Access to Civil Registration Data

The births and deaths data is of significant value to the Local Authority in enabling analysts to respond to local public health needs. Evaluations of births and deaths in their local area allows local authorities to perform the following:

a) Measuring the health, mortality or care needs of the population, for specific geographical area or population group;

b) Planning, evaluating or monitoring health and social care policies, services or interventions; and,

c) Protecting or improving the public health, including such subjects as the incidence of disease, the characteristics (e.g. age, gender, occupation) of persons with disease, the risk factors pertaining to sections of the population, investigating specific areas of local concern relating to the health of the local population, or the effectiveness of medical treatments.

The births and deaths data both contain identifiable data which is required when linking into other datasets to enhance and verify the statistics produced, or to investigate specific areas of local concern relating to the health of the local population, e.g. deaths data is used to produce suicide audits by linking into hospital / GP / social care data and births data can be linked into child care / social care systems when infant deaths are investigated usually as part of local “Safeguarding Children” projects.

Such local investigations will reflect local need and thus vary in relation to the specific local authority, but the detail below provides specific examples of such local investigations which provide evidence on why identifiable data is needed in order to carry out the purposes stated within a), b) and c) above.

Each Local Authority will only be permitted to process the data in the way outlined in this application. Processing outside the terms of this application will require a separate application as an amendment to this agreement

In relation to mortality data :

Suicide Audit – As part of on-going (or the introduction of) suicide audit processes identifiable information will be required to support this work. Such audits require specific identifiable fields, including postcode of usual residence and postcode of place of death (further refined using the place of death text) to analyse and investigate of deaths in public places to support work on accident prevention strategies and the identification of hotspots and locational characteristics for accidental harm and suicide. For example, exact postcode is used to calculate distance from home address to identify suicide hotspots which are a distance from place of resident as a further means of classifying risk. NHS number, date of death and date of registration fields are used when conducting local audits at the coroner’s office, to match their records with the death record in order to supplement information which is subsequently aggregated within the final internal report.

To expand on what is noted above, postcode of residence and place of death (further refined using the place of death text) is used for hotspot mapping and in particular is used to inform suicide prevention work through target hotspot areas of location types within the county and undertake specific preventative work. Pseudonymised data would be insufficient as lower super output areas or partial postcode) cover too large an area to identify exact locations and features or calculate distance from home, especially in more dispersed rural areas, where locations may be many miles apart. This granularity of data is required since the local authorities are where appropriate taking specific locally based action rather than just authority wide activity. The suicide audit process involves collecting information from services such as police, healthcare providers and GP practices of the factors involved in the suicide and NHS number, date of death and other identifiable data will be essential for doing this. As with the hotspot work this is about understanding risk, detecting local issues to inform evidence-based interventions addressing known local factors.

Accidental/Preventable Deaths – Postcode of usual residence and postcode of place of death (further refined using the place of death text) are used for the analysis and investigation of deaths in public places to support work the identification of hotspots and locational characteristics for accident – with identification of types of areas (e.g. parks, railway lines, pavements) as well as particular locations. This level of analysis enables preventative work to be targeted to high risk areas (both in terms of residence as well as occurrence). As a specific example relating to one Local Authority, it carried out work that identified a number of suicides at a particular railway location, and hence facilitated suicide prevention training with staff members at their local Railway Station.

In conjunction with postcode of usual residence and postcode of place of death, detailed analysis of cause of death allows the monitoring of patterns of preventable or amenable disease, particularly avoidable deaths including the major killers, i.e. circulatory, cancer and respiratory disease.

Seasonal monitoring of deaths – Date of death is used both to establish seasonal patterns of mortality (such as excess winter deaths) and the correlation of this with data on weather conditions and local health and social care system pressures, and in the case of any deaths going to coroner to track the length of time between death and registration.

In relation to local population health needs:

Bespoke geography analysis – The postcode also enables analysis by non-coterminous geographies such as highly trafficked roads so the Local Authority can complete aggregate analysis of areas with particular risk factors – for example to see if people living on main roads have high risks of respiratory disease than people who live on cul-de-sacs.

The postcode and place of death text also enables Local Authorities to identify locations of particular types such as care homes or other residential institutions, analysis of deaths by homes enables targeted prevention work (such as control of infection or falls prevention).

Further, bespoke geographies created by postcodes support the assessment of environmental risks to health. For example, a Local Authority may be required to investigate a number of residential streets which have been built on potentially contaminated ground to see if there are any unusual disease patterns. One specific Local Authority needed to identify deaths where the person was resident in particular streets, in the case of a previous cancer cluster possibly relating to chemicals in soil.

Postcodes are used to identify births along these roads to see if there are increased risks of low birth-weight or stillbirths.

Deprivation and inequalities – Postcode is also used to sum data to aggregate geographies that are not based on LSOAs, to facilitate partnership working and to look at small area clusters such as pockets of deprivation, poor quality housing and inequalities in healthcare provision which are all found to be smaller than an LSOA level, identifying the conditions contributing to the greatest levels of premature and preventable deaths, and identifying areas for further investigation.

Child deaths and stillbirths – Identifiable data is also required to provide any data needed to fulfil our duties for audit under the Child Overview Death Panel and other Safeguarding investigations – using NHS numbers to identify these cases and look for patterns, date of birth of mother/postcode of mother to investigate trends based on mother’s location or age.

Audit of medical professionals – there is a requirement for NHS number to facilitate clinical audits by medical professionals into unusual patterns of death; this is part of the Local Authority’s statutory duty to protect the health of the population from risks to Public Health, from both medical conditions and also from clinical practice. Some recent specific examples include :-

• An unusually high number of deaths from epilepsy were noted from the data, and these were audited against GP practice data having had access to identifiable data to identify records.

• GP practices raised concerns about health in their practices, having noticed clusters of cases that they request the Local Authority to investigate.

• Following the Shipman Enquiry recommendations, Local Authorities are required to investigate any concerns raised about clinical practitioners. This duty was given to PCTs in 2007, but information source is the PCMD and is part of the PH duty to provide analysis and evidence to CCGs.

Seasonal monitoring of births – A Local Authorities have a requirement for the inclusion of date of birth of child as it is used to monitor seasonal patterns of births. Postcode of usual residence of mother and postcode of place of birth of child are also used to establish and monitor distance from home to place of birth and monitor catchment areas for different providers for future service planning covering areas based on postcodes rather than LSOA. This will not include any data sharing with providers or other third parties.

Age of mother is required to investigate trends in both young mothers (to support teenage conception and Family Nurse Partnership programmes) and older mothers (to support service planning for higher risk pregnancies). This will not include any data sharing with providers or other third parties.

A mixture of regular annual projects and ad hoc projects triggered by local conditions will require the use of births and deaths data that will result in published summary statistics for public health projects, and these may be used internally or externally with partners in the project.

Typical uses of deaths data are for the following:

a) Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs);

b) Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies;

c) the annual report of the Director of Public Health;

d) reports commissioned by the Health and Wellbeing Board;

e) public health and wider Local Authority health and wellbeing commissioning strategies and plans;

f) public health advice to NHS commissioners;

g) local health profiles;

h) health impact assessments

i) Suicide audits (this specifically requires NHS number)

j) End of life care projects

k) Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) screening programme

l) responses to internal and external requests for information and intelligence on the health and wellbeing of the population.

M) Drug related deaths analysis

N) Reports for Health Scrutiny Committee

O) Analysis on Violence Reduction agenda

P) Supporting Covid Control, with Covid 19 mortality analysis

Typical uses of births data are for the following:

a) Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs);

b) Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies;

c) the annual report of the Director of Public Health;

d) reports commissioned by the Health and Wellbeing Board;

e) public health and wider Local Authority health and wellbeing commissioning strategies and plans;

f) public health advice to NHS commissioners;

g) local health profiles;

h) health impact assessments

i) responses to internal and external requests for information and intelligence on the health and wellbeing of the population.

The specific content and target dates for these outputs will be for the Local Authority to determine, although it is required to comply with national guidance published by the Department of Health, Public Health England (or its replacement) and others as appropriate, for example on the timetable for publishing refreshed JSNAs.

All outputs will be of aggregated data (with small numbers suppressed).

The deaths data is currently being used during the Covid 19 pandemic and will be used as part of future analysis. Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council are currently using the data to look at the number and profile of suicides, drug and alcohol related deaths over the last 12 months and will track that over the next 12 months so Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council can understand any potential increases, Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council will then look at issues of inequality as part of its analysis. Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council also have a real time alert system running at the same time, so will compare numbers to understand what death notification Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council are missing from its real time alter system. Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council will also be looking at the role isolation might be playing in such death. The second major area of work currently underway and which needs to carry on in the future is covid 19 deaths, Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council are currently tracking all covid 19 deaths through the registry office on a daily basis, but Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council need to then look at the civil registrations data to allow more in-depth analysis of demographics, locations of death, inequalities, e.g. looking at care home deaths is an area Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council are starting to look at the moment.

Mortality data has also been used to understand the impact of the Covid Pandemic, looking at Covid related mortality, care home mortality and the role deprivation and wider inequalities have had. Further analysis will be carried out throughout 2021/22 as well. But this data set has been used to support the Covid Control response within the city to allow Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council to understand the impact of covid on Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council’s population.

The births and deaths data is of significant value to the Local Authority in enabling analysts to respond to local public health needs. Evaluations of births and deaths in their local area allows local authorities to perform the following:

a) Measuring the health, mortality or care needs of the population, for specific geographical area or population group;

b) Planning, evaluating or monitoring health and social care policies, services or interventions; and,

c) Protecting or improving the public health, including such subjects as the incidence of disease, the characteristics (e.g. age, gender, occupation) of persons with disease, the risk factors pertaining to sections of the population, investigating specific areas of local concern relating to the health of the local population, or the effectiveness of medical treatments.

The births and deaths data both contain identifiable data which is required when linking into other datasets to enhance and verify the statistics produced, or to investigate specific areas of local concern relating to the health of the local population, e.g. deaths data is used to produce suicide audits by linking into hospital / GP / social care data and births data can be linked into child care / social care systems when infant deaths are investigated usually as part of local “Safeguarding Children” projects.

Such local investigations will reflect local need and thus vary in relation to the specific local authority, but the detail below provides specific examples of such local investigations which provide evidence on why identifiable data is needed in order to carry out the purposes stated within a), b) and c) above.

Each Local Authority will only be permitted to process the data in the way outlined in this application. Processing outside the terms of this application will require a separate application as an amendment to this agreement

In relation to mortality data :

Suicide Audit – As part of on-going (or the introduction of) suicide audit processes identifiable information will be required to support this work. Such audits require specific identifiable fields, including postcode of usual residence and postcode of place of death (further refined using the place of death text) to analyse and investigate of deaths in public places to support work on accident prevention strategies and the identification of hotspots and locational characteristics for accidental harm and suicide. For example, exact postcode is used to calculate distance from home address to identify suicide hotspots which are a distance from place of resident as a further means of classifying risk. NHS number, date of death and date of registration fields are used when conducting local audits at the coroner’s office, to match their records with the death record in order to supplement information which is subsequently aggregated within the final internal report.

To expand on what is noted above, postcode of residence and place of death (further refined using the place of death text) is used for hotspot mapping and in particular is used to inform suicide prevention work through target hotspot areas of location types within the county and undertake specific preventative work. Pseudonymised data would be insufficient as lower super output areas or partial postcode) cover too large an area to identify exact locations and features or calculate distance from home, especially in more dispersed rural areas, where locations may be many miles apart. This granularity of data is required since the local authorities are where appropriate taking specific locally based action rather than just authority wide activity. The suicide audit process involves collecting information from services such as police, healthcare providers and GP practices of the factors involved in the suicide and NHS number, date of death and other identifiable data will be essential for doing this. As with the hotspot work this is about understanding risk, detecting local issues to inform evidence-based interventions addressing known local factors.

Accidental/Preventable Deaths – Postcode of usual residence and postcode of place of death (further refined using the place of death text) are used for the analysis and investigation of deaths in public places to support work the identification of hotspots and locational characteristics for accident – with identification of types of areas (e.g. parks, railway lines, pavements) as well as particular locations. This level of analysis enables preventative work to be targeted to high risk areas (both in terms of residence as well as occurrence). As a specific example relating to one Local Authority, it carried out work that identified a number of suicides at a particular railway location, and hence facilitated suicide prevention training with staff members at their local Railway Station.

In conjunction with postcode of usual residence and postcode of place of death, detailed analysis of cause of death allows the monitoring of patterns of preventable or amenable disease, particularly avoidable deaths including the major killers, i.e. circulatory, cancer and respiratory disease.

Seasonal monitoring of deaths – Date of death is used both to establish seasonal patterns of mortality (such as excess winter deaths) and the correlation of this with data on weather conditions and local health and social care system pressures, and in the case of any deaths going to coroner to track the length of time between death and registration.

In relation to local population health needs:

Bespoke geography analysis – The postcode also enables analysis by non-coterminous geographies such as highly trafficked roads so the Local Authority can complete aggregate analysis of areas with particular risk factors – for example to see if people living on main roads have high risks of respiratory disease than people who live on cul-de-sacs.

The postcode and place of death text also enables Local Authorities to identify locations of particular types such as care homes or other residential institutions, analysis of deaths by homes enables targeted prevention work (such as control of infection or falls prevention).

Further, bespoke geographies created by postcodes support the assessment of environmental risks to health. For example, a Local Authority may be required to investigate a number of residential streets which have been built on potentially contaminated ground to see if there are any unusual disease patterns. One specific Local Authority needed to identify deaths where the person was resident in particular streets, in the case of a previous cancer cluster possibly relating to chemicals in soil.

Postcodes are used to identify births along these roads to see if there are increased risks of low birth-weight or stillbirths.

Deprivation and inequalities – Postcode is also used to sum data to aggregate geographies that are not based on LSOAs, to facilitate partnership working and to look at small area clusters such as pockets of deprivation, poor quality housing and inequalities in healthcare provision which are all found to be smaller than an LSOA level, identifying the conditions contributing to the greatest levels of premature and preventable deaths, and identifying areas for further investigation.

Child deaths and stillbirths – Identifiable data is also required to provide any data needed to fulfil our duties for audit under the Child Overview Death Panel and other Safeguarding investigations – using NHS numbers to identify these cases and look for patterns, date of birth of mother/postcode of mother to investigate trends based on mother’s location or age.

Audit of medical professionals – there is a requirement for NHS number to facilitate clinical audits by medical professionals into unusual patterns of death; this is part of the Local Authority’s statutory duty to protect the health of the population from risks to Public Health, from both medical conditions and also from clinical practice. Some recent specific examples include :-

• An unusually high number of deaths from epilepsy were noted from the data, and these were audited against GP practice data having had access to identifiable data to identify records.

• GP practices raised concerns about health in their practices, having noticed clusters of cases that they request the Local Authority to investigate.

• Following the Shipman Enquiry recommendations, Local Authorities are required to investigate any concerns raised about clinical practitioners. This duty was given to PCTs in 2007, but information source is the PCMD and is part of the PH duty to provide analysis and evidence to CCGs.

Seasonal monitoring of births – A Local Authorities have a requirement for the inclusion of date of birth of child as it is used to monitor seasonal patterns of births. Postcode of usual residence of mother and postcode of place of birth of child are also used to establish and monitor distance from home to place of birth and monitor catchment areas for different providers for future service planning covering areas based on postcodes rather than LSOA. This will not include any data sharing with providers or other third parties.

Age of mother is required to investigate trends in both young mothers (to support teenage conception and Family Nurse Partnership programmes) and older mothers (to support service planning for higher risk pregnancies). This will not include any data sharing with providers or other third parties.

A mixture of regular annual projects and ad hoc projects triggered by local conditions will require the use of births and deaths data that will result in published summary statistics for public health projects, and these may be used internally or externally with partners in the project.

Typical uses of deaths data are for the following:

a) Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs);

b) Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies;

c) the annual report of the Director of Public Health;

d) reports commissioned by the Health and Wellbeing Board;

e) public health and wider Local Authority health and wellbeing commissioning strategies and plans;

f) public health advice to NHS commissioners;

g) local health profiles;

h) health impact assessments

i) Suicide audits (this specifically requires NHS number)

j) End of life care projects

k) Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) screening programme

l) responses to internal and external requests for information and intelligence on the health and wellbeing of the population.

M) Drug related deaths analysis

N) Reports for Health Scrutiny Committee

O) Analysis on Violence Reduction agenda

Typical uses of births data are for the following:

a) Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs);

b) Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies;

c) the annual report of the Director of Public Health;

d) reports commissioned by the Health and Wellbeing Board;

e) public health and wider Local Authority health and wellbeing commissioning strategies and plans;

f) public health advice to NHS commissioners;

g) local health profiles;

h) health impact assessments

i) responses to internal and external requests for information and intelligence on the health and wellbeing of the population.

The specific content and target dates for these outputs will be for the Local Authority to determine, although it is required to comply with national guidance published by the Department of Health, Public Health England and others as appropriate, for example on the timetable for publishing refreshed JSNAs.

All outputs will be of aggregated data (with small numbers suppressed).

The projects are carried out in order to improve public health and will result in local adjustments to services to reduce mortality where possible and inform decisions and policies.

This data assists Local authorities in tailoring local solutions to local problems, and using all the levers at their disposal to improve health and reduce inequalities and it helps to create a 21st century local public health system, based on localism, democratic accountability and evidence as directed in the Health and Social Care act 2012.

Benefits of using births / deaths data

The Civil Registrations data is of great benefit to health and social care, and the use of it has led to considerable benefits to public health. The Civil Registrations data is used to identify patterns and trends in mortality rates, life expectancy and premature death, highlighting differences between geographic areas, age, sex and other socio-economic characteristics. It is also used specifically to identify health inequalities and differences between areas which is critical for the planning, distribution and targeting of health, care and public health services. It is used to set recommendations in the Annual Public Health Report, which inform the commissioning and coordination of public health services.

Further to preventable deaths use, premature deaths can be analysed, audits are undertaken to identify all those who died prematurely. This was used to look at the care pathways, develop new prevention programmes and implement positive change within primary care. Risk prevention for public health. This is covered by the statutory duty to provide a Public Health Advice Service.

It is used within the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment to identify priority communities in the Local Authority, to establish the impact of different risk factors and social determinants on mortality rates, and informs the identification of JSNA priorities for the Local Authority. The JSNA directly informs the priorities in the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which is produced by the Health and Wellbeing Board, and is directly reflected in the commissioning plans of health and care organisations locally.

As well as this strategic focus, the Civil Registrations data also informs specific actions, decisions and changes within the area covered by the Local Authority. An example of this is suicide prevention work, where Mortality data has aided the identification of suicide hotspots and risk factors which has informed the local suicide prevention strategy which has directed interventions and changes within the county. As the Civil Registrations data informs the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, Health and Wellbeing Board, Health Scrutiny Committee and other multi-agency work, and has a direct relationship with commissioning plans and specific actions, the benefits are achieved collective across the local health and care economy through the Health and Wellbeing Board membership organisations (including health commissioners, social care, public health, council members, police and probation services, Healthwatch and other community representatives) and beyond. The benefit to the local population is that health, social care and public health services are tailored to the issues and areas of greatest needs and are focused on reducing health inequalities, with specific reference to life expectancy and mortality rates. Reductions in premature mortality rates are influenced by the design and targeting of local services to address the differences highlighted through an analysis of the Civil Registrations data.

This data assists local authorities in tailoring local solutions to local problems, and using all the levers at their disposal to improve health and reduce inequalities and it helps to create a 21st century local public health system, based on localism, democratic accountability and evidence as directed in the Health and Social Care act 2012.

Specific steps taken to protect the health of the local population using births and deaths data within a Local Authority will include the setting of priorities within the Annual Public Health Report, the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the commissioning plans of local health and care organisations. These strategic documents are underpinned by an analysis of births and mortality data including local, regional and national variations for the purposes of identifying priority areas, highlighting where health inequalities are greatest, identifying the conditions contributing to the greatest levels of premature and preventable deaths, and identifying areas for further investigation. The health of the local population is also protected through the monitoring of monthly trends in mortality rates and birth rates to identifying any emerging trends or sudden increases. The Civil Registrations data is also vital to facilitate the local investigation of mortality rates for individual GP practices (consistent with the recommendations of the Shipman Inquiry) and to investigate differences between geographic areas as required. Mortality and births data is also used to inform the location of services and social marketing activities to address the areas of greatest need within the county.

Health protection projects using births and death data include monitoring of drug-related deaths and alcohol-related deaths; the suicide audit; the monitoring of deaths from infectious and vaccine preventable diseases; the investigation of outcomes of healthcare associated infections; the monitoring of winter deaths to identify pressures on care services; and the monitoring of child deaths for the local safeguarding children board.

Statistical outputs using births and mortality data include local breakdowns of mortality rates by area, deprivation, age sex and CCG locality (preventable deaths, circulatory disease, cancer and suicide) for Health and Wellbeing Board and Public Health outcomes reports; birth rates, distribution of births by location/setting and life expectancy for JSNA community profiles; detailed analyses of overall and condition-specific mortality rates, life expectancy, stillbirths, births by maternal age, low birthweights, abortions for the Annual Public Health Report; population projections for non-standard geographic areas (including new town and development areas); and the analysis of birth rates, birth weight, stillbirths and infant mortality and mortality rates from specific conditions for service areas and health needs assessments as required.

The deaths data is currently being used during the Covid 19 pandemic and will be used as part of future analysis. Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council are currently using the data to look at the number and profile of suicides, drug and alcohol related deaths over the last 12 months and will track that over the next 12 months so Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council can understand any potential increases, Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council will then look at issues of inequality as part of its analysis. Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council also have a real time alert system running at the same time, so will compare numbers to understand what death notification Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council are missing from its real time alter system. Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council will also be looking at the role isolation might be playing in such death. The second major area of work currently underway and which needs to carry on in the future is covid 19 deaths, Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council are currently tracking all covid 19 deaths through the registry office on a daily basis, but Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council need to then look at the civil registrations data to allow more in-depth analysis of demographics, locations of death, inequalities, e.g. looking at care home deaths is an area Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council are starting to look at the moment.

The births and deaths data is of significant value to the Local Authority in enabling analysts to respond to local public health needs. Evaluations of births and deaths in their local area allows local authorities to perform the following:

a) Measuring the health, mortality or care needs of the population, for specific geographical area or population group;

b) Planning, evaluating or monitoring health and social care policies, services or interventions; and,

c) Protecting or improving the public health, including such subjects as the incidence of disease, the characteristics (e.g. age, gender, occupation) of persons with disease, the risk factors pertaining to sections of the population, investigating specific areas of local concern relating to the health of the local population, or the effectiveness of medical treatments.

The births and deaths data both contain identifiable data which is required when linking into other datasets to enhance and verify the statistics produced, or to investigate specific areas of local concern relating to the health of the local population, e.g. deaths data is used to produce suicide audits by linking into hospital / GP / social care data and births data can be linked into child care / social care systems when infant deaths are investigated usually as part of local “Safeguarding Children” projects.

Such local investigations will reflect local need and thus vary in relation to the specific local authority, but the detail below provides specific examples of such local investigations which provide evidence on why identifiable data is needed in order to carry out the purposes stated within a), b) and c) above.

Each Local Authority will only be permitted to process the data in the way outlined in this application. Processing outside the terms of this application will require a separate application as an amendment to this agreement

In relation to mortality data :

Suicide Audit – As part of on-going (or the introduction of) suicide audit processes identifiable information will be required to support this work. Such audits require specific identifiable fields, including postcode of usual residence and postcode of place of death (further refined using the place of death text) to analyse and investigate of deaths in public places to support work on accident prevention strategies and the identification of hotspots and locational characteristics for accidental harm and suicide. For example, exact postcode is used to calculate distance from home address to identify suicide hotspots which are a distance from place of resident as a further means of classifying risk. NHS number, date of death and date of registration fields are used when conducting local audits at the coroner’s office, to match their records with the death record in order to supplement information which is subsequently aggregated within the final internal report.

To expand on what is noted above, postcode of residence and place of death (further refined using the place of death text) is used for hotspot mapping and in particular is used to inform suicide prevention work through target hotspot areas of location types within the county and undertake specific preventative work. Pseudonymised data would be insufficient as lower super output areas or partial postcode) cover too large an area to identify exact locations and features or calculate distance from home, especially in more dispersed rural areas, where locations may be many miles apart. This granularity of data is required since the local authorities are where appropriate taking specific locally based action rather than just authority wide activity. The suicide audit process involves collecting information from services such as police, healthcare providers and GP practices of the factors involved in the suicide and NHS number, date of death and other identifiable data will be essential for doing this. As with the hotspot work this is about understanding risk, detecting local issues to inform evidence-based interventions addressing known local factors.

Accidental/Preventable Deaths – Postcode of usual residence and postcode of place of death (further refined using the place of death text) are used for the analysis and investigation of deaths in public places to support work the identification of hotspots and locational characteristics for accident – with identification of types of areas (e.g. parks, railway lines, pavements) as well as particular locations. This level of analysis enables preventative work to be targeted to high risk areas (both in terms of residence as well as occurrence). As a specific example relating to one Local Authority, it carried out work that identified a number of suicides at a particular railway location, and hence facilitated suicide prevention training with staff members at their local Railway Station.

In conjunction with postcode of usual residence and postcode of place of death, detailed analysis of cause of death allows the monitoring of patterns of preventable or amenable disease, particularly avoidable deaths including the major killers, i.e. circulatory, cancer and respiratory disease.

Seasonal monitoring of deaths – Date of death is used both to establish seasonal patterns of mortality (such as excess winter deaths) and the correlation of this with data on weather conditions and local health and social care system pressures, and in the case of any deaths going to coroner to track the length of time between death and registration.

In relation to local population health needs:

Bespoke geography analysis – The postcode also enables analysis by non-coterminous geographies such as highly trafficked roads so the Local Authority can complete aggregate analysis of areas with particular risk factors – for example to see if people living on main roads have high risks of respiratory disease than people who live on cul-de-sacs.

The postcode and place of death text also enables Local Authorities to identify locations of particular types such as care homes or other residential institutions, analysis of deaths by homes enables targeted prevention work (such as control of infection or falls prevention).

Further, bespoke geographies created by postcodes support the assessment of environmental risks to health. For example, a Local Authority may be required to investigate a number of residential streets which have been built on potentially contaminated ground to see if there are any unusual disease patterns. One specific Local Authority needed to identify deaths where the person was resident in particular streets, in the case of a previous cancer cluster possibly relating to chemicals in soil.

Postcodes are used to identify births along these roads to see if there are increased risks of low birth-weight or stillbirths.

Deprivation and inequalities – Postcode is also used to sum data to aggregate geographies that are not based on LSOAs, to facilitate partnership working and to look at small area clusters such as pockets of deprivation, poor quality housing and inequalities in healthcare provision which are all found to be smaller than an LSOA level, identifying the conditions contributing to the greatest levels of premature and preventable deaths, and identifying areas for further investigation.

Child deaths and stillbirths – Identifiable data is also required to provide any data needed to fulfil our duties for audit under the Child Overview Death Panel and other Safeguarding investigations – using NHS numbers to identify these cases and look for patterns, date of birth of mother/postcode of mother to investigate trends based on mother’s location or age.

Audit of medical professionals – there is a requirement for NHS number to facilitate clinical audits by medical professionals into unusual patterns of death; this is part of the Local Authority’s statutory duty to protect the health of the population from risks to Public Health, from both medical conditions and also from clinical practice. Some recent specific examples include :-

• An unusually high number of deaths from epilepsy were noted from the data, and these were audited against GP practice data having had access to identifiable data to identify records.

• GP practices raised concerns about health in their practices, having noticed clusters of cases that they request the Local Authority to investigate.

• Following the Shipman Enquiry recommendations, Local Authorities are required to investigate any concerns raised about clinical practitioners. This duty was given to PCTs in 2007, but information source is the PCMD and is part of the PH duty to provide analysis and evidence to CCGs.

Seasonal monitoring of births – A Local Authorities have a requirement for the inclusion of date of birth of child as it is used to monitor seasonal patterns of births. Postcode of usual residence of mother and postcode of place of birth of child are also used to establish and monitor distance from home to place of birth and monitor catchment areas for different providers for future service planning covering areas based on postcodes rather than LSOA. This will not include any data sharing with providers or other third parties.

Age of mother is required to investigate trends in both young mothers (to support teenage conception and Family Nurse Partnership programmes) and older mothers (to support service planning for higher risk pregnancies). This will not include any data sharing with providers or other third parties.

A mixture of regular annual projects and ad hoc projects triggered by local conditions will require the use of births and deaths data that will result in published summary statistics for public health projects, and these may be used internally or externally with partners in the project.

Typical uses of deaths data are for the following:

a) Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs);

b) Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies;

c) the annual report of the Director of Public Health;

d) reports commissioned by the Health and Wellbeing Board;

e) public health and wider Local Authority health and wellbeing commissioning strategies and plans;

f) public health advice to NHS commissioners;

g) local health profiles;

h) health impact assessments

i) Suicide audits (this specifically requires NHS number)

j) End of life care projects

k) Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) screening programme

l) responses to internal and external requests for information and intelligence on the health and wellbeing of the population.

M) Drug related deaths analysis

Typical uses of births data are for the following:

a) Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs);

b) Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies;

c) the annual report of the Director of Public Health;

d) reports commissioned by the Health and Wellbeing Board;

e) public health and wider Local Authority health and wellbeing commissioning strategies and plans;

f) public health advice to NHS commissioners;

g) local health profiles;

h) health impact assessments

i) responses to internal and external requests for information and intelligence on the health and wellbeing of the population.

The specific content and target dates for these outputs will be for the Local Authority to determine, although it is required to comply with national guidance published by the Department of Health, Public Health England and others as appropriate, for example on the timetable for publishing refreshed JSNAs.

All outputs will be of aggregated data (with small numbers suppressed).

The projects are carried out in order to improve public health and will result in local adjustments to services to reduce mortality where possible and inform decisions and policies.

This data assists Local authorities in tailoring local solutions to local problems, and using all the levers at their disposal to improve health and reduce inequalities and it helps to create a 21st century local public health system, based on localism, democratic accountability and evidence as directed in the Health and Social Care act 2012.

Benefits of using births / deaths data

The Civil Registrations data is of great benefit to health and social care, and the use of it has led to considerable benefits to public health. The Civil Registrations data is used to identify patterns and trends in mortality rates, life expectancy and premature death, highlighting differences between geographic areas, age, sex and other socio-economic characteristics. It is also used specifically to identify health inequalities and differences between areas which is critical for the planning, distribution and targeting of health, care and public health services. It is used to set recommendations in the Annual Public Health Report, which inform the commissioning and coordination of public health services.

Further to preventable deaths use, premature deaths can be analysed, audits are undertaken to identify all those who died prematurely. This was used to look at the care pathways, develop new prevention programmes and implement positive change within primary care. Risk prevention for public health. This is covered by the statutory duty to provide a Public Health Advice Service.

It is used within the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment to identify priority communities in the Local Authority, to establish the impact of different risk factors and social determinants on mortality rates, and informs the identification of JSNA priorities for the Local Authority. The JSNA directly informs the priorities in the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which is produced by the Health and Wellbeing Board, and is directly reflected in the commissioning plans of health and care organisations locally.

As well as this strategic focus, the Civil Registrations data also informs specific actions, decisions and changes within the area covered by the Local Authority. An example of this is suicide prevention work, where Mortality data has aided the identification of suicide hotspots and risk factors which has informed the local suicide prevention strategy which has directed interventions and changes within the county. As the Civil Registrations data informs the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, Health and Wellbeing Board, Health Scrutiny Committee and other multi-agency work, and has a direct relationship with commissioning plans and specific actions, the benefits are achieved collective across the local health and care economy through the Health and Wellbeing Board membership organisations (including health commissioners, social care, public health, council members, police and probation services, Healthwatch and other community representatives) and beyond. The benefit to the local population is that health, social care and public health services are tailored to the issues and areas of greatest needs and are focused on reducing health inequalities, with specific reference to life expectancy and mortality rates. Reductions in premature mortality rates are influenced by the design and targeting of local services to address the differences highlighted through an analysis of the Civil Registrations data.

This data assists local authorities in tailoring local solutions to local problems, and using all the levers at their disposal to improve health and reduce inequalities and it helps to create a 21st century local public health system, based on localism, democratic accountability and evidence as directed in the Health and Social Care act 2012.

Specific steps taken to protect the health of the local population using births and deaths data within a Local Authority will include the setting of priorities within the Annual Public Health Report, the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the commissioning plans of local health and care organisations. These strategic documents are underpinned by an analysis of births and mortality data including local, regional and national variations for the purposes of identifying priority areas, highlighting where health inequalities are greatest, identifying the conditions contributing to the greatest levels of premature and preventable deaths, and identifying areas for further investigation. The health of the local population is also protected through the monitoring of monthly trends in mortality rates and birth rates to identifying any emerging trends or sudden increases. The Civil Registrations data is also vital to facilitate the local investigation of mortality rates for individual GP practices (consistent with the recommendations of the Shipman Inquiry) and to investigate differences between geographic areas as required. Mortality and births data is also used to inform the location of services and social marketing activities to address the areas of greatest need within the county.

Health protection projects using births and death data include monitoring of drug-related deaths and alcohol-related deaths; the suicide audit; the monitoring of deaths from infectious and vaccine preventable diseases; the investigation of outcomes of healthcare associated infections; the monitoring of winter deaths to identify pressures on care services; and the monitoring of child deaths for the local safeguarding children board.

Statistical outputs using births and mortality data include local breakdowns of mortality rates by area, deprivation, age sex and CCG locality (preventable deaths, circulatory disease, cancer and suicide) for Health and Wellbeing Board and Public Health outcomes reports; birth rates, distribution of births by location/setting and life expectancy for JSNA community profiles; detailed analyses of overall and condition-specific mortality rates, life expectancy, stillbirths, births by maternal age, low birthweights, abortions for the Annual Public Health Report; population projections for non-standard geographic areas (including new town and development areas); and the analysis of birth rates, birth weight, stillbirths and infant mortality and mortality rates from specific conditions for service areas and health needs assessments as required.