Transformation Directorate

RAP and Open Code Oversight Group

The RAP and Open Code Oversight Group is working to:

  • Implement best practice across health and care systems.
  • Clarify appropriate and responsible use of RAP and open code in the sector.
  • Enable and support healthcare providers to request or require RAP and open code.

The group brings together key representatives from a range of organisations including the Department of Health and Social Care, the Office for National Statistics, NHS Business Services Authority and NHS England. The establishment of this group was a recommendation in the 2022 Goldacre Review. This group provides oversight to several other RAP and open code recommendations from the review.

On the18th of April leads from organisations across the health family gathered to identify common challenges and define where this focus should initially focus to best support the wider system.

This led to the identification of 6 areas of importance when it came to driving the adoption of RAP in an organisation.

  1. End to end RAP – Enabling RAP from source to data presentation
  2. Upskilling data professionals to focus on R/Python/SQL (but accepting legacy tech is likely to remain a feature)
  3. Management culture, it was recognised RAP and open code is cultural and behavioural change - consequently supporting and enabling people to progress through this transition is key, this is especially true of managers of small teams who are well place to drive this transformation
  4. Platforms/digital tools, these are often not “RAP ready”.
  5. Enabling RAP with external partners/health family, enabling the re-use of code across the system relies on more than just publishing code, identification of where common approaches is needed and how to identify useful code is often not straightforward.
  6. System Culture of change around transparency, it was agreed that transparency is key however understanding boundaries (for example where code my commercially sensitive) is often not clear

As a group we agreed to initially focus on 3 and 5, this will be underpinned by a a RAP playbook to enable organisations to seek inspiration and guidance around common blockers. We aim to release the first version of the RAP playbook on this site at the earliest opportunity.

For more information:

Other useful links: