NHS Data and Analytics Academy

Officially launching in April 2025, the NHS Data and Analytics academy is made up of 4 different workstreams. Supporting new talent to join the NHS, upskilling of core competency skills for the existing workforce, developing the data leaders needed in the NHS and supporting the development of data skills and confidence in the wider NHS workforce.

Find out more info on each of those four academy pillars below, and to hear from Ming Tang about her vision for the Academy, check out her recent FIKA Bites podcast.

To stay up to date with the latest news from the Academy, follow our LinkedIn page and don't forget to follow our blog page, hosted on AnalystX where you can access a wide range of additional materials about both the Data and Analytics Academy and the National Competency Framework for Data Professionals

The academy has 4 pillars making up its cornerstones:

New entry talent - To raise the awareness of data and analytics as a career in school age children, diversify our entry pipeline, and support all new talent to the NHS to upskill on health and care knowledge.

Upskilling - To support the core competencies and specialist technical skills of our existing 10,000 workforce through the use of apprenticeships and software specific certifications.

Data leadership - To build the data leaders of the future. As data and analytics roles continue to gain a senior presence in organisations, we need to be building the capability within the data workforce to lead our own. Developing the data specific leadership skills that cannot be taught through more generic leadership programmes.

Data literacy and confidence - To bring the wider workforce on the data revolution, providing them a means to grow their understanding of and confidence in using data for day to day tasks and decision making.

Why do we need an academy?

The ask of the analytical workforce is changing.  Population health, increased need to forecast and scenario model, logic modelling and evaluative frameworks and the evolution of chief data and analytical officers to lead system level data transformation will require a shift in the analytical skill sets of the current workforce and well as a change in the mix of the role profiles.

The current supply of Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) professionals is not meeting the current or growing demand at the pace of change across the sector. In ‘Data Driven Healthcare in 2030’, Health Education England forecast the need for an additional 32,000 in DDaT roles by 2030.

In 2024 there was an estimated 10,275 data and analytics professionals working across health and social care in England.

Data analysts 8,345 (including performance analysts)
Data engineers 1,183
Data scientists 515
Data governance manager 127
Data ethicist 13
Analytics engineer 73
Machine learning engineer 19

‘Data Driven Healthcare in 2030’ suggested a 69% increase in the overall DDaT workforce.  Applying that percentage to our current workforce estimates would suggest we need an additional 7,000 professionals within the data family.

Existing recruitment processes, and Agenda for Change banding creates a proposition for DDaT talent that struggles to compete with other sectors. Survey data from Trusts (June 22) indicates an estimated current vacancy rate for DDaT specialist roles of approximately 3,500 whole time equivalents and the AnalystX Workforce survey in 2022 estimated a vacancy rate of 11% in data roles across health and social care in England.

Pillar 1: New entry talent

The new talent pillar focuses on raising the profile of data professions within the NHS and supporting new talent to join the profession.

Creating a pipeline of future talent to feed a new entry talent apprenticeship scheme is the focus of the school and university pipeline proposal.

Once the school and university pipeline is established it will require connecting up to new entry talent apprenticeship schemes and the Government Management Training Scheme.

Currently the focus is to grow the number of NHS organisations using apprenticeships as a means to bring in new talent and upskill existing staff. The digital professionalisation team is developing an apprenticeship toolkit to support the adoption of apprenticeship schemes (June 24) the Data & Analytics academy is represented on that working group.

New talent to the NHS can also come from industry transfers. To facilitate the adoption of industry transfers the D&A academy proposes to create a bespoke healthcare data bootcamp.

Pillar 2: Upskilling existing staff

The Upskilling pillar focuses on cataloguing all the available training resources and courses already available to the data and analytical workforce but cataloguing them in a way that they are linked to the skills and competencies outlined in the National Competency Framework (NCF) for data professionals.

Pillar 3: Data Leaders

The Data leadership pillar aims to develop data leadership skills. We will develop an offer for senior and aspiring analysts to support them navigating leadership, incorporating developing teams, influencing systems and strategic thinking. To facilitate the develop of these leadership skills the D&A academy proposes to create a bespoke healthcare data leadership training.

Pillar 4: Data literacy of the wider workforce

To create a comprehensive resource library of data literacy and fluency for non-data professionals we need to have an indexing structure similar to the NCF to act as the spine to map all training resources to.

Work has already been undertaken in education on developing a version 1 of a data competency framework for non-data professionals.

Want to get into data and analytics in the NHS?

School leavers or those looking for a career change can apply for a data apprenticeship with the NHS. We cross-post all the data and data related apprenticeships on NHS Data and Analytics Academy but you can find all apprenticeship opportunities under NHS Jobs.

You can refine down by geography and you can even set up a job alert to be sent any new postings direct to your email. The NHS offers apprenticeships in all areas from business support, finance, procurement, pharmacy, estates management.

If you are based in the North West you can also register your interest for 2026 Skills Development Network Apprenticeships Scheme.

Current 2nd year undergraduates can apply for our Graduate Management Training Scheme which runs programmes for General Management, Human Resources, Finance, Policy & Strategy, Health Informatics and Health Analysis. Applications are now closed for 2025 entry. Applications for 2026 scheme entry will open on 22nd September 2025. You can register your interest now to be notified when the scheme opens.

Looking for an NHS placement?

The NHS Undergraduate Placement Scheme offers year 2 students a fantastic opportunity to gain a unique insight into how finance, procurement or digital teams work within the NHS. Applications for all job vacancies have now closed for 2025.

The Health Data Science Black internship scheme runs 8-week internships from the end of June to end of August annually. Open to current students at a UK university at any level (undergraduate, post-grad diploma, master’s, PhD or returning student) The 2025 cohort is now closed. You can register interest for 2026 scheme. Applications open towards the end of October and close early January. 2026 dates (to be confirmed).