About the Community Services Data Set (CSDS)

CSDS sets out national definitions for the extraction of data about children and adults including: 

• personal and demographic 
• social and personal circumstances 
• breastfeeding and nutrition 
• care event and screening activity 
• diagnoses, including long-term conditions and disabilities 
• scored assessments
• weight management services

These activities could take place in settings such as health centres, Sure Start centres, day care facilities, schools or community centres, mobile facilities, or a patient's own home.

CSDS v1.6 is the current version of the data set which went live for local data collection from 1 January 2023, with submissions of January 2023 data in the CSDS v1.6 format to SDCS Cloud to commence in February 2023.

As a secondary uses data set, the Community Services Data Set (CSDS collection)  is a long-standing data set which re-uses clinical and operational data for purposes other than direct patient care. It defines the data items, definitions and associated value sets extracted or derived from local information systems and sent to NHS England for analysis purposes. In October 2023, NHS England is establishing the Community CSDS Pilot, the purpose of this pilot is to develop and test the collection of a core subset of the CSDS into a granular daily data collection (Community Pilot), which is intended to lead to improvements in the CSDS collection. The Data Provision Notice has been updated to reflect the move to v1.6 of the CSDS, effective from January 2023 and has also been updated in October 2023 to cover the purposes of the pilot. 

Headline changes from the previous version of CSDS include:

1. Addition of the ability to capture a specific weight management service type.
2. Addition of a 'Pharmacy' value option to the 'Source of Referral for Community' data item. 
3. Amendments to ensure alignment with the NHS Data Model and Dictionary.
   • Replace 'Consultation Medium Used' with 'Consultation Mechanism (Community Care)' in the 'CYP201 Care Contact' table.
   • Capture of 'Overseas Visitor Charging Category' data in a new 'CYP008 Overseas Visitor Charging Category' table.
   • New pilot data item 'Ethnic Category 2021' added in the 'CYP001 Master Patient Index and Risk Indicators' table for voluntary inclusion once the value list is available.
   • Other minor amendments as identified by the NHS Data Model and Dictionary.

The CSDS information captured from publicly funded community services provides reliable information for:

• local and national monitoring
• reporting for effective commissioning
• monitoring outcomes
• addressing health inequalities

Change requests

Further changes to CSDS beyond those implemented in the current version may be required in the future subject to requirements being agreed. We are always happy to receive feedback and requests for changes, these will be recorded and evaluated on a case-by-case basis for inclusion in the future version of the data set. These should be emailed to the NHS Digital enquiries team at [email protected] quoting 'CSDS requirement' in the subject title.

Contact the NHS Digital Enquiries team on 0300 303 5678 or email [email protected] to raise a general CSDS enquiry.

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