About the Data Security Awareness programme
The NHS Digital Data Security Awareness Level 1 training has been archived and replaced with a new version of the training.
The Data Security Awareness Level 1 session now meets the statutory and mandatory training requirements and learning outcomes for Information Governance (IG) in the UK Core Skills Training Framework (UK CSTF). It includes information regarding the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). The session was last updated in December 2019.
This session is also aligned to the new data security standards that came out of the National Data Guardian’s 2016 review. It therefore meets the requirement for Level 1 staff training in data security.
An eAssessment should be completed to demonstrate the required knowledge and understanding and to complete the training.
A separate Data Security Awareness Survey is also available alongside the new course. This survey has been developed by NHS Digital to assist organisations in understanding the data security awareness of its staff. Local administrators will have access to a report detailing the outcomes of the survey to facilitate IG Toolkit submissions.
Level 2 - Specialist training
NHS Digital has been providing accredited training to IT and security professionals across health and care to build local capability in security best-practice. Training has been piloted with over 300 professionals with positive feedback.
NHS Digital intends to continue providing accredited security training to relevant staff across the sector and is commencing engagement activity to understand security skill and education needs to shape the future provision of training. This will provide opportunities for IT and security staff across health and care to undertake professional accredited training wherever possible, ensuring that organisations have suitably skilled operational staff to improve security control and preparedness. Any future correspondence will be to named IT and security leads from the NHS Digital Data Security Centre. If you are interested in receiving any future training please contact cybersecurity@nhs.net.
Level 3 - Board awareness training
NHS Digital are currently piloting the provision of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)-accredited cyber and information security awareness sessions with NHS Boards. A decision has not yet been made on a future rollout, but if you are interested in your Board receiving this training, please refer to https://digital.nhs.uk/cyber-and-data-security/training/ncsc-certified-board-training for further details.
How to access
In order to access the Data Security Awareness programme, you will need an elfh account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.
To view the Data Security Awareness programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.
NHS healthcare staff in England
The Data Security Awareness programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this elearning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.
Further details are available here.
Not an NHS organisation?
If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.
To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.
Registering large numbers of users
If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Data Security Awareness programme, please contact elfh directly.
Organisations wishing to use their own LMS
For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.
More information
Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.