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11 January 2021NHSX, a joint unit bringing together teams from the Department of Health and Social Care, National Health Service ('NHS') England, and NHS Improvement to drive digital transformation of care, published, on 18 December 2020, a template data sharing agreement ('DSA') that can be used by all health and care organisations to provide a high-level summary of data sharing between the parties signed up to the DSA, and a complementary guide on how to complete the DSA.
In particular, the guide provides two examples on the form that a DSA can take and explains what needs to be completed in each the section of the DSA. In relation to the 'purpose or objective of the information sharing', the guide states that entities can have as many purposes as required, however if these purposes cover a variety of intentions, then they may be best served by grouping the purposes into similar themes (e.g. provision of service planning or research) and having a separate DSA for each theme.
Moreover, the guide recommends providing a reference to any Data Protection Impact Assessment completed for the project, to be read together with the DSA. Furthermore, the guide explains, among other things, that entities will need to demonstrate how they will be satisfying the duty of confidence, and provides two ways for doing so, namely by obtaining consent for sharing from the patient or service user, or as allowed or required by law, such as support under Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006.
You can access the template here and read the guide here.
