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust (Hosting the Transforming Cancer Services Team (TCST) London) to access the National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set (NCWTMDS) via the Cancer Waiting Times system. Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust are the legal entity who host the Transforming Cancer Services Team London.
The Transforming Cancer Services programme was established April 2014 to provide strategic leadership, clinical advice, oversight, cohesion and guidance for implementing the National Cancer Strategy for London, Five Year Forward View and the Operational and Planning Guidance. This includes better cancer survival, expanded screening to improve prevention and early detection of cancer, introduction of primary HPV testing for cervical screening and faster tests, results and treatment for people with worrying symptoms.
The Transforming Cancer Services Team (London) aim to improve outcomes for patients through a pan-London clinically led, patient-centred collaborative approach.
The Transforming Cancer Services Team (TCST) in partnership with key stakeholder aims to deliver:
• Equity in access to treatment and reduced variation in outcomes, benchmarking and data;
• Sharing scarce expertise and capability;
• Sharing of good practice across London, prevents duplication of efforts, builds momentum, ensures co-ordinated approach;
• Working closely with the three cancer alliances in London and with NHS England specialist commissioning to deliver at scale across London
• Senior TCST team members linked with local STPs enabling local delivery and ensuring local ownership.
Workstreams in our programme include:
• In year delivery of cancer waits
• Diagnostics capacity, demand and optimisation
• Early Diagnosis
• Living With and Beyond Cancer
• Governance, Safety, Quality and Leadership
The Transforming Cancer Services Team (London) (TCST) vision is for all London residents to have access to world class care before and after a cancer diagnosis.
Delivery of cancer waiting time standards is a top priority for CCGs, STPs, NHS England and TCST. The Transforming Cancer Services Team (London) have supported systems across London to deliver improvements to cancer waits through provision of training and expertise, analytical tools to understand the 62 day pathway and sharing of good practice such as use of tools to right size a providers MDT coordinator/tracker workforce.
Cancer intelligence and analysis underpins the specialist expertise and targeted interventions provided by TCST. TCST is also able to support NHS England’s Cancer Transformation PMO in monitoring and reporting on pan-London cancer metrics through the work TCST undertakes. Design and decisions are undertaken by TCST.
The independent Cancer Taskforce set out an ambitious vision for improving services, care and outcomes for everyone with Cancer: fewer people getting Cancer, more people surviving Cancer, more people having a good experience of their treatment and care, whoever they are and wherever they live, and more people being supported to live as well as possible after treatment has finished.
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust are the substantive employer for all TCST staff. They are, therefore, the data controller who processes data.
The Transforming Cancer Services Team London are not a Cancer Alliance. They provide London-wide support for improving cancer services (i.e. much broader geographical reach than a Cancer Alliance) and, in terms of cancer waiting times, they provide all the pan-London analysis across London, supporting NHS England, NHS Improvement and Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs), and working with Cancer Alliances in improving cancer waiting times.
The Healthy London Partnership fund the Transforming Cancer Services Team. The Healthy London Partnership is a partnership of London’s NHS service (Clinical Commissioning Groups, Health Education England, NHS England, NHS Digital, NHS Improvement, trusts and providers), the Greater London Authority, the Mayor of London, Public Health England and London Councils. The aims of the Healthy London Partnership is to work toward the common goals set out in the Better Health for London, NHS Five Year Forward View and the Devolution agreement.
The Healthy London Partnership fund the Transforming Cancer Services Team which is hosted within Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
The Transforming Cancer Services Team will be responsible for:
• A once-for-London approach to implementing the national strategy
• Providing subject matter expertise, evidence and intelligence for cancer commissioning support
• Working with partners to reduce variation and deliver improved cancer outcomes
• Primary care development and education
• Targeted service improvement in secondary care
• Monitoring breaches of the 62 day waiting time across London
The Transforming Cancer Services Team will analyse data to:
- Compare performance across London, by Cancer Alliance, Trust, STP and CCG.
- Benchmark
- Analyse breaches
- Support local clinical audits
- Support local service improvement
- Quantify treatment volumes
This is a holistic pan-London approach and will span 24 Trusts and 33 Clinical Commissioning Groups – although any outputs to these organisations would be aggregated with small number suppression.
Expected output
Outputs fall into the following categories:
1) Pan-London Analysis to support delivery of Cancer Waiting Times standards. This can be viewed at Trust, Cancer Alliance, CCG and regional level across London – identifying elements of good practice and variation, and supporting clinical/commissioning discussions to improve patient pathways
a. Comparative Cancer Waiting Times performance at tumour group and individual tumour site (i.e. ICD10 code) level.
b. Analysis of Cancer Waiting Times performance by treatment modality to identify areas of variation and inform discussions.
c. Grouping length of waits for standards to inform discussions on going beyond constitutional standards
d. Analysis of free text and derived breach reason fields to identify trends in reasons for delays.
e. Analysis of flows of patients at local, alliance, regional and out of region level including analysis by provider trust site
f. Outlier identification including exceptionally long waits.
g. Longitudinal analysis of activity and performance to support commissioning discussions regarding flows between organisations.
h. modelling of future performance linked to regional service improvement work (local and regional).
2) Cancer Waits analysis (not directly linked to constitutional standards) for the aim of identifying variation which may impact Cancer patient’s outcomes or patient experience.
Previous work on this has included modelling effects of reallocation in secondary and tertiary centres, and comparisons of performance where intertrust transfer has been an element of their care pathway.
The overarching aim of all future analysis/outputs is to inform priorities and support commissioning to improve Cancer pathways including reducing Cancer incidence and mortality, improving Cancer survival, improving patient experience, improving service efficiency and meeting national constitution standards relating to Cancer patients.
The majority of these outputs will be repeated at monthly, quarterly or annual schedules depending on the reporting type.
Benefits reported
Yielded Benefits is not a requirement for new applications.
Register history
When this agreement appeared in, or was edited in, each monthly edition of the register. Built by comparing every edition this site holds, the earliest of which is July 2021.
-
July 2021 —
already listed in the earliest edition this site holds, so it may be older. 1 version: DARS-NIC-228903-Z0F4V-v0.6
-
March 2022
1 version added: DARS-NIC-228903-Z0F4V-v1.4
-
October 2022
Succeeded Data controllers: NHS South East London CCG succeeded by NHS South East London ICB from 1 July 2022, according to NHS ODS. Not counted as a change.
-
December 2022
Register-wide edit DARS-NIC-228903-Z0F4V-v0.6 — Datasets: legal basis: “
s261(1) and” taken out. Made to 639 agreements in this edition, so it is reported once, on the changes page, and not counted as an amendment of this agreement. -
October 2025
1 version added: DARS-NIC-228903-Z0F4V-v2.10Renamed Applicant organisation: NHS England (Quarry House) now named NHS England. Not counted as a change.Renamed Data controllers: NHS England (Quarry House) now named NHS England. Not counted as a change.
Cite this page
NHS England (2026) Data Uses Register, September 2026 edition, agreement DARS-NIC-228903-Z0F4V, “Transforming Cancer Services Team for London access to National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set (NCWTMDS) from the Cancer Wait Times (CWT) System”. Read via NHS Data Access Explorer (unofficial), https://healthdatauses.uk/agreements/dars-nic-228903-z0f4v/ (accessed [date]).
This address stays the same, but the page is rebuilt with each monthly edition, so the citation names the edition it shows. Every edition's data is kept in the facts store.
Source: datausesregister_september2026.xlsx, September 2026 edition of the NHS England Data Uses Register. Search that workbook for DARS-NIC-228903-Z0F4V to see the original rows.