Meeting Date: Wednesday 27th May 2026
Meeting Attendees: Dan White, Janarth Duraisingham, Rosemary
Walmsley, Simon Wellesley-Miller, Caileigh Solomenca, Sammi Rosser,
Joseph Wilson, Matt Dray, Claire Welsh, Tom Jemmett, Anya Ferguson, Jason Pott
No changes or disagreements noted.
- Training subgroup to meet and generate a plan: completed. The subgroup met and have formed a plan for future subgroup working. See below for more info.
- DWh to see if Statement on Tools meets his needs for Python starter info: Not complete - to roll over
- RW to create questionnaire to see what the community wants in terms of python training for beginners: Not planned - focus groups planned instead (see below)
- SWM to create questionnaire to ask previous Intro to R/Intermediate R course attendees for feedback on the content - focus groups planned instead (see below)
- CW to populate new website repo and deploy: Progressing.
- All to feedback standpoint on private company employees as potential committee members: see discussion below
- CW to create questionnaire for mid/later career community members' needs and interests: not complete.
- CW to add refreshed Coffee & Code details to the old website and publicise: Complete
The training subgroup met to discuss how we should modify or extend our training offer. Work is planned to produce a python version of the Intro to R course before the end of summer 2026. General call for assistance. The subteam are to meet every 2 months. For feedback from the current training, we may be able to instigate live feedback collection (from attendees) with live analysis and visualisation. Rhian Davies is considering how we might use a 'flipped classroom' design for the Intermediate R course. They plan to produce a questionnaire for previous training attendees to complete to note interest in attending a 30 min online focus group to gather important information about how the courses could be improved/extended. A separate communication may be used to gather ideas on new training we could offer to support different segments of the community.
DWh took an action at the last meeting to check whether the Statements on Tools book would be a good place to host his existing FAQ document around helping analysts access python and related software.
A discussion was held on whether the existing committee would be happy to accept committee members from private companies. Some voiced support for this, with others mentioning the need to ensure they 'signed up' in some way to avoid any form of advertising, and adhered to the values and code of conduct of the community. They would also be expected to contribute by being present and active at committee meetings, and potentially also delivering webinars/training etc. Consideration was given to whether, if admitted, they would be permitted to join in discussion but would not have a vote. It would need to be made clear that they were on the committee in the capacity as a private individual and not a representative of their employer. CW voiced that, provided the community was benefiting from their involvement and the private company was not, it seems fine. There may be conflict of interest concerns from the Strategy Unit around this. Overall the committee were not opposed, CW will explore with SU their CoI concerns (if any) and the potential of creating an MOU between SU and NHS-OA more generally, as well as some form of 'sign off' for the incoming committee member to complete.
JW reported the need to set up the first subteam meeting to kick this off. It was agreed that subteam membership need not be restricted to existing committee members.
TJ raised that the NHS-R community used to have advertising added to the Apha publications but this stopped. CS will look into the historical reasons for why this was stopped so we can consider whether restarting it would be beneficial.
CS described the problems we've had with migrating toward a single NHS-OA LinkedIn presence from the 3 historical ones (NHS-R persona, NHS-R organisation and NHS.pycom organisation). The NHS-R organisation was renamed NHS-OA and followers of the NHS-R persona were advised to follow the NHS-R organisation instead. LinkedIn declinded to merge the NHS-OA and NHS.pycom organisations so the option was given of making one an 'affiliate' of the other then potentially using it for some substream of activity (e.g. training, or RAP-specific) or of deleting one org after giving time for followers to move to the remaining one. The decision was taken that we would choose the latter option to keep communications simple and avoid having to maintain two pages. Since the NHS-OA page already exists, it is likely that the NHS.pycom one should be closed.
Concerns were raised about recent publicity concerning an NHSE missive that seemed to say that all NHSE repositories that were previously open should be closed, for cyber security reasons. Various committee members spoke to explain that this was a miscommunication, and refers to only one NHSE team. It was felt that a statement to that effect would be useful to come from NHS-OA to reduce fear in the community. Any statement would need to be signed off by CB, SU and the committee. JP offered to draft such a statement and email it to CW in the first instance.
SWM gave an update describing progress on merging our Coffee & Code sessions with the DHSC equivalent. The new sessions will be alternating between Wednesdays and Thursdays, and info will go onto the NHS'R website ASAP (CW to do this). CW called for volunteers from within the community to host or get involved in these sessions. Interested people should be directed to contact SWM in the first instance.
CS asked for ideas of speakers/tools/topics to be sent to CS.
- DWh to assess various materials for supporting analysts in requesting access to relevant software for open coding from their IT department.
- Questionnaire to invite people to focus groups posted and advertised (RW and CS)
- CW to discuss with SU potential CoI issues with allowing committee members from private industry and feed back
- JP to draft a position statement on the NHSE announcement around closing open code and email it to CW