Below is an email giving a link to the material that the Health Statistics Users Group has put together to explain the consultation and help people to respond directly and / or contribute to the Health Statistics Users Group response. 

ONS is making £9 million cuts overall, of which £1 million is direct cuts to statistics. The cuts are heavily, although not exclusively targeted at health statistics as statistics in many other areas are protected by the fact that ONS is required by law to publish them. So we are being asked to choose between which statistics get cut and which continue. Should anyone feel minded to complain to the UK Statistics Authority, its address is 1 Drummond Gate SW1V 2QQ and its chair is Sir Andrew Dilnot.

Best wishes, Alison Macfarlane

-----Original Message-----
From: Deana Leadbeter [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: 11 October 2013 16:52
To: Middleton John; Macfarlane, Alison
Cc: Mark Weiss; Michael Catchpole ([log in to unmask]); John Newton ([log in to unmask])
Subject: Re: FPH - ONS Consultations

Dear All,

This is just to let you know that, as promised in our earlier e-mail correspondence. a draft of the HSUG response to the ONS consultation on statistical outputs (which closes on 31 October)  has been put on the HSUG web site.  If you want to look at this draft response, the quickest way is to go to <http://www.hsug.org.uk>www.hsug.org.uk
which takes you directly to the HSUG web page within StatsUserNet.  The materials we have posted are under HSUG materials.

This is still very much work in progress, and will be amended further before submitting - but we have put this on the web site at an early stage to assist HSUG members and other health stats users in preparing their own responses, as well as providing the opportunity for HSUG members to make an input to the general HSUG response.  I know that FPH will be making their own response, but please feel free to circulate this e-mail to colleagues who you think will be interested in using the material we have prepared to assist in responding to this consultation, either individually or by contributing to the HSUG and / or FPH responses.

In the materials we have put on the web site, we have included the introduction and summary of the consultation questionnaire (which I circulated to you earlier), which we have prepared to make it easier to discuss the consultation.  I have already mentioned to ONS that, in general for all ONS / GSS consultations, it is helpful to have this sort of summary, in a simple Word format, that can be used for reference in discussions, prior to completing the consultation questionnaire.

We need to receive contributions to the HSUG response by Friday 25th October, and also these comments should, ideally, use the same structure and numbering as in the draft, so that we know where in our response they should be put.

Best wishes

Deana


At 16:56 16/09/2013, Deana Leadbeter wrote:
>Dear All,
>
>I think it might be helpful to share with you the approach that HSUG 
>are planning to take in relation to responding to this consultation.
>
>Providing evidence of the value and importance of the outputs is a lot 
>of work, and voluntary groups like HSUG, and other similar groups, 
>don't have the time and resources to do this in any comprehensive or 
>thorough way. We are concerned that a lack of response will be taken as 
>meaning the outputs are not seen as of value, rather than an indication 
>of the limited resources that we have available to us to be able to 
>respond adequately.
>
>We are hoping that work that HSUG has done previously on discussing 
>overall statistical priorities, and also discuss particular areas of 
>concern, will be taken into account by ONS - not just any response we 
>make now.  We are planning to pull some of this together as part of a 
>package of evidence, even though most of this was already shared with 
>ONS at the time it was produced.
>
>We are also keen to encourage and support individual responses from a 
>wide group of health statistics users as possible, not just prepare an 
>HSUG response.
>
>We are therefore planning to hold a special committee meeting over the 
>next couple of weeks to review, and add to, the work we have previously 
>done on looking at uses and impact of statistics, and priorities.  This 
>will inform our general HSUG response to the consultation.  However, 
>our aim is also to prepare a briefing note based on the discussions at 
>this committee meeting, which we will place on the web site which we 
>hope will encourage and assist HSUG members in making their own 
>individual responses.
>
>We will also be encouraging HSUG committee and members to illustrate 
>their responses  by providing concrete and detailed examples of use and impact.
>
>We are very happy to share any of these documents, in draft or final 
>form - and also to include in our briefing note any key issues that 
>others may want to raise.
>
>Best wishes
>
>Deana

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