The challenge

A Secure Data Environment (SDE) is an online platform for accessing and analysing routinely collected health and social care data for research. SDEs give trusted researchers secure access to NHS and local authority data. Access is only allowed with the permission of a data access committee, which represents the organisations providing data. Data held in SDEs is depersonalised.

NHS England has developed its own national Secure Data Environment and is supporting regions to set up their own local platforms. Health and care records, when brought together at a regional level, can provide vital information for new research.

Eventually, regional NHS SDEs will link together as part of a national network. This will allow research across regional boundaries or the whole country. Each local data controller will still have control of where data is used.

The solution

The South West Secure Data Environment is providing an innovative and efficient approach to conducting research with millions of people’s health and care records, while maximising privacy and security.

Our SDE has the potential to revolutionise health research in the South West of England, and will enable ground-breaking projects, improving the lives of the people in our region and further afield.

One of the unique characteristics of our SDE is its ageing population and related demographic factors. This places the region a decade ahead of other regions, making it a strong predictive model for developing and testing future-focused innovations.

Expected benefits include:

• Security and peace of mind: SDEs are developed to the highest security standards. Only approved researchers, working on pre-approved projects, will be able to access the data.
• Speed up the research process: The SDE will make data-sharing processes more efficient. This will speed up research, bringing new treatments and approaches into practice more quickly.
• Tackling health and care inequalities: SDEs pool and link routinely collected data from GPs and other health and care services. This means that information for most of the population will be included, enabling researchers to study needs and outcomes for groups of people traditionally excluded from research.
• Enabling more researchers to help solve problems in health and social care: Through improving support, processes and technology, more research can be undertaken.

The South West SDE covers Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire; Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly; Devon; Gloucestershire; Somerset; Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire; and the South Western Ambulance Service area, which also includes Dorset.

Our work in partnership

Hosted by Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) Integrated Care Board, many partners from across the region are involved in developing the South West SDE, including:

• NHS organisations: hospital trusts, mental health trusts and primary care (represented by Integrated Care Boards)
• Local authorities
• Universities
• National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) groups like the Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) and Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs)
• Health Innovation South West and Health Innovation West of England
• NHS England – South West
• Neighbouring SDE projects in the South of England.

Engaging the public: Digital Critical Friends

The South West SDE team is also working closely with members of the public trained in digital and data approaches in healthcare, known as Digital Critical Friends.

We have 14 Digital Critical Friends working across our various workstreams. Some of these friends sit on the South West SDE management and leadership board, to ensure it is fit for purpose and works in the public interest. 

In addition to members of the public being embedded in all decision-making boards, the SDE is engaging with our communities through workshops and events, to understand how we can ensure the SDE processes are designed to prioritise public benefit.

Ex-bank worker, Mina Tanna, is one of the SDE’s Digital Critical Friends. Read about her experience.

I understand where things can go wrong and point them out. For example, trying to merge and curate data from various systems is a huge challenge. I suggested end-to-end workflow diagrams and work has since started on this.

Mina Tanna, Digital Critical Friend of the SDE

Our impact

In 2025/26 the programme has continued to progress at pace, with several key milestones:

• Governance maturity has been further strengthened, with ongoing refinement of data sharing arrangements and partner onboarding processes.
• Engagement remains a priority, with increasing national visibility following audit success and a continued focus on building system-wide confidence.
• Research activity remains robust, with a growing pipeline of studies and active collaboration across the region.
• Validation of the first organisations has been completed, and this will continue to include further organisations and users using the national validation service.
• Recruitment of key posts has concluded with appointed staff now in the new roles.

What’s next?

Next steps include progressing to soft launch, initiating live research within the secure environment. Continued stakeholder engagement, delivery of the two priority regional research studies, and refinement of the value proposition and commercial model will remain key focus areas.