A New Era for NHS Data Collaboration
Over the last decade, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) across the NHS have steadily built up a powerful, locally grounded foundation of data capabilities. These investments have equipped public health teams, analysts, clinicians, and administrators with the intelligence they need to deliver better, faster, and more targeted care.
Now, the NHS is moving forward with the Federated Data Platform (FDP) — a national initiative to create a shared, secure data infrastructure that enables richer insights, more equitable access, and joined-up working across the system. With FDP+, a value-added enablement layer designed to operate on top of the FDP, the opportunity exists to extend—not replace—the value already created locally.
This article explores how FDP+ complement FDP, offers continuity for local data excellence, and opens the door to a new era of collaboration and intelligence.
Recognising the Strength of What’s Already Been Built
The NHS has not waited for a national platform to begin its data transformation journey. Across England, ICBs have made significant investments that have led to operational maturity, analytical capability, and strong governance models. These investments were guided by national strategy but executed at the local level, giving each system a tailored architecture suited to its population needs.
Local NHS teams have already delivered:
- Relational databases and bespoke data models that reflect real-world clinical and operational nuances
- Data linkages that integrate GP, acute, community, mental health, social care, and demographic data at scale
- Robust information governance structures, often co-designed with local partners, ensure lawful and ethical secondary use of patient data.
- Trained analysts fluent in SQL, R, Python, and Power BI DAX, supported by reusable scripts and reporting logic embedded in daily workflows
- Contracted platforms, software, and dashboards aligned to regional performance frameworks and ICS strategies
These foundations will not be redundant in the future with FDP. On the contrary, they represent the readiness that the NHS has been striving for.
The Role of FDP: Unlocking Federated Value
FDP is not a system, but a federated architecture — a way of connecting, governing, and collaborating with data that respects local ownership while enabling national scale. At its heart, FDP is about enabling interoperability, accelerating analytics, and supporting advanced planning and decision-making across trusts, regions, and the NHS as a whole.
It brings capabilities such as:
- Secure access across organisations without requiring centralisation of data
- Standardisation of core data structures, enabling comparative analysis and shared dashboards
- Access to tools, environments, and models within a protected and NHS-compliant platform
- Support for advanced analytics, including AI, predictive models, and data science workflows
The federated model that underpins FDP is purposefully designed to allow for local autonomy and flexibility. Rather than mandating a one-size-fits-all structure, it provides a platform for local systems to continue to evolve, share, and innovate.
Introducing FDP+: A Value-Added Layer for Enablement
FDP+ is a specialised enablement and assurance layer that sits on top of the FDP, offering additional capabilities, service wrap, automation tooling, and integration services to accelerate outcomes for ICBs and NHS Trusts.
FDP+ has been designed with a specific intention: to ensure that the journey to FDP is not disruptive but additive. It recognises that many ICBs are already operating at high levels of digital and analytical maturity — and that these capabilities must be protected, supported, and uplifted.
Some of the ways FDP+ aligns with existing NHS investments include:
1. Analyst-Centric Design
FDP+ is a specialised enablement and assurance layer that sits on top of the FDP, offering additional capabilities, service wrap, automation tooling, and integration services to accelerate outcomes for ICBs and NHS Trusts.
FDP+ has been designed with a specific intention: to ensure that the journey to FDP is not disruptive but additive. It recognises that many ICBs are already operating at high levels of digital and analytical maturity — and that these capabilities must be protected, supported, and uplifted.
Some of the ways FDP+ aligns with existing NHS investments include:
2. Governance Continuity
ICBs have built lawful data-sharing arrangements, particularly for the secondary use of GP data. FDP+ ensures that these arrangements remain intact and that local IG policies are reflected in the way access and permissions are set up in the FDP layer.
3. Integration Over Replacement
FDP+ provides APIs, connectors, and interoperability frameworks that connect local data environments with the FDP. This means that data already stored and curated in local systems can feed into the federated model — without requiring wholesale migration or redevelopment.
4. Sustained Value From Contracts and Software
Many ICBs have procured data platforms, dashboards, and bespoke software. FDP+ is built to coexist with these assets — not replace them. It supports an interoperable ecosystem where existing investments can continue to deliver local value while participating in shared NHS-wide insight.
Phase-by-Phase Enablement: A Structured Approach
FDP+ is delivered in phases to ensure each NHS Trust or ICB can progress in a way that aligns with their operational, technical, and governance readiness.
Phase 1: FDP Readiness, Compliance & Integration
This phase focuses on onboarding to FDP in a way that is safe, compliant, and aligned with local priorities. It includes:
- EPR-FDP interoperability design and validation
- Governance and DPIA alignment for data sharing and secondary use
- Legacy data archiving and secure transfer pipelines
- Initial connector deployments for local-to-FDP integration
- Analyst environment setup for continuity of working practices
The goal of this phase is simple: connect to FDP while maintaining local control, governance, and workflows.
Phase 2: Advanced Data, AI & Analytics Enablement
With FDP integration in place, the next step is to begin leveraging federated analytics capabilities:
- High-performance compute environments for simulations and modelling
- Federated AI model development
- Real-time data visualisation across systems
- Collaborative dashboards accessible by multiple partners
- NLP and no-code tools for broader organisational use
This phase allows existing analytical investments to scale and be shared while continuing to deliver local insight.
Phase 3: Automation, Workflow Optimisation & Continuous Assurance
FDP+ introduces automation features that make data-driven workflows faster, more secure, and more consistent:
- Workflow automation for approvals, report generation, and data access
- Single sign-on and secure access management across systems
- Integrated service management and assurance monitoring
- Continuous compliance testing and anomaly detection
- Post-deployment optimisation and strategic planning
This phase helps embed data-driven practices into everyday service delivery, making analytics a core part of how organisations operate.
Enabling Local Autonomy Within National Alignment
One of the greatest strengths of the NHS is the diversity of its organisations. FDP and FDP+ are built with this in mind. They support a model where local teams can continue to operate in ways that reflect their unique contexts while gaining the benefits of being part of a federated, trusted national platform.
This balance is achieved by:
- Supporting data federation, not centralisation
- Allowing partial adoption and staged onboarding
- Providing role-based access so teams retain control over their datasets
- Offering configurable toolsets that match the maturity of each ICB
This means that ICBs with highly advanced data teams can continue innovating — while ICBs are still growing, their digital infrastructure can benefit from scalable, standards-based solutions without duplication or disruption.
Shared Outcomes, Federated Delivery
Ultimately, the goal of FDP and FDP+ is not to change how NHS Trusts work — but to enable what they do best, more effectively and at a greater scale.
By embracing a federated model, the NHS can:
- Share innovations and best practices between Trusts and ICBs
- Enable consistent reporting across regions while respecting the local context
- Reduce duplication of effort by making reusable assets available to all
- Ensure compliance and security across the ecosystem
- Use data not just to monitor activity but to plan, predict, and transform services
These outcomes are not hypothetical. They are already being realised across early adopters of FDP and FDP+, and they will continue to scale as more ICBs come on board.
Looking Ahead
The NHS is not starting from scratch with FDP. It is building on one of the most robust and mature public data ecosystems in the world. FDP+ enables this progression by offering a practical, structured, and enabling route into federated analytics, AI-powered insight, and NHS-wide collaboration.
Whether your organisation is just beginning its FDP journey or already working at the cutting edge of analytics, FDP+ offers a flexible pathway that meets you where you are — and takes you where you want to go.
With FDP+, NHS Trusts and ICBs can unlock a future of intelligent health and care — one that values what’s already been built while opening the door to what’s next.
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