Consultation outcome

Responses to the consultation

Updated 24 September 2019

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/ndtms-annual-reports-and-methodology-proposed-changes/public-feedback/responses-to-the-consultation

1. Number of responses

There were 82 responses to the survey.

2. Responses to the survey questions

The survey contained 6 questions: 4 about the adult treatment report, one about changes to the methodology in the young people’s report, and one asking for general comments or suggestions.

2.1 Do you agree with the proposal to reduce the length of the current report and to produce a shorter and more focused report?

Respondents answered:

  • yes: 78 (95%)
  • no: 4 (5%)

2.2 Would you support the inclusion of more charts and graph?

Respondents answered:

  • yes: 80 (98%)
  • no: 2 (2%)

2.3 Do you have a preference between and report with infographics (like Health matters: preventing drug misuse deaths) or more technical illustrations and graphs (like the ONS drug poisoning deaths report and the NHS Digital alcohol statistics report)?

Respondents answered:

  • simple infographics: 22 (27%)
  • more technical illustrations and graphs: 11 (13%)
  • both: 47 (57%)
  • other, please specify: 2 (3%)

The two responses didn’t relate directly to the question

2.4 Would you prefer a report in HTML format (like the NHS Digital alcohol statistics report and the ONS drug poisoning deaths report) or a downloadable pdf as it currently is?

Respondents answered:

  • HTML: 13 (16%)
  • PDF: 13 (16%)
  • both: 53 (66%)
  • other, please specify: 1 (1%)

Comment: downloadable in Excel please.

2.5 Do you agree with the proposal to align the young person’s method to identify an individual and create client’s treatment journeys and align with the adult reporting methodology?

Respondents answered:

  • yes: 73 (96%)
  • no: 3 (4%)

2.6 General comments

The following general comments were made by survey respondents.

Make sure that the detailed statistical breakdowns remain available and that they remain consistent with previous publications to allow epidemiologists to continue monitoring trends without any discontinuities.

More narrative and logic around graphs and numbers published would be useful to avoid any misinterpretations.

The suggested improvements look to make the reports easier to read and interpret and therefore should improve how the information is translated into identifying key priorities and how to adapt services best to meet the needs of those requiring and accessing services.

2.7 Questions and PHE responses

The following questions were raised by survey respondents. We have responded to each one.

Will methodology always be made available?

Yes, we will publish a methodology document.

The underlying data tables must be made available so that analysts can produce their own more detailed reports, as what is being proposed looks like high level charts that lack detail such as rates. The new reporting methodology will take time to embed and it is likely that in the meantime the burden on analyst’s time to gather and interpret data from the raw tables will be increased. Trend information would be incredibly useful to see if possible.

Any changes to methodology will be accompanied by trend data. All the data that is currently in the NDTMS annual reports will be retained in the Excel data tables.

It will be good to have the report available as HTML with the option to download as pdf (either parts of or in full) if required.

The format is likely to be a HTML page which you can save as PDF or print out.

Adopting Open Data standards and publishing data aggregated data in accessible formats (html, csv).

We currently provide an Excel document containing all the data that contains national aggregate data.

Happy with the proposed changes as long as the data will still be available to export in to Excel. Also the quality of the infographics on screen is important.

Data will still be available in Excel and the quality of the infographics will be as high quality as can be produced within the format.

Could the publication of the young people’s reports be aligned with the timeliness of the adult reports?

This can be looked at for future reports though we would not want this to lead to a delay in the production of this year’s adult report.

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