Performance and Information Management

Our mission is...

To provide relevant, accurate, complete, assured and timely data, reporting and analysis.

What we do

The Performance and Information Management Department is responsible for:

Improving and assuring data capture processes, reporting accuracy, data integrity and governance
Provision and development of our data warehouse which contains automated data feeds from the majority of the key patient administration systems
Submission of statutory and contractual data submissions and information returns
Provision of ad-hoc numerical and statistical information requests
Provision of data and statistics for Freedom of Information (FOI) requests
Production of routine information reports via the Trust’s Data Launchpad
Sustainable delivery of key performance indicators (KPIs)
Ensuring a consistent approach to performance management and improvement, which is proactive and predictive, where potential issues are anticipated and flagged early and effectively managed
Providing analytical support, including modelling and forecasting

The Department consists of three teams

Data Quality Assurance – We ensure that there are appropriate processes and systems in place for the Trust to be compliant with the Data Quality and Assurance Policy and national statutory returns, and ultimately that the data captured and submitted is accurate. We also develop audit cycles in order to comply with Data Protection and Security Toolkit requirements and on internal data quality priorities.
Information Services – We manage and develop the Trust’s Data warehouse, as well as providing datasets, regular information reports, ad-hoc information requests and FOI returns. We also provide the vast majority of the organisations statutory information returns. We have three sub-teams: Data Development, Data Flows and Reporting.
Performance – We are responsible for monitoring, analysing and driving improvements in performance, in line with national and local requirements. This includes national indicators such as A&E and 18 weeks referral to treatment targets, contractual and internal indicators. We also provide analytical support, including modelling and forecasting.

Who we are

Here’s our senior team, but further information about the teams can be found in the relevant team sections:

Alison King
Director of Performance
Ext: 42357 Mob: 07534 404824
alison.king4@nhs.net

Alex Curtis
Senior Programme Manager
Mob: 07500 910943
alexis.curtis@nhs.net

Emma Hubbard.jpg
Emma Hubbard
Head of Data Quality Assurance
Ext. 42100 Mobile: 07814 741370
emma.hubbard6@nhs.net

Liam Riley
Acting Performance Manager
Mob: 07890 647078
liam.riley1@nhs.net

Paul Harrison
Reporting Manager
Mob: 07747 892599
paul.harrison3@nhs.net

Where we are based

All three teams work on an agile basis, which means that we work from both home and office locations. When we are in the office we are predominantly based in Trust Headquarters at Sunderland Royal Hospital, although some people also work from Trust Headquarters at South Tyneside District Hospital.

How you can contact us

You can contact anyone in the department directly via email or MS Teams. Most people are also contactable via phone, depending on where they are working from, but given the flexibility of the way we work if you want to speak to any members of the team in person we recommend that you use MS Teams for voice or video calls.

For regular reports, information requests, Data Quality Assurance support and analytical support please direct your requests as follows:

Please note that we have lots of information readily available on our Data Launchpad and the information that you need may already be on here. You can search for keywords by clicking on our ‘Search for reports…’ function below.
For regular information reports, i.e. datasets, summary information, statistics and visual representations of the data that you need to see on an ongoing basis, send your requirements to stsft.launchpad@nhs.net. This will go to our Reporting team within Information Services.
If you need a one-off dataset, summary information or basic statistics and visual representations of the data for any purpose, including FOI requests, then get in touch via stsft.informationrequests@nhs.net. This will also go to our Reporting team within Information Services.
For data quality queries, issues and support contact us at stsft.dataquality@nhs.net or for support and advice in relation to assurance of data processes then email us at stsft.dataassurance@nhs.net. This will go to our Data Quality Assurance team.
Finally, if you need analytical support, including comparisons, trend analysis, root cause analysis, KPI triangulation, impact analysis, modelling or forecasting then contact your relevant manager in the Performance team, as follows:

Divisions of Family Care, Community & Clinical Support
Liam Riley
Acting Performance Manager
liam.riley1@nhs.net

Division of Surgery, along with Cancer
Darren Green
Assistant Performance Manager
darren.green1@nhs.net

Divisions of UEC & Medicine, along with Diagnostics
Martin Reveley
Assistant Performance Manager
martin.reveley@nhs.net

Data Quality Assurance

What we do

The Data Quality Assurance Team is here to effectively manage data quality and provide assurance around our data compliance. We work to ensure there are appropriate processes and systems are in place to comply with the Data Quality and Assurance Policy.

We work on data quality improvements; as it is imperative that we have high quality data flows across the Trust as this ultimately translates to better patient care and patient safety. Good data quality can also play a key part in improving services through informed decision-making, helping to accurately identify trends and patterns, draw comparisons, predict future events and outcomes and evaluate services. We do this through many data quality checks and having robust procedures in place that ensure we are in line with national policy.

We provide assurance that the Trust is compliant with national statutory returns, ensuring that the data captured and submitted is accurate. We support any system, management or process changes to ensure compliance with national standards. Data Assurance also develops audit cycles in order to comply with Data Protection and Security Toolkit requirements and provides assurance on the accuracy of coding, regular audits are proven to help drive improvements in data quality and clinical coding.

Who we are


Emma Hubbard
Head of Data Quality Assurance
Ext. 42100 Mobile: 07814 741370
emma.hubbard6@nhs.net

Data Quality


Vicky Carr
Deputy Head of Data Quality
My role is to improve the quality, completeness and timeliness of data across the organisation by implementing processes to address data quality issues at source and drive overall quality standards.
v.carr@nhs.net

Helen Wilkinson
Data Quality Analyst
I monitor reports produced by NHS Digital to ensure data quality requirements are met. I identify any trends to show where improvements can be made and provide support to departments and teams as needed.
helen.wilkinson11@nhs.net

Lauren Kitching
Data Quality Officer
I can help with all inpatient queries including admit and discharges, consultant/specialty allocation in Meditech, duplicate admissions and any general queries.
lauren.kitching1@nhs.net

Lindsay Rain
Data Quality Officer
I am responsible for ensuring patient demographics are populated with the most recent up to date information, this involves running daily reports and maintaining the accuracy of Meditech.
l.rain@nhs.net

Elliot Leadbitter-Frost
Data Quality Officer
My role is to resolve outpatient queries such as CWS, appointments, referrals, pathways, etc. I also run reports to ensure the outpatient service data quality is captured correctly and efficiently.
elliot.leadbitter-frost@nhs.net

Gina Crewe, Pam Christie & Caitlin Green
Inpatient, Emergency Department and Maternity
Data Quality Clerks
Our role is to ensure that fixes are applied in Meditech to patient records where the data could be inaccurate. We use Launchpad reports to identify common errors and we regularly review these reports. A large proportion of the role is to support the coding process by resolving transfer problems, as well as reviewing all emergency admissions, supporting wards by correcting discharges, fixing registrations as well as checking every hospital death.
gina.crewe@nhs.net / p.christie2@nhs.net / caitlin.green1@nhs.net

Mark Stoker, Olivia Thompson, Julie Willis & vacant
Outpatient and MPI Data Quality Clerks
We ensure that the Master Patient Index is accurate and up to date, we check all of the key demographic identifiers on the patient record in Meditech and we also review and action all merges, investigate and resolve any Personal Demographic Service (see our how to section for a PDS guide) searches that are not accepted and check all protected addresses.
mark.stoker1@nhs.net / olivia.thompson11@nhs.net / julie.willis7@nhs.net

Data Assurance

Vacant Post
Deputy Head of Data Assurance
It is my job to ensure that all reporting from STSFT is accurate, complies with national policy and is of a high data quality standard. I carry out routine and ad-hoc data assurance audits on statutory returns and small systems to ensure this. I work closely with the Data Quality team, Information Services and Performance to maintain high data quality and assurance across the organisation. It is also my job to ensure Meditech V6 dictionaries are up to date, such as GP, Postcode, Pathways, Referral Source and many more.

Lucy Frend
Data Assurance Analyst
I ensure the accuracy of information in Launchpad dashboards and datasets meet the requirements of service users. I validate mandatory submissions for the statutory returns and perform routine and ad-hoc audits for reports and small systems; I check whether these are robust and instigate corrective action with wards and departments as required.
lucy.frend1@nhs.net

Karen Al-Hakim
Data Assurance Officer
My role is to ensure that the relevant dictionaries to DQA are maintained and kept up to date within Meditech. I'm also involved with auditing the quality of patient data on Trust systems. I validate and investigate RTT queries, and can amend and correct pathways.
karen.al-hakim@nhs.net

Peter Booth
Data Assurance Officer
My role is to ensure that the relevant dictionaries to DQA are maintained and kept up to date within Meditech. I'm also involved with auditing the quality of patient data on Trust systems. I validate and investigate RTT queries, and can amend and correct pathways.
peter.booth@nhs.net

Where we are based

The team works on an agile basis, working from both home and in Trust Headquarters at Sunderland Royal Hospital.

How you can contact us

Each member of the team can be contacted directly via phone, email or MS Teams.

You can also contact the Data Quality Team via extension 41333 or 41938.

Alternatively you can contact us via one of our shared email inboxes below:

For data quality queries, issues and support contact us at stsft.dataquality@nhs.net
For support and advice in relation to assurance of data processes then email us at stsft.dataassurance@nhs.net
We are typically available between 8:30am and 5:00pm Monday to Thursday and 08:30am to 4:30pm on Friday, but our calendars are available for all staff to view and they should indicate whether we are available or not.