NHS Continuing Health Care (CHC) Patient Level Data Set

NHS CHC means a package of ongoing care that is arranged and funded solely by the NHS where the individual has been assessed and found to have a ‘primary health need’ as set out in the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing. 

As a secondary uses data set, the NHS CHC data set intends to re-use operational data for purposes other than direct patient care. It defines the data items, definitions and associated value sets extracted or derived from information systems and sent to NHS Digital for analysis purposes.

The NHS CHC information captured within the data set supports the national aims to deliver:

1. Better outcomes,
2. Better experience and
3. Better use of resources, by providing detailed evidence that is currently unavailable.

The NHS CHC data set will demonstrate:

• where patients are being placed out of area
• where care packages are being changed frequently
• other evidence which may indicate poor outcomes for the patient, allowing this to be identified and addressed.

The data set allows monitoring of patients going through local appeals processes to ensure these are resolved quickly and will highlight Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) where high numbers of eligibility decisions are being overturned on appeal.

NHS CHC data set v1.0 should be implemented by all CCGs commissioning NHS-funded CHC services in England. All data providers MUST be able to collect the information as defined in the Technical Output Specification.

NHS CHC Patient Level Data Set data submissions are to be made via the Message Exchange for Social Care and Health (MESH) as of 1 May 2022.

The NHS CHC Data Set Information Standard is published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, and is the specification of a patient-level data extraction (output) standard.

NHS CHC data set v1.0 DCB3085 Amd 51/2019 was accepted as an information standard by the Data Coordination Board (DCB) on 23 April 2020 and an Information Standards Notice (ISN) was published on 7 May 2020.

The ISN requires that NHS CHC information systems be fully conformant with the standard from 1 April 2021. The NHS CHC v1.0 mandates local data collection from 1 April 2021 and national submissions from May 2021.

The associated ISN and standard documents can be found by reading the NHS CHC v1.0 DCB3085 publication.

The data collection is the subject of Directions under section 254 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, from NHS England to NHS Digital. See below for the published directions. 

NHS Digital will be issuing a section 259 notification, under the Act, to notify providers of the requirement to supply data. This will be published on our website. 

Read the National framework for NHS continuing healthcare and NHS-funded nursing care