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Collecting ethnic category data - training materials and guidance

  • Last modified date:
    7 April 2008

Guidance and training materials on ethnic category codes as well as some of the wider issues that prevent the collection of good quality ethnic information.

DH guidance

This practical guide, published in July 2005, promotes the standard collection and use of ethnic group and related data on patients, service users and staff of the NHS and social services. It updates and widens previous guidane issued in 2002. It features a range of good practice examples drawn from various parts of the NHS and social care. Through using this guide, the NHS and social services will be assisted in meeting their responsibilities under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

ONS guidance

The ONS has published guidelines in which it suggests National Statistics standards for the collection and classification of ethnic group statistics in order to achieve comparability over time, and between data sources.

Training material

The training material is designed to be used by local trainers who have the flexibility to "pick and mix" the material to best suit local circumstances. It has been developed from material produced by Alison Devlin at the South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust and includes:

Regional workshops

The Department has been involved in a number of regional workshops during 2001, giving the NHS an opportunity to raise issues around ethnic data collection and to share good practice. Notes of the issues raised at some of these workshops are attached.

HES data quality

The Hospital Episode Statistics data quality pages contain technical information relevant to those within NHS trusts and similar organisations who have direct responsibility for managing the flow of data into the HES database. Data quality is a continuing problem for ethnic data collection within the NHS. Ethnic group is a component of the Data Quality Indicator: this is in order to allow Trusts to identify where there is a need to improve data coverage and/or quality at organisational level.

Additional links

National Statistics

National Statistics

Official UK statistics and information about statistics.

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