CDAON Webinar: Professional Registration is Coming for DDaT Leaders

On 23rd January 2026, the Chief Data and Analytical Officers Network hosted what might turn out to be one of the most significant webinars of the year. And if you missed it, you’re going to want to read this.

This session was presented by Emma Wright and Jane Johnston, the Co-CEOs, alongside Mark Foy, AphA’s Associate Director of Professional Standards who chairs the Professional Development Committee, and Corielyn Bromley, Executive Director of Continued Professional Development.

This wasn’t a theoretical chat about possibilities. This was the leadership team championing professional registration; delivering news that’s been brewing for months: professional registration isn’t just coming, it’s being actively discussed with NHS England leadership as a mandatory requirement for DDaT leaders.

Why professionalising data and analytics matters

Emma and Jane opened with a simple question: why aren’t we already professionally registered?

Doctors register with the GMC, Nurses register with the NMC, Finance professionals have their registration, HR teams have theirs. These registrations exist to protect the public and ensure people meet recognised standards. Yet those of us working in data and analytics, the people modelling demand, forecasting risk, supporting safety reporting, and driving major clinical and operational decisions, we’ve been operating without any formal registration. That anomaly is becoming harder to justify. When Amanda Pritchard said ‘data saves lives’, the logical follow-up is: shouldn’t we ensure the people working with that data meet professional standards?

The AphA leadership team laid out the consequences of poor data practice in stark terms. Misreported cancer waiting times have real-world impacts, flawed risk stratification affects clinical priorities, poor data models around bed management create dangerous patient flow issues. If an analyst misinterprets a major dataset, that could shape policy for millions. Professional registration gives analysts the same clarity and accountability that other professions already rely on.

Timeline (and yes, it’s real)

Jane and Emma have been having regular conversations with Ming Tang, NHS England’s Chief Data and Analytics Officer. Ming’s ambition is to ensure all DDaT professionals in leadership roles should be professionally registered.

This isn’t vague policy chat, a report has been pulled together by Andrew Griffiths from FEDIP and Neil Morgan from AphA, working with Martin Dennys, who’s leading on the workforce plan in Ming’s team. There’s a session happening at HETT Leaders (12th February 2026) to discuss launching expectations around professional registration.

The expectation? The 10-year workforce plan, due out in spring 2026, will acknowledge that professional registration should become a requirement for DDaT professionals in leadership roles. That means Band 8A and above, initially. We are looking at professional registration becoming desirable or preferably essential in job descriptions, with an expected 12-month window for senior leaders to get registered once the announcement lands.

Emma made it clear: this will roll out gradually. Start with leadership roles, then expand, but the long overdue direction of travel is set, and it is definitely coming.

What registration actually involves

Mark Foy took us through the practicalities. And honestly, it’s more straightforward than you might think.

Professional registration with FEDIP (via AphA for data and analytics professionals) requires you to demonstrate competence against nine core standards, plus contextual standards around professional conduct and communication. You do this through three reflective practice examples, using the STAR model: Situation, Task, Action, Result.

The key shift here is moving from ‘look at my amazing dashboard’ to ‘let me walk you through why I made the decisions I made to get to that dashboard’. It’s about showing how you apply skills, not just listing what you’ve built. Mark stressed this isn’t about perfection. Examples that didn’t quite go to plan can show brilliant reflection, honesty about what you’d do differently matters and perfectly fine as a reflective example.

Registration windows open quarterly. AphA runs introduction workshops a month before each window opens and informal Q&A sessions a couple of weeks before the window closes. The process is supportive. If there’s something missing from your application, assessors will work with you to get you over the line. It’s promising that over 100 people are now registered, and that number is growing fast. Please don’t wait, if you are passionate about the scientific work that you do – please apply to become a registered professional.

Corielyn rounded things out by highlighting the wider benefits of AphA membership beyond registration itself: the mentoring programme, regional branches for local networking, specialist networks, and the resources available through the AphA hub. Professional registration sits within a broader ecosystem of professional development support.

What this means for you

If you’re in a leadership role (Band 8A and above), you’re going to need to think about professional registration sooner rather than later. The 12-month window Emma mentioned sounds generous, but these things have a way of coming around fast, especially when you’re already juggling a thousand other priorities.

And for those worrying about whether this is just another hoop to jump through, Emma’s closing comment in the session is worth remembering. She mentioned the AphA conference session titled ‘At which point will we believe the analysts rather than the consultant?’ That’s the point, it’s about being taken seriously as a profession. It’s about having the same recognition, the same standards, the same accountability as every other professional group in healthcare.

Where to start

The next registration window details are on the AphA website. If you want to understand the process better, sign up for one of the introduction workshops. And if you’re already thinking about your reflective practice examples, start gathering your evidence now. Screenshots, meeting minutes, feedback emails, anything that shows your decision-making process.

As Jane said during the session, we fell into this profession because we knew what a spreadsheet was, or because we could wrangle data when others couldn’t. But we’re long past the point where falling into data and analytics is enough. People should be aspiring to careers in this space, and professional registration gives them a clear pathway to do that.

For more information on professional registration and guidance, visit the AphA website Professional Registration Next Workshop

Mark Foy will be leading an introductory workshop on March 9th at 1pm, with bookings opening soon, please visit the AphA website for details. This comprehensive one-hour session will cover every aspect of the registration process.