Treatment Function and Main Specialty Standard
Defines the Treatment Function and Main Specialty classifications used to support the national reporting and analysis of clinical workforce activity throughout the NHS.
About this standard
- Publisher
- NHS England
- Reference code
- DCB0028 Amd 45/2019
- Publication date
- 02/04/2020
- Status
- Active
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Active. Active standards are stable, maintained and have been approved, assured or endorsed for use by qualified bodies.
Deprecated Deprecated standards are available for use and are maintained, but are being phased out, so new functionality will not be added.
Retired standards Retired standards are not being maintained or supported and should not be used.
- Standard type
- Information standards
Show definitions of standard types
Collections. A Collection is a systematic gathering of a specified selection of data or information for a particular stated purpose from existing records held within health and care systems and electronic devices.
Extractions. An extraction is a type of collection that is pulled from an operational system by the data controller and transmitted to the receiver without additional processing or transcription by the sender.
Information standards. Information standards are agreed ways of doing something, written down as a set of precise criteria so they can be used as rules, guidelines, or definitions.
Technical Standards and specifications. Technical standards and specifications specify how to make information available technically including how the data is structured and transported.
- Contact point
- Quote ‘Treatment Function and Main Specialty standard’ in subject line.
Link to standard
- Documentation
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- Applies to
- Developers of information standards, data collections and data extractions
- Healthcare bodies with systems recording Treatment Function/Main Specialty
- Impacts on
- Implementation of this information standard impacts all health IT systems suppliers providing systems to the above providers; suppliers should work with their customers to determine necessary changes. Consumers of hospital activity data should review the Change Specification to assess the impact on their analysis and reporting.
- Associated medias
- NHS England Treatment Function codes guidance
- Postgraduate Medical Education and Training (Amendment) Order of Council 2012 The Main Specialty list reflects specialties recognised by the Royal Colleges and Faculties and the General Dental Council. Changes to these lists are governed by the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training (Amendment) Order of Council 2012.
- Conformance date
- 31/03/2022
- Effective from
- 31/03/2021
Topics and care settings
- Topic
- Appointment / scheduling
- Clinical decision support
- Data definitions and terminologies
- Information governance
- Reference data
- Referrals
- Care setting
- Community health
- Dentistry
- Hospital
- Maternity
- Mental health
- Pharmacy
- Urgent and Emergency Care
Dependencies and related standards
- Dependencies
No known dependencies.
- Related standards
- DCB0011 Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS)
- DCB1513 Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS)
- ISB 0092 Commissioning Data Sets (CDS)
- DCB0092-2062 Commissioning Data Sets: Emergency Care Data Set
- ISB 0153 Critical Care Minimum Data Set
- DCB2212 Drugs Patient Level Contract Monitoring
- DCB3003 Patient Level Contract Monitoring
- DCB2050 Aggregate Contract Monitoring
- DCB2123 Patient Level Information and Costing Systems (PLICS) Data Set
- SCCI2026 Female Genital Mutilation Enhanced Dataset
- ISB 0112 Inter-Provider Transfer Administrative Minimum Data Set
- SCCI0034 SNOMED CT
- SCCI0021 International Classification of Diseases
Review Information
- Scope
- NHS Services
- Sponsor
Tom Denwood, Executive Director of Data, Insights and Statistics, NHS Digital
- Senior Responsible Officer
Dominic Gair, Information Analysis Lead Manager, NHS Digital
- Business Lead
- Tom Latham, Business and Operational Delivery Manager, NHS Digital
- Approval date
- 20/03/2020
- Post Implementation review Date
- 31/03/2022
Legal basis and endorsements
- Legal authority
Section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012
This information standard is published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012
More information
This information standard defines the Treatment Function and Main Specialty classifications used to support the national reporting and analysis of clinical workforce activity throughout the NHS, through data sets such as the Commissioning Data Sets (CDS).
Treatment Function is a division of clinical work and is based on main specialties, incorporating approved sub-specialties and treatment interests used by lead care professionals. Treatment Function Codes (TFCs) are used to record, report on, extract and flow activity undertaken, irrespective of the type of healthcare professional who performs it.
Main Specialty is the specialty within which a Consultant is recognised or contracted to the organisation. The main specialties list is aligned to specialties recognised by the Royal Colleges and Faculties and the General Dental Council.
Changes in this release include:
- new TFCs for services that are not currently represented as a Treatment Function, enabling commissioning of new services that are not currently represented in the TFC list to be recorded
- amendment of the definitions of existing TFCs that are unclear or no longer accurate
- amendment to the names of existing TFCs that are out of date
- updates to the list of Main Specialties to ensure that the list is aligned with the specialties recognised by the Royal Colleges and Faculties and the General Dental Council
- a change of name to the standard, from the previous title of National Specialty List, to better represent the scope of the standard.
In addition, the documentation has been updated to provide clarification on the governance and maintenance of the TFCs and the Main Specialty list.
Health and care organisations must review the impact of this information standard and make appropriate changes to local health IT systems from 2 April 2020 and before 1 April 2021.
Changes to national Information Standards, Collections and Extractions (ISCE) will be implemented in agreement with developers of those ISCE.
Developers of information standards, data collections and data extractions (ISCE), including NHS Digital, must assess the impact of this change, and build in requirements as appropriate to the next release of their individual ISCE.
Health and care organisations must ensure that where Treatment Function and Main Specialty codes are recorded in health IT systems (outside of national ISCE), those systems must use the codes set out in the Requirements Specification.
Page last updated: 30 July 2024