Welcome to the Midlands Analyst Network

Thank you for being part of our growing community! If you are an analyst who works in health & care or the wider public sector, then join the Midlands Analyst Network!

Launched in April 2020, this thriving community now connects over 1,100 members from a wide range of organisations - primarily in the Midlands, but increasingly from across the UK. It provides a supportive space for analysts to share ideas, resources, and good practice, as well as to seek advice, spark debate, and develop skills together.

I love how the huddles have grown into a space beyond simply sharing ideas and work, to a regular opportunity for analysts to come together as a community. They frequently lead to insightful and previously unconsidered questions and debates and also serve as a fantastic welcoming opportunity for those dipping their toes into the world of analytics and improved decision making. Andi Orlowski, Director of the Health Economics Unit

Meet your Network lead: Rachel Caswell

Rachel is a Senior Healthcare Analyst at the Strategy Unit and the Lead for Training & Development. She's passionate about developing the Network and supporting analysts across the system to connect, learn, and lead through collaboration.


Fortnightly Huddles

At the heart of the Network are our fortnightly online Huddles, hosted on MS Teams (see link below). The Huddles cover a large range of topics and you are very welcome to join one at any time – for quick access to a Huddle, just follow the link below.  You don’t have to be a member of the Midlands Analyst Network to come to a Huddle but if you’d like to be kept up to date with all future Huddles and training opportunities then contact Rachel (rachel.caswell@nhs.net) and we’ll take it from there.

We try to keep them as informal but as informative as possible and welcome contributions from Network members as well from academia, subject specialists, national and occasionally international presenters.

If you have any queries about the Huddles, how to access them, if you want to find out what’s gone before, or you want to present then please contact Rachel.

 

Next Huddle: 18th September (11-12): 'I wish I was macho instead of just deep' Marc Farr - Chief Analytical Officer at East Kent Hospitals University NHSFT

In this Huddle I'll be welcoming Marc Farr, the Chief Analytical Officer, East Kent Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust & Kent & Medway ICB, who will give his latest thoughts on the role of the analytical leader in the current ever-changing NHS data landscape.

While there is increased focus on the analytical workforce - we have a senior head of profession, the Federated Data Platform (FDP) and Secure Data Environment (SDE) programmes and a national competency framework, the analyst community would agree that there is a still a long way to go to deliver cliches such as evidence-based decision-making, data into action, integration at the data as opposed to system level and so forth. Marc will describe progress made and also the challenge that still remains to see senior analytical roles in positions of genuine significance. 

About our presenter:  Dr Marc Farr: Chief Analytical Officer, East Kent Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust & Kent & Medway ICB; Chair of the Chief Data & Analytical Officers Network (hosted by ApHA).

Dr Marc Farr

 

Marc is one of the NHS’s most experienced leaders in data and analytics. He oversees the use of data to inform strategy and operational delivery across acute and system-wide services, and through his leadership of the Chief Data & Analytical Officers Network he brings together senior professionals to shape how analytics supports integrated care, hospital planning and system transformation.  Marc has presented at numerous conferences including HACA2023 and last year's HACA too at Telford International Conference Centre - one our of most popular presenters, see the recording here (starts about 6 mins in).  

This Huddle will be of interest to anyone who'd like to know more about the role of an analytical leader in the NHS today.

How to join the Huddle!

I look forward to seeing you on Thursday 18th September at 11!

 


Same Teams link as usual and if you don't have this - it's here!

Click here to join the meeting Hop in at 11 am!


 

🎥 Catch up! See Huddle recordings below:

14/11/2024

Ordnance Survey (OS) Data supporting local health

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MAN Huddle: 14/11/2024 

Ordnance Survey (OS) Data supporting local health

View on YouTube

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31/10/2024

NHSquicker: Shaping Demand for Urgent Care Using Real-Time Data and Digital Nudges 

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MAN Huddle: 31/10/2024 

NHSquicker: Shaping Demand for Urgent Care Using Real-Time Data and Digital Nudges 

With Nav Mustafee, Professor of Operations Management and Analytics at the University of Exeter Business School

View on YouTube

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17/10/2024 

Modelling Long-Term Changes in Population Health State and Associated Healthcare Resource Requirements 

Presentation Slides
HACA Recap Slides

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MAN Huddle: 17/10/2024 

Topic: Modelling Long-Term Changes in Population Health State and Associated Healthcare Resource Requirements 

With Luke Shaw (NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB)

View on YouTube

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03/10/2024

The National Competency Framework - one year on

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MAN Huddle: 03/10/2024 

Topic: The National Competency Framework - one year on 

With Sarah Blundell and Andrew Lavelle (NHSE)

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05/09/24

Health equity and the humaniverse

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MAN Huddle: 05/09/24

Health equity and the humaniverse

With Dr Matt Thomas (Head of Strategic Insight & Foresight at British Red Cross) 

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22/08/24

The Empowering Futures, Growing Up Well in Warwickshire, joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)

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MAN Huddle: 22/08/24 

The Empowering Futures, Growing Up Well in Warwickshire, joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)

With Michael Maddocks, Matthew Head, and Thomas Mansbridge (Warwickshire County Council)

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08/08/24

Health inequalities in 2040: Current and future patterns of inequalities in illness in England

 

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MAN Huddle: 08/08/24 

Health inequalities in 2040: Current and future patterns of inequalities in illness in England

With Ann Raymond, The Health Foundation

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28/11/2024

HDR UK Midlands – Building a regional data science network

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MAN Huddle: 28/11/2024

HDR UK Midlands – Building a regional data science network

View on YouTube

Presentation

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23/01/2025

Process Mining in Healthcare – Opportunities and Challenges 

 

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MAN Huddle: 23/01/2025

Process Mining in Healthcare – Opportunities and Challenges

With Owen Johnson, Director of Impact, School of Computer Science, University of Leeds

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12/12/2024

COMPLEX-IT: Enabling Non-Experts to Leverage Advanced Computational Modelling for Policy Evaluation and Decision Making

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MAN Huddle: 12/12/2024

COMPLEX-IT: Enabling Non-Experts to Leverage Advanced Computational Modelling for Policy Evaluation and Decision Making

With Brian Castellani, Professor of Social and Public Health, Director, Research Methods Centre, Co-Director, Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing, Durham University

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06/02/2025

Making Data Count: What is it and why should I know about it?

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MAN Huddle: 06/02/25

Topic: Making Data Count: What is it and why should I know about it?

With Adam Smith, Make Data Count team

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Presentation

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03/04/2025

Toy models – Complex problems in small packages! and 

How much healthcare will our population need in five, ten, 20 years' time?”

 

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MAN Huddle: 03/04/2025

Topic: 

  • Toy models – Complex problems in small packages! Presentation
  • How much healthcare will our population need in five, ten, 20 years' time?” Presentation

With Andy Hood and Lucy Morgan, and Paul Seamer, from the Strategy Unit 

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20/03/2025

Updates from the Warwickshire Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)

 

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MAN Huddle: 20/03/25

Topic: Updates from the Warwickshire Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)

With Michael Maddocks Programme Manager – JSNA, Warwickshire CC 

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20/02/2025

Public expenditure in the last year of life - Nuffield Trust & Health Economics Unit

 

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MAN Huddle: 20/02/25

Topic: Public expenditure in the last year of life - Nuffield Trust & Health Economics Unit

With Lisa Cummins and Gayathri Kumar, The Health Economics Unit

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17/04/2025

Evaluating the Heart Failure Targeted Funding Programme 2023/24 (Strategy Unit)

 

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MAN Huddle: 17/04/2025

Topic: Evaluating the Heart Failure Targeted Funding Programme 2023/24 (Strategy Unit)

With Faizan Mahmood and Andre Bilbrough, from the Strategy Unit 

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26/06/2025

Humans, AI and the Importance of Data Literacy

 

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MAN Huddle: 26/06/2025

Topic: Humans, AI and the Importance of Data Literacy
With Dan Isaac, Data Literacy & Training Lead, Exeter University

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01/05/2025

An update AphA (Association of Professional Healthcare Analysts) 

 

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MAN Huddle: 01/05/2025

Topic: An update AphA (Association of Professional Healthcare Analysts)
Presentation

With Jane Johnston (Co-CEO) and Jeannette Fraser (AphA SE Branch Lead & WIHD Network Committee Lead) 

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15/05/2025

An introduction to problem structuring 

 

 

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MAN Huddle: 15/05/2025

Topic: An introduction to problem structuring 
Presentation

With Steven Wyatt, Head of Research and Policy at the Strategy Unit

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29/05/2025

How we are using data in Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland, to drive transformation of urgent and emergency care services

 

 

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MAN Huddle: 29/05/2025

Topic: How we are using data in Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland, to drive transformation of urgent and emergency care services

With Janine Dellar, Head of Strategic Business Intelligence and George MacDonald, Data Scientist 

Presentations:

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12/06/2025

Reshaping the pattern of care - sizing and exploring the left shift challenge

 

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MAN Huddle: 12/06/2025

Topic: Reshaping the pattern of care - Sizing and exploring the left shift challenge
With Jennifer Wood and Justine Wiltshire, The Strategy Unit

Presentation: Estimating future demand for community services including scaling the possible 'left shift'

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04/09/2025

Introducing the Strategy Unit Demand Model: sizing hospitals & shifting care closer to home 

 

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MAN Huddle: 04/09/25

Topic: Introducing the Strategy Unit Demand Model: sizing hospitals & shifting care closer to home 
With Chris Beeley, Head of Data Service, The Strategy Unit

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Presentation: Data Science @ The Strategy Unit – Transforming Hospital Planning with an Open-Source Demand Model

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10/07/2025

Understanding the costs and benefits of interventions in cervical cancer

 

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MAN Huddle: 10/07/2025

Topic: Understanding the costs and benefits of interventions in cervical cancer
With Lisa Cummins, Lead Health Economist, Health Economics Unit

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Presentation

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10/07/2025

Understanding the costs and benefits of interventions in cervical cancer

 

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MAN Huddle: 10/07/2025

Topic: Understanding the costs and benefits of interventions in cervical cancer
With Lisa Cummins, Lead Health Economist, Health Economics Unit

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Presentation

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24/07/2025

‘Rules of Thumb' for assessing the quality of analysis

 

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MAN Huddle: 24/07/2025

Topic: ‘Rules of Thumb' for assessing the quality of analysis
With Fraser Battye (Strategy Unit) and Danielle Jefferies (The Kings Fund)

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Presentation

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07/08/2025

Simplifying statistical process control with I-prime charts

 

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MAN Huddle: 07/08/2025

Topic: Simplifying statistical process control with I-prime charts
With Jacob Anhøj and Professor Mohammed A Mohammed

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