The Lampard Inquiry

The Data will be used for the purpose of supporting the Lampard Inquiry, which is a statutory investigation into mental health inpatient deaths in Essex between 2000 and 2023. It is led by Baroness Kate Lampard CBE and builds on the work of the Essex Mental Health Independent Inquiry.

The Data will be processed in line with The Lampard Inquiry’s Terms of Reference (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lampard-inquiry-terms-of-reference/terms-of-reference-for-the-lampard-inquiry) which includes (but is not limited to):

The investigation of the deaths of which the inquiry will consider:

• serious failings related to the delivery of safe and therapeutic inpatient treatment and care, which may include consideration of circumstances where serious harm short of death occurred

• how and the extent to which patients were engaged with and involved in decisions in relation to their care

• how and the extent to which families, carers or other members of a patient’s support network were engaged with and involved in decisions in relation to the patient’s care, including any engagement after the patient’s death

• matters relating to physical and sexual safety within mental health inpatient units at the trusts

• the actions, practices and behaviours of permanent, temporary and agency staff providing mental health inpatient care at the trusts

• the approach to staffing, training and working conditions of permanent, temporary and agency staff providing mental health inpatient care at the trusts; including the support provided to and the supervision of such staff

• the actions, practices and behaviours of leadership in relation to mental health inpatient care at the trusts

• the culture and the wider governance of and at the trusts

• the quality of investigations undertaken or commissioned by the trusts in relation to mental health inpatient care

Following a formal notice of conversion issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 27 October 2023, the Inquiry was granted statutory status, giving it legal powers to compel evidence and witness participation.

This Data Sharing Agreement permits access to Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) for the purposes of the Lampard Inquiry.

This Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) covers the provision of the environment within the Secure Data Environment in which experts appointed by the Lampard Inquiry will access data for the purpose of producing a report to support the Lampard Inquiry with the following ongoing investigations:

- Identification and analysis of serious failings in the delivery of care and therapeutic inpatient treatment and care

- Supporting examination of the actions, practices, and behaviours of staff involved in mental health inpatient care.

- Contributing to the assessment of the culture and governance within NHS trusts and its impact on care and treatment outcomes.

- Facilitating review of the quality and adequacy of investigations and responses by NHS trusts and other relevant bodies.

- Supporting scrutiny of interactions between NHS trusts and other public bodies, including commissioners, coroners, professional regulators and the Care Quality Commission.

NHS England will provide the relevant records from the MHSDS datasets to the Inquiry. The Data will contain no direct identifying data items. The Data will be pseudonymised and individuals cannot be reidentified through linkage with other data in the possession of the Recipient.

The Data within the NHS England Secure Data Environment (SDE) will be unfiltered however further processing will be undertaken once access has been granted to the SDE. NHS England subject matter experts will support the Expert Health Statisticians to write a script that will minimise the Data as per the scope of the Inquiry. As such, data will be minimised to NHS-funded mental health inpatient service providers in Essex, and may also be minimised to include Essex residents receiving care out of area.

The Data will not be transferred to any other location.

The Data will be stored on servers at NHS England.

The Data will be accessed by authorised personnel via remote access.

The Controller(s) must confirm and provide evidence upon audit by NHS England that access via any remote device complies with the data security obligations within this DSA and the Data Sharing Framework Contract.

For remote access:

• Remote access will only be from secure locations situated within the territory of use (as further restricted elsewhere within the DSA if so done) stated within this DSA;

• Access controls granting users the minimum level of access required are in place;

• Remote access is only via secure connections (e.g., VPNs or secure protocols) to protect data;

• Multifactor authentication (MFA) is required for remote access;

• Device security, including up-to-date software and operating systems, antivirus software, and enabled firewalls are utilised for the remote access;

• All remote access is undertaken within the scope of the organisation’s DSPT (or other security arrangements as per this DSA) and complies with the organisation’s remote access policy.

The above applies in addition to any condition set out elsewhere within the DSA (e.g. who may carry out processing, and for what purpose).

Oxford University Innovation (OUI) are the relevant institutional data processor for the Expert Health Statistician. OUI is a subsidiary of the University of Oxford and are the contracting entity the Inquiry has engaged for the Chief Investigator’s services.

The aggregated information derived from the Data will provide denominator data for the anonymised data from the Inquiry’s List of Deceased, which provides a record of all deaths known to the Inquiry as falling within scope of its Terms of Reference. As the data provided in the MHSDS is pseudonymised and the List of Deceased data is anonymised to the Inquiry’s Expert Health Statisticians, the extent of linkage will be limited to ward- and hospital-level analyses.

The Inquiry’s Expert Health Statisticians will publish a report containing the findings of their analysis. This report will be entered into the Inquiry’s evidence and will be made publicly available via the Lampard Inquiry website. The Inquiry might also reference these findings in their final report.

The outputs will not contain NHS England Data and will only contain aggregated information with small numbers suppressed as appropriate in line with the relevant disclosure rules for the dataset(s) from which the information was derived.

• The outputs will be communicated to relevant recipients through the following dissemination channels

• Disclosure to Core Participants under confidentiality undertaking

• Public report, published on the Inquiry’s website

• Public Inquiry hearings

The findings of this analysis will be entered into the Inquiry’s evidence and will enable a robust, statistically-grounded understanding of patterns of inpatient deaths and contributing factors.

Measurable public-benefit outcomes include:

• Evidence-based recommendations to reduce future avoidable deaths and improve patient-safety systems within mental-health inpatient care;

• Identification of systemic issues in care, governance and escalation pathways across NHS trusts;

• Improvements in data-quality and transparency, supporting NHSE’s wider learning-from-deaths programme; and

• Transferable learning to other regions and services beyond Essex, supporting national policy on mental-health safety.

These benefits are directly aligned with the Inquiry’s statutory Terms of Reference and deliver tangible improvements to health-system governance and patient outcomes.

Yielded Benefits is not a requirement for new applications.