User Engagement
The United Kingdom Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Official Statistics requires all producers of Statistics to publish guidance on their policy for meeting user needs through user engagement. This statement is how the National Treatment Agency seeks to meet those requirements.
Users
Our statistics are designed to meet the needs of the major users. Our major users are:
- Government departments, including:
- NTA management teams
- Local partnerships
- Treatment providers
- Academics and researchers
- Other research bodies and think tanks
- The media
- The general public
Many of our statistical outputs are generated in order to facilitate the management of the drug treatment system. They are used to measure the ability of the system to meet the ambitions that policy makers have for it in terms of the number of individuals treated, and the success and cost benefit of doing so.
Data is used extensively throughout the drug and alcohol treatment sector as a mechanism to monitor the delivery of contracted levels of activity by treatment commissioners.
Statistics and data are used by the academic sector to investigate the state of drug and alcohol problems within society, and the effectiveness of health interventions.
Engagement
We recognise that different users have a different requirements for the data, and that we need to engage with them and understand these. We seek to engage users through a variety of mechanisms including
- Internal meetings with NTA managers.
- Regular meetings with government bodies who require outputs to monitor progress against ambition.
- Regular meetings with professional users of data working for partnerships.
- Regular meetings with regional public health teams.
- Face-to-face consultation with clinicians
- Published public facing consultations.
Analysts working with the NTA respond to a wide variety of formal and informal requests for data, including Freedom of Information requests and parliamentary questions, as well as informal requests for information from government, researchers and the public. We endeavour to respond to all requests with 20 working days.
Inviting feedback and queries about our statistics
We welcome comments or queries on our releases from all our users and each release has a point of contact for specific enquiries related to individual releases. In addition the NTA maintains a dedicated point of contact for general statistical enquires: Analysisteamqueries@nta-nhs.org.uk