Inside one of England’s most ambitious health data services
Starlight partnered with Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to create a safe and sustainable service using data from across the NHS.
What the client needed
In response to the UK’s Data Saves Lives strategy and the Goldacre Review, NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care launched a national programme to create eleven Secure Data Environments across England. These platforms would enable faster, safer and ethical access to health data for research, while ensuring transparency, security and public trust.
OUH was selected to lead the SDE for Thames Valley and Surrey, representing over 4.3 million citizens and working with more than 20 NHS organisations and over 320 GP practices. With a strong reputation for health research and established academic partnerships, OUH had the ambition to deliver a ground-breaking service which went well beyond technical infrastructure.
The TVS SDE team at OUH understood that researchers and analysts need rapid access to real-world data including images such as x-rays and MRI scans, detailed analysis from lab tests and the millions of notes and data points captured as part of day-to-day care in hundreds of electronic patient record and specialist systems. OUH also understood that this must be achieved safely and securely, with public trust at the core of how future services are designed and delivered. However, traditional approaches to accessing health data for purposes beyond direct care can be cumbersome, slow and ineffective. It can take years to access data from across organisations, only to find it’s incomplete or lacks the granular context required for developing new medicines and training artificial intelligence models.
The programme involved developing legal and commercial frameworks, working with the public, engaging diverse stakeholders and preparing for long-term service delivery. Starlight was engaged to help make all this happen.
What Starlight provided
Programme delivery and technical coordination
Starlight began by facilitating the creation of a single, end-to-end programme plan. We worked with senior leaders and delivery teams, facilitating structured workshops to establish coherence across multiple delivery strands and establish a single source of truth for governance, technical and organisational activity. We provided delivery leadership across the programme and worked with lead technology partner Telefonica Tech to support the design and build of a Microsoft Azure-based platform that integrates with live NHS systems, ingesting real-world and preparing it for customers. We resolved delivery blockers, oversaw risk management and introduced an approach to knowledge transfer that positioned OUH to own and operate the platform independently. Our consultants also led organisational development efforts, including service readiness and the shift from project delivery into a live operational model. As the programme matured, Starlight provided structure and leadership in response to shifting priorities, such as evolving funding profiles, regulatory updates and changes to user needs. This flexibility enabled OUH to continue progressing at pace without losing strategic direction.
Stakeholder engagement and governance development
The TVS SDE team faced the challenge of aligning stakeholders from acute, mental health and ambulance services alongside GPs. Each organisation and sector has unique traits, levels of digital maturity, risk tolerance, and research involvement. Starlight led the development of a comprehensive operating model and a suite of onboarding and legal materials that gave partners clarity and confidence and supported the engagement at scale. These artefacts were not only successful locally but have since been recognised as national best practice. We led the engagement with NHS partners, guiding organisations from awareness through to approval and onboarding. We supported legal negotiations, information governance reviews and created a repeatable process for secure data integration. Starlight’s work helped OUH move from concept to having implemented real-world data sharing in a safe, trusted way.
Organisational capability and service readiness
Delivering the SDE also required OUH to build its internal capability. Starlight provided hands-on leadership to design the organisation’s skills matrix, identify capability gaps and support planning for future recruitment and development. We supported the programme's transition into a service-ready state. Our team worked closely with the programme leadership on the change, helping define service delivery models and creating key documentation needed to support ongoing service operations. We also played a central role in preparing the service for ISO 27001:2022 accreditation. This included establishing an information security management system and supporting audit readiness.