The Yorkshire & Humber Secure Data Environment
A public-facing website for an NHS Secure Data Environment, built to serve researchers and the public in equal measure.
Project Details
Client: Yorkshire & Humber Secure Data Environment (hosted via Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)
Sector: Healthcare
Services: Web Care, Web Design, Web Development
Year: 2024 - ongoing
The Yorkshire & Humber Secure Data Environment is one of eleven regional SDEs funded by NHS England, giving approved researchers safe, centralised access to de-identified health and care data. We designed and built the site from the ground up, and continue to host and manage it today.
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Accessibility score, independently verified by Google PageSpeed Insights
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Regional Secure Data Environments funded by NHS England
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Years of ongoing development and support since launch
A genuinely difficult communication problem
The Yorkshire & Humber Secure Data Environment exists to give researchers safe, centralised access to NHS healthcare data. But explaining a technical, governance-heavy data service clearly enough to build public trust, while still serving the specific needs of researchers, NHS partners and data providers who need to act on the site rather than just read it, is a genuinely difficult brief.
We structured the site around four distinct audience groups: researchers, patients and the public, NHS colleagues, and partner organisations and data providers, each with their own clearly signposted benefits and pathways, rather than organising the site around internal departmental structure. The site needed to explain what an SDE actually is in plain language for a public audience who may never have heard the term, give researchers a genuine single front door to discover and request data, and reassure patients and the public about how their data is used and protected.
Structured around four distinct audiences, rather than around internal departmental structure.”
A working platform, not a brochure
We built a working content engine rather than a static information site: case studies, news and events, podcasts and video, downloadable reports, and a data use register that stays current. Public trust-building features run throughout, including a plain-English explainer video, a public advisory group, a young persons’ advisory group, and a clearly signposted security and governance section built around the Five Safes framework and national Secure Data Environment policy guidelines.
Technical SEO was built in from the structure up, clean metadata, descriptive titles, proper heading hierarchy and full image alt text throughout, rather than retrofitted afterwards. We built the site on WordPress with a CMS the Y&H team manages independently day to day, with editorial training built into the original handover so the organisation never had to rely on us for routine content updates. We continue to host and develop the site, including a dedicated Resources section added after launch and ongoing improvements to navigation and functionality.
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