In an NHS with an increasingly diverse range of providers, collecting comprehensive workforce information will become ever more difficult. In order to address this, the Health and Social Care Act 2012 places a duty on all organisations that deliver care funded by the NHS to provide data on their current workforce and to share their anticipated future workforce needs.

The Workforce Information Architecture (WIA) workstream was established in 2011 by the Department of Health (DH) as part of the wider reform of Education and Training. Within this workstream there was requirement to develop a Workforce Minimum Data Set (wMDS), a sub set of the existing National Workforce Data Set (NWD) standard, to support high quality education and training commissioning. This workforce Minimum Data Set Collection Vehicle (wMDSCV) provides a safe and secure mechanism for the submission of the wMDS.

For more detail on the wMDS, its development, the process for gaining authorised access to the wMDSCV and guidance related to the data items and the use of this system, please see dedicated section of the NHS Digital website here: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/areas-of-interest/workforce/workforce-minimum-data-set-wmds which will be updated regularly.

If you have any general queries about the wMDS and its submission, please contact the team via workforceMDS@nhs.net stating that your request relates to the Workforce Minimum Data Set.