Mission 1: Provide a Platform for enabling digital transformation

The Welsh Government has commissioned DHCW to develop a national target architecture for health and social care in Wales and a strategic investment case. The architecture is the foundation for connected health and care data, as well as integrated digital services.

By establishing a strategic, policy-driven systems landscape for NHS Wales, the national target architecture will be based on open standards and industry best practice. It will enable a seamless, patient-centric view of a health and care journey.

Currently, the systems landscape is diverse and complex, with inconsistencies in approach and a large number of integrations between systems. The new architecture seeks to address these challenges by adopting a more unified and efficient approach.

A high-level strategic approach was confirmed with the Welsh Government, setting a clear foundation for progress and ensuring alignment with national priorities. The appointment of a Chief Digital Architect in September brought vital expertise to guide the work. To support this work, an all-Wales licence for industry-standard enterprise architecture tooling was procured, equipping the project with the tools needed to drive forward the transformation.

Building on this progress, a governance approach was developed to synchronise both national and local structures, fostering clarity and consistency in decision-making. This effort culminated in the creation of a comprehensive six-step delivery roadmap, which was submitted to Welsh Government in December, marking a significant milestone in shaping the future of connected health and social care systems.

Stakeholder engagement has been a continuous priority throughout. Regular updates include monthly briefings to Digital Directors and updates to the Welsh Government. Since December, monthly updates have also been provided to Welsh Government, alongside bi-monthly updates to the DHCW SHA Board to maintain transparency and alignment.

National target architecture is one of the areas where Welsh Government would like to see increased speed of delivery. We are procuring a supplier to support us with documenting the current architectural landscape across NHS Wales, collaboratively define a number of possible target future states and develop supporting roadmaps to inform the strategic investment case.

The National Data Resource (NDR) Programme is a collaborative initiative that is establishing a unified data architecture and encourages the development of data analytics skills across Wales. Powered by Google Cloud technology, this single national data platform enhances access to clinical, operational, and research data, ultimately benefiting patients and services alike.

A key enabler of a connected digital health and social care record, the NDR ensures that relevant information is accessible to the right individuals at the right time. The platform’s secure, efficient data storage reduces management costs and supports better collaboration between teams. Access to patient information and trends enables healthcare providers to make informed decisions.

The NDR is integral to our transition to cloud-based, open architecture. It will allow us to harness data more effectively and securely, while also enabling the adoption of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and advanced analytics.

The platform includes essential components such as the Care Data Repository (CDR) and the National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP), which facilitate seamless integration and interoperability. Key features, including API management, ensure consistency across systems and support all-Wales data requirements.

We are supporting health boards and trusts to make use of the NDR platform and services to integrate new functionality in their forward plans and deliver aligned national and local roadmaps.

The National Data Resource (NDR) programme continues to progress in improving interoperability between health and social care systems, making data easier to access and analyse in a safe, secure and ethical manner. Data stored in the NDR platform has been made available to delivery partners for analysis, via the NDAP and is being shared between partners, such as the NHS Executive and Powys Teaching Health Board. Now delivering the health and care data and analytics capability in a live cloud platform, supporting data-driven insights and improving patient outcomes, DHCW’s focus during this period is moving into business-as-usual operations, acquiring more data into the platform and API management services so partners and suppliers can connect more easily to our architecture to share data. The milestone to commence the load of historic data and documents into the NDR platform has been reached.

Key milestones achieved include the options appraisal for moving the current data dictionary to a new platform. Additionally, considering the successful migration of data from national systems via the Google Transfer Appliance, and development and completion of the Data Acquisition Toolkit and Standards Toolkit, the NDR programme continues to ensure effective utilisation of the latest tools available through Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and embed best practice from across the UK. Collaboration with the Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) has fostered shared learning and aligned approaches.

Progress to commence data migration from the existing DHCW national data warehouse into the NDAP has been achieved through the proof-of-concept work and the completion of the backloading of data, by the transfer appliance. During November 2024, it was necessary for the CDR Project to rescope and reprofile the delivery plan. The revised plan for CDR remains challenging, due to ePMA timelines and dependencies. However, both programmes continue to work closely.

Progress on the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards has been made, with four standards published and available in addition to unplanned work. The Shared Medicines Record (SMR) has been successfully deployed into production. Demographics records are also live and User Acceptance Testing (UAT), assurance, and completion is anticipated in April 2025.

A project helping communities across Wales develop better nutrition skills has been enhanced through data-driven insights, thanks to the National Data Resource’s Analytics Learning Programme (ALP). The ‘Nutrition Skills for Life’ initiative, delivered by NHS dietitians, now uses a dashboard to track impact—an innovation made possible by last year’s ALP cohort, which provided the technical expertise in digitalisation and data visualisation. Read more here.

As a modern digital organisation, the growing expectations for response, pace, agility, and adaptability to variations in demand make the adoption of cloud solutions increasingly appealing. These approaches align with a product-oriented service model, offering enhanced flexibility in service and support, while embracing DHCW’s commitment to open architecture and data access philosophies.

Moreover, the organisation faces mounting pressure from digital inflation. Over the last five years, the costs associated with licences and physical infrastructure services have risen considerably. Transitioning to cloud-hosted infrastructure facilitates greater utilisation of open-source technologies, reducing reliance on proprietary software licences and paving the way for future savings.

This year, we have migrated our test and development systems onto a new cloud platform, resulting in ongoing savings of £166,000 per year. New contracts have been awarded to app delivery providers and Virtual Server providers, resulting in a £3.8m cost avoidance to NHS Wales. In the first quarter we completed the decommissioning activities for our legacy data centre facility, following our successful data centre migration project, thus enabling a robust on-premises infrastructure while we transition our services to the cloud. We are also nearing completion of a migration to a more robust off-line backup solution to provide better protection against a cyber-attack such as a ransomware attack. We also have an ongoing programme of upgrades and replacement for our infrastructure to maintain supportability and security updates from our vendors.

The Cloud Business case was finalised, endorsed by SHA Board and submitted into Welsh Government, who have agreed to provide initial funding for a period of two financial years. As such, the primary activities for the coming year will be related to our newly established Cloud Transition Programme (CTP). This will be a three-year programme, with most of the activities in the first year being discovery/planning and ensuring that we have robust cloud infrastructure and processes to support the migration.

As part of this work, there will be a significant investment in staff training as we embrace a new way of working and introduce open-source software where practical as part of the transition. Some key appointments into the CTP have already been made, with others following early next year. A pre-procurement exercise has been completed to determine the preferred approach for procuring commercial partners for the CTP. The output of this work is being used to steer our procurement which will take place in the first half the next financial year.

DHCW is responsible for the Information Governance Framework which helps monitor and improve information governance understanding and responsibility in Wales. Without a framework, the challenge of making information available to services providing health and care becomes far more difficult.

The Wales Accord on the Sharing of Personal Information (WASPI) framework has continued to grow through progression of the work to become an Information Commissioner’s Office Code of Conduct, development of a digital system for organisations to digitise their information sharing agreements and new information sharing templates shared ahead of the framework’s 20th Anniversary in 2025.

The Welsh Information Governance toolkit continues to provide improved functionality and implement changes proposed by stakeholders. This has included expanding the use of the platform to other stakeholders by supporting Community Pharmacies in the provision and onboarding of the Pharmacy Clinical Governance toolkit. Future platform developments will enable expansion from those organisations that currently use the existing platform to a wider set of stakeholders who need to provide information governance assurance when processing personal data in the provision of NHS Wales services.

The Data Protection Officer Support Service has been onboarding Community Pharmacies to a new Data Protection Officer service. This provides information governance advice and assistance to Community Pharmacies in the same manner as the current Data Protection Officer service for General Practices on a subscription basis. 84% of GP practices in Wales and 9% of Community Pharmacies are subscribers to this service with ongoing input and feedback from subscribers supporting the development and focus of the service.

The National Intelligent Integrated Audit Solution continues to monitor potential inappropriate access to clinical records for many national systems. Training on the proactive monitoring tool have been undertaken with health board and trust information governance leads reminding attendees of the functionality and benefits of the audit tool, which sits behind many of DHCW’s national systems.

A national data policy framework for Wales is critical to the ambitions to make better use of health and care data. Intent needs to be underpinned by an implementation plan with actions and owners but the data policy position needs to be established by Welsh Ministers, via Welsh Government. As such, DHCW’s activities have been supporting, highlighting the need for action and raising awareness across the health and care system.

The National Data Resource (NDR) published the NDR Information Governance Framework artefacts to stakeholders providing them access to a range of information governance related documents, guidance and templates that assist organisations in understanding the roles and responsibilities in the context of the NDR. Relevant national NDR Data Protection Impact Assessments that have been completed while Joint Controller Agreement and Acceptable Use for NDR services were also shared.

The Information Governance team successfully completed DHCW’s accreditation to BS10008, the British Standard on evidential weight and legal admissibility of electronically stored information. The next audit will be in December 2025 with a full re-certification audit opening up opportunities to explore scope development.

Figure: Freedom of Information Requests (April 2024 – March 2025).
During this period, 68 requests were received under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Of these, 94% were responded to within the statutory timeframe, while three requests were answered outside the required deadline.

We received 30 Subject Access Requests within this timeframe. All responses were responded to within the statutory timeframes. We also received 4 Environmental information Regulation requests, three requests made by the police and other agencies under Schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act and one other Individual Rights request – all of which were responded to within the statutory timeframes.

Information Governance breaches – There were 14 incidents recorded on our incident management system during the financial year. No incidents recorded during this period were deemed reportable to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Throughout the past year, our continued focus on service delivery and improvement has led to significant achievements. The Digital Experience Platform is now fully implemented for DHCW staff, key metrics have been established and improvements in end-user experience have been made throughout the year. Migration of the NHS Wales Executive and NHS Wales Health Collaborative onto DHCW support is now complete. Several other staff groups have been successfully migrated, and support for multiple workplace relocations provided.

More than 80% of the supported computer estate is now running the latest operating system (Windows 11). The hardware refresh is ongoing at pace, with almost 6,500 computers upgraded. A major focus area has been supporting the GP clinical system programme, and the team have successfully helped in clinical system migrations for over 50 GP practices.

A phased rollout of modern device deployment and biometric authentication has begun as part of the work to modernise and improve the end user’s digital experience. The team have designed and supported the delivery of a state-of-the-art ‘Digital Futures’ facility at DHCW’s headquarters.

Looking ahead, we have outlined future goals to further enhance our services:

• Design, develop and deliver digital platforms, systems and services
• Support others in the design, development and delivery of digital platforms, systems and services
• Support the development and implementation of common standards for digital platforms, systems and services
• Advise and assist the Welsh Ministers in relation to the security of digital platforms, systems and services
• Support the development of the digital workforce