Series details: CRDA/50

The Single Professional Register and Index of Training (SPRINT-UK) was used to record and maintain information relating to nurses, midwives, health visitors and potential applicants for training who took the relevant examinations. It was both a professional register and an index of training.

One of its key functions was public protection. Employers and others were able to check with the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC) the current registered status of any nurse, midwife and health visitor and their entitlement to practise. For further information, see the leaflet How the UKCC works for you, which was circulated during 1984-1985. (Dataset Documentation catalogue, reference CRDA/50/DD/1/3).

SPRINT-UK was used by the UKCC as a tool for accountability. It demonstrated how the UKCC met its obligations under Section 10 of the Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors Act 1979, and Section 7 of the Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors Act 1997.

Researchers who wish to learn more about the development of the idea of effective registration, the establishment of the single professional register, and other matters relating to the work of registration, are directed to the publication Interpreting Professional Self-Regulation. 1

SPRINT-UK was created by Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS) under contract to the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC). The UKCC has since been replaced by its successor body, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), which came into being 01 April 2002. The Nursing and Midwifery Council is an organisation set up by Parliament to protect the public by ensuring that nurses and midwives provide high standards of care to their patients and clients. The NMC continues, like the UKCC, to maintain a register of qualified nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses. Their new database contains the same registrants, but the coverage and structure of the new database is not necessarily the same as SPRINT-UK.

For further information about the NMC, the UKCC and their predecessors, see the Administrative History for Health Departments.

The SPRINT system was used to register all nurses, midwives and health visitors who wished to practise in the UK. For further details of the scope and content of this dataset, see Links to dataset catalogues.

This dataset has been selected by The National Archives for permanent preservation, in order to ensure the continuity of the earlier archival deposits of the UKCC's predecessor bodies, which document the development of the registration and regulatory functions governing nurses, midwives and health visitors throughout the UK. A comprehensive list of the available registration records of these predecessor bodies from 1872 onwards has been prepared by The National Archives, and a copy of the list is held by NDAD. See the Dataset Documentation Catalogue, reference CRDA/50/DD/1/2.

The dataset represents a snapshot of the SPRINT system as at 22 March 2002 in its entirety. Thereafter, data was transferred to the new WISER (Workflow and Information Solution for Effective Regulation) system. At a meeting held between NDAD, TNA and the Department on 16 April 2002, it was proposed that a snapshot of the WISER system would be taken every year on 31 March and transferred to NDAD. The exact arrangements for this regular transfer proposal have yet to be agreed.

The National Archives have determined that the Single Professional Register and Index of Training (SPRINT-UK) dataset and related dataset documentation are not public records under the Public Records Acts 1958 and 1967. This is because the UKCC itself was not scheduled as a public record body under schedule 1 of the Public Records Act 1958, so none of their records are public records. However, TNA has agreed to the deposit of various registers of nurses, midwives and health visitors in the past. Some records relating to UKCC and its predecessor bodies can therefore be found in The National Archives in series reference KN.

The dataset is open to the public except for certain fields closed under the Data Protection Act. See Links to dataset catalogues for further details.

The Single Professional Register and Index of Training (SPRINT-UK) dataset and related dataset documentation are not subject to Crown Copyright. However, the NMC entered into an agreement with The National Archives for the transfer of this dataset into the public records, meaning that Copyright is vested with the Keeper of the Public Records. This effectively enables TNA to treat the SPRINT dataset as a public record.

The language of the materials is English.

The SPRINT-UK system originally ran on an IBM mainframe (S/390) operated by EDS.

The operating system used is believed to be OS/390 (also known as MVS and z/OS).

The SPRINT-UK system used bespoke development of Software AG's software products ADABAS, Natural, Predict and Complete. Version 6.2.1 of the ADABAS database system was used. The programming languages used were VS COBOL, version 2 and Natural, version 2.3.2.

Not known.

The SPRINT data for 1984-2002 is held in a single dataset comprising 51 tables. For further details of the logical structure and schema of the dataset, see Links to dataset catalogues.

The dataset is closed, in the sense that no new information is entered into the existing database.

For details of the content and transformation validation checks performed by NDAD staff on the SPRINT-UK dataset, see Links to dataset catalogues.

Dataset catalogues provide more detailed information about individual datasets, and are currently available for the following dataset(s):

1. Interpreting Professional self-regulation: a history of the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting. Celia Davies and Abigail Beach. New York, Routledge, 2000.