Are we counting the same thing?

What we found in the news

NHS England’s community health services data plan (opens in a new tab), in its May 2025 version, makes the case for more consistent information about services. It includes a straightforward requirement:

“we need clear and consistent measures and definitions of services.”

— NHS England, updated May 20, 2025

This is a plan for NHS community health services, not evidence that every organization now measures its work consistently. It gives us a useful starting point for a familiar management problem: two reports can look comparable while counting different things.

Why this matters to us

Suppose two community locations each report that they supported forty people in a month. At one location, the figure counts distinct participants. At the other, it counts visits. Both colleagues followed the instructions they understood.

A comparison of the figures could lead to the wrong conversation about demand, staffing, or reach.

At genus, we want information to help people ask better questions about a service. That starts before a chart is drawn. Colleagues need to understand what a number includes and what it leaves out.

Give the measure a plain-language description

Choose one figure that leaders use regularly. Ask the colleagues who prepare it to describe how they arrive at it, using an ordinary example.

If the measure is attendance, what counts as attending? How are cancellations, brief visits, or participation in more than one activity handled? Does the reporting period follow the date of the activity or the date someone entered the record?

Write down the agreed definition beside the report. Include the source, the reporting period, and the person who can answer a question about it. Keep the explanation readable enough for a new colleague to use.

Where services have legitimate differences, describe them. Agreement about a measure does not require pretending that every location offers identical work.

Find out where uncertainty enters

Follow the information from the activity to the final report. A colleague may be recording attendance while also welcoming arrivals. A correction may be entered after a report has already been circulated. An optional field may be mistaken for a required one.

These are operational conditions worth understanding. Ask where staff have to make a judgment and whether the guidance helps them do it consistently.

Separate missing information from a recorded zero. If a field was not completed, the organization may not know the answer. Turning that absence into a confident number can make the report look tidier while making it less useful.

Decide how corrections will be handled and how readers will know which version they are using.

Ask what decision the comparison supports

Before comparing locations or periods, name the decision the figures are meant to inform. A staffing discussion, a conversation about access, and a review of activity choices may need different information.

Bring context to the table. A change in opening hours can affect visits. A new recording process can alter the reported figure without a corresponding change in the service. A small group may be offering something particularly valuable to the people who choose it.

Invite staff to explain what they recognize and what surprises them. Treat a surprising result as a reason to investigate before turning it into a conclusion about performance.

What this means for the people you serve

A measure should leave room for people’s preferences. Quiet participation, a shorter visit, or choosing one activity over another may be entirely right for someone. Ask what the person wanted from the service and whether the organization’s reporting helps it understand that experience. A busy chart cannot answer that question alone.

The genus connection

Today, configured genus care-team tools can bring attendance and activity records into staff workflows, with reporting capabilities shaped by the modules and configuration in use.

The quality of a comparison still depends on definitions, recording practice, and review. Software can present a figure; the organization must decide what it means and whether it is suitable for the decision at hand.

One question for your next team meeting

Which number do we discuss most often, and would everyone preparing it count the same example in the same way?